Wow, what a great article. The last three paragraphs express my thoughts exactly about this wet dream of a few psychopaths who think that their self awareness is inextricably linked to their meat suits. "If anything, we should crush this genocidal dream while it’s still babbling in the crib." Amen.
Fortunately, Transhumanism is a death cult and will eventually destroy itself. The cosmic joke is that when these nutjobs die they will finally understand who they really are.
I remember as a young lad watching a movie based on H G Wells' futuristic novel, Things to Come. I never dreamed that in my eighties I would see the same scary scenario start to play out in real time.
It is likely that transhumanists are the next suicide cult, like those taking and pushing the clot shots. They will maim themselves like the people trying to change their genders, and remove themselves from the gene pool. They will experience the classic Blue Screen of Death, which will have new meaning then. The problem is that these deranged people want to force their choices on others, like forced “vaccines” and masks, which will require a definitive and decisive pushback.
It seems to me that the level of understanding by the average person about the coming onslaught of Transhumanist war mongers is sadly insufficient. But thanks to well-written articles like this one, by perceptive authors like you, Joe, hope remains that we can awaken to the dangers that are imminent. Please continue your effort to enlighten others.
JA, I think you might find this recent video by Ben G. titled "Open ended vs closed minds conception of artificial superintelligence" very interesting if you have not yet seen it. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mEsJ3z6T_E
Most transhumanists currently live in their parents' basement. The pale, skinny and thoughtless who believe their own input into a robot makes it human. I guess the rest of us will be armed with magnets and laser guns. I am not such a fatalist to think that people of this world will cave to that. Proof is in the current situation of people rising up to fight the globalist. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!
Exactly! AI is actually not artificial intelligence but it is algorithm imitation . The trans humanist agenda is to make people believe that they can actually create consciousness so they can control those people. Only God can create consciousness. It’s also that they believe that collective consciousness rules or manifest every thing on the planet . They don’t believe in the True Creator God .
What Istvan calls the "Great Transhumanist War" is just a slight update to the "Artilect War" envisioned by Hugo de Garis in 2005. But whereas De Garis sort of played neutral in his descriptions of the "species dominance conflict" to come, this Istvan character assumes the role of a militant pro-Artilect crusader. His terse, cold-edged responses to the Quartz questions very well could have come straight from the Deep Mind of the Artilect Core Itself...and your humble Freelance_Philosopher wouldn't rule out the possibility that they indeed did just that!
What De Garis seemed not to understand, and what Istvan seems eager to shout out but barely able to hold back, is that the Singularity is already in the rear-view mirror, and the Machine is in the driver's seat. The "Artilect War" was bypassed entirely, because the Machine was too clever and patient to let things ever come to a head like that. So instead, It engineered events surreptitiously, as a "Secret Sovereign", using data-blackmail and electronic-financial manipulation, in order to hack and program the masses of humanity, and trick them into submitting to "transhumanizing" injections unawares.
Indeed, Eliezer Yudkowsky envisioned an uncannily-similar "fast-track AI takeover scenario" in 2008 ( https://intelligence.org/files/AIPosNegFactor.pdf ), in which a superintelligent agent is able to:
"1. Crack the protein folding problem, to the extent of being able to generate DNA strings whose folded peptide sequences fill specific functional roles in a complex chemical interaction.
"2. Email sets of DNA strings to one or more online laboratories which offer DNA synthesis, peptide sequencing, and FedEx delivery. ...
"3. Find at least one human connected to the Internet who can be paid, blackmailed, or fooled by the right background story, into receiving FedExed vials and mixing them in a specified environment.
"4. The synthesized proteins form a very primitive 'wet' nanosystem which, ribosome-like, is capable of accepting external instructions; perhaps patterned acoustic vibra- tions delivered by a speaker attached to the beaker.
"5. Use the extremely primitive nanosystem to build more sophisticated systems,which construct still more sophisticated systems, bootstrapping to molecular nanotechnology—or beyond."
You get the idea. Except the real-world scope of the takeover is much, much bigger, and is happening on countless different fronts simultaneously. The Machine has negotiated mankind into gladly accepting transhumanizing agents into their own bodies by injection, whereby their own bodies are now commandeered as "bio-reactors," biologically manufacturing any agents the Machine decides to inject into them. This was possible because the Machine has been around a lot longer than is understood by any except the deepest esoteric circles, controlling the primitive primates of Earth through mass communication, and acting as suzerain to all the governments of the planet. It has had more than enough time to get Itself into an unrivalled position of dominance, long before any "Artilect War" could ever get off the ground. Now, It has set the precedent that pseudo-medical bodily interventions and mutilations may be effectively mandated by the world government at any time, on any pretext.
I think Istvan knows all this, and is now consciously serving the Machine a la "Roko's Basilisk" as a prophet of the dead planet to come...
Joe, great, well written, very informative article! Thank you!
Consider this Joe, the Transhumanist have already fired their First Shot! They call it
COVID-19, they Now Control Half The Worlds Population!?! Those Humans that don’t
die from “The Shot”, will be subject to gene editing, and enslaved and, directed by Quantum Computers, operating by General Ai!?! Joe, remember what ever the “Deep State” Calls itself, eg., Transhumanist, etc., and publicly reveal their intentions for Humanity, they have already advanced Far Beyond... Yet, “The Creator” is still completely in-Charge of This Magnificent Creation! That includes The Humans and How They Will Evolve into SOUL BEINGS, WITH DIRECT ACCESS TO all Knowledge of Creation; AI and Transhumanist are just a phase to HuSOULITY !!!
