Index

Immortality

“The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall.” ― Edward O. Wilson

Is humanity ready for it?

Of course that is the wrong question, but we may be at the point where we have to ask it. The real question is whether we as humanity can survive the social changes that the technology of immortality will bring. Can we survive long enough to get there?

We have a really lousy track record when it comes to dealing with the side effects of the technologies we create. Our most advanced technologies almost inevitably become weapons, and even though we have the capability of destroying ourselves a hundred times over, we are still here. The scary part is that the “Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions” crowd still wants (and continuously tries) to get their hands on those weapons with the intent to fully use them. The current federal administration has made it obvious that they want to control the technology completely for military purposes. Banning Anthropic because they refused to allow the military unrestricted use of the software only shows how little the rest of humanity means to them. Some of us never had any illusions about the orange cult having any pretensions of being civilized, though. I am reminded here of “The Weapon” by Frederick Brown - “Only a madman would give a loaded revolver to an idiot.”

Another huge and scary example of our failure to deal with side effects is global warming. The fact that our “leaders” can deny the very real science and stick their heads into the sand is a totally lunatic response to a very real, dangerous problem. The fact that they continue to encourage things that make it worse is even more insane.

Still, the current thing creating “fear of god” emotions and extreme greed is the current AI hype. The software technologies behind it were being developed back in the 1970s when I was in Computer Science, at which time I called the whole thing “natural stupidity.” Artificial Intelligence is only as smart as the humans that create it, which is not all that bright. The computer science and business types behind the current noise are lacking in a basic understanding of human motivations, what we refer to as “emotional intelligence.” This is a normal part of the development of any technology, though. Engineers and scientists are called “geeks” for a reason. Business types - the greed part of it - are just cavemen in ties, so they create nothing but noise.

Forbes magazine has a lightweight but interesting discussion of this as it applies to business management. What interested me about the article is that it admits that current business and government structures are completely unready for anything like a technology that enhances the mental capabilities of the workforce. This is also obvious from the hype headlines about workers’ jobs being threatened by AI. All of it assumes that the “greed is good” business mindset will inevitable destroy jobs.

Of course this imbalanced view never takes into account that the business sorts don’t buy their own products. Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, realized this, and paid his workers better so they could afford to buy what they were building. This semi-enlightened attitude did not last, resulting in a very strong union movement. Workers today have no more reason to trust management than they did in the days when the unions started, but management has figured out how to bypass this by closing companies in one place and reopening somewhere else.

The current corporate-friendly (to understate things) “conservative” government in many states and Washington, D. C. are making sure it stays that way for the moment, but if there is to be a country left, we cannot wreck our economic structure much further - politics and economics are inseparably tied together. The 0.01% of the populace - the fascist sorts who run big businesses - are well aware of it; the public is just waking up to how badly they are being screwed. I am somewhat amazed that a magazine like Forbes can put out an article that tells even the little bit of truth that one does when their subscriber base is the cavemen-with-ties class.

What nobody is ready for is that the use of AIs by the technology crowd has the potential to accelerate even further the development of other technologies. Since World War II, America has demonstrated that society changes with technology, and the pace of change increases as technology is adopted into society. The “conservatives” that are running the biggest businesses and a lot of governments want the benefits of the technology for their own inhuman use, but want to push the social structures of their societies back 1000 years into the Dark Ages to that they can control things themselves. The religions that are losing the battle against science are willing to back them because the religious “leaders” care no more about the needs of their followers the the business sorts care about their workers.

Starting in 1970, Alvin and Heidi Toffler published a number of books and other media about the effects of this technological change. “Future Shock” and later works pointed out the dislocation that technological and social changes cause. Several decades down the road we are seeing the effects of this disruption. Those who haven’t kept up with the mental changes needed to deal with the rate of change have retreated to religions that falsely claim to be unchanging. This retreat is what the believers refer to as “conservatism” even though they are not conserving anything in reality. The effects of their disconnected, nearly insane world view combined with opportunistic politicians and businessman are what lead to the current right-wing surge around the world.

I picked immortality as a case in point of a game-changing technology with obvious social consequences. Under the United States’ current aggressively anti-socialist medical system, when the technology of immortality is developed it will only be available to the hyper-rich. I can only see that leading to a “French Revolution”-style blood bath the minute the public gets wind of it. The initial shock and destruction are likely to be only the start as the instability almost inevitably spreads to all sectors of society. The current far-right will become Luddite mobs with shotguns, screaming “Stop playing God” and destroying anything and lynching anyone even vaguely connected to technology. This is what happens when fear is used to control people - it will whiplash.

We have a long way to go before our minds catch up to our technologies and their implications. At every step of the way we are at risk of self-immolation, and the leaders of our religions, governments and businesses are making things worse by spreading lies and fear. What we need is real education, intelligence and maturity, things that the current crop of pretend-leaders cannot survive and therefore fight against every step of the way. I can only hope that the grown-ups will show up and straighten out the playground bullies.