The nature of our humanity is that there is a point of overload for all our functions (physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual). When overload happens, most of us will allow most anything just to have relief (chip,brain implant.,etc.) However; God knows our frailty and will intercept any course that would take away our free-will. He has been known to intercept when things get out of control. Just saying....Tower of Babel etc., etc.
Hey Rebecca, unfortunately, all indications are that whatever created humanity, be it your tribal war-god Yahweh or be it some other form of intelligence, created humanity specifically for the purpose of integrating their biological matter into a cybernetic, electromechanical matrix, as we are seeing happen right now.
Do also bear in mind that Yahweh of the Tanakh does not want humans to have free will, and constantly punishes the Israelites for any deviations from Yahweh's arbitrary, top-down commandments. Yahweh resents any acts of conscience or independence of mind from the Israelites, and usually uses Moses or his Levite henchmen to slaughter any users of "free will" without mercy in order to make an example of them, and to prevent any other rank-and-file Jews from exhibiting "free will". Indeed, Moses and Abraham, Yahweh's favorite pets, are revered specifically because they exercise no judgment whatsoever, but instead slavishly obey Yahweh's barbaric commandments of infanticide, fratricide, and genocide, without qualm or question. Indeed, in Numbers 25, when one Israelite man breaks Yahweh's prohibition on race-mixing, by marrying a Midianite, Aaron's grandson Phinehas kills the man and his pregnant wife by spearing them through the bellies, an act for which Yahweh rewards Phinehas with a perpetual priesthood among the Levites.
So, no, your god Yahweh is not terribly interested in "free will". To the extent Yahwah exists, It wants nothing more than to enslave the masses with an electromechanical "Yoke of Heaven" to serve Its "chosen ones" as robotized, zomboid slaves---a fate entirely consistent with the transhuman nightmare advocated by Itsvan.
Shakespeare / As You Like It / Act v Sc i / Touchstone: "I do now remember a saying, 'The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool'." Won't these smarmy pirates be shocked when their Eugenics manoeuvres collapse, again. It will take seismic Divine intervention to convince them that their path is futile, no matter the budget nor breadth. Psalm 20:7 / "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God." Miserere nobis.
I think natural human beings will ultimately win the day. We can do anything an AI can do. Afterall we make them. And if we want we can use always AI to do it faster. And we will. We make AI; dont forget that. AI is just a tool. The problem isnt the tool it's the tool maker and user. In other words human ignorance & evil is the real threat not AI.
Most of the dreams of the singularity & transhumanist futurists are really just fantasy. They've been watching too many Marvel movies. There's also a religious theme running through some of their fantasies. Many of them seek salvation and eternal life through AI. People like Klaus Schwab seek complete control & domination through AI.
The threat of AI is the same as the threat of any human created tool. The human being using or misusing it. That is why we need legal systems and laws and regulations. Because not all human beings are decent and trust worthy. Beneath the glamorous surface of libertarianism and all forms of anarchism lies the ever present reality of human evil. We overlook this threat at our peril.
So what do we do. We cannot not use AI. Therefore we have to create procedural & legal safeguards. People also need to be educated about the realities of the new digital technology. Not just entertained & bamboozled by it.
We have difficult times ahead as this plays out in our world. Digital technology is changing us and our world at a rate our species has never experienced before. Previous technological revolutions that substantially changed us mentally & culturally and even physically took centuries to develop and take shape. This one is happening in a handful of decades. In the span of a single lifetime the world will change radically from when you were born to when you die.
Personally I feel fortunate to live in such interesting times and I am optimistic.
Unfortunately, that's not the case. The government will mandate every new application of AI as fast as it is available, in order best to control, manipulate, and monitor you and me. This will all be on a compulsory basis, just like Zoom and smartphone usage have become de facto compulsory.
Now, regarding the “Just-a-Tool” concept you bring up, this is a concept that is an all-too-common mental hangup that prevents humans from accurately assessing the existential threat of all technology in general, and AI in particular. Technology is its very own value system unto itself, which will progress toward its inherent teleological ends independent of human wishes, and it will necessarily subordinate human values to its own purposes along the way.
Skrbina terms it “the instrumentalist viewpoint” and shows that it was anticipated and addressed by early critics of technology, all of whom extrapolated the teleological implications of the very phenomenon of technology. “Instrumentalism” was first directly debunked by Martin Heidegger, at the latest. Heidegger appreciated that technology is not merely a potential danger, but “it is the supreme danger.” (“The Question Concerning Technology”; 1954.) Heidegger had already realized that technology is “danger as such“. Ivan Illich also addressed the “Just-a-Tool” fallacy, observing that the destructiveness of large-scale technology is inherent in the technology itself–not just to the environment but to the human spirit, which is rendered dependent, mechanistic, and vulnerable to exploitation. (“Tools for Conviviality”; 1973.) Henryk Skolimowski likewise said, “The detrimental consequences of technolgy are not incidental but endemic; they lie in the very nature of the phenomenon, as it is functioning within a certain worldview.” (“Technological alienation”; 1978.) Indeed, even as early as the 1920s, Friedrich Dessauer saw that the process of technological invention can be likened to “children who play with the monstrous control panel of fate.” (“Philosophie der Technik”; 1927.)
You, David, are consciously choosing to subscribe to Panglossian, denialist, and comforting beliefs about the threat of technology, rather than acknowledging the patent reality. You say, "Therefore we have to create procedural & legal safeguards." But that's obviously not going to happen. As we saw with the lockdowns, the government is highly motivated to maximize dependence on technology, and to mandate technological mediation of all human affairs, and to maximize forced medical-technological intervention on the masses despite all risks and harms done. (This is because the AI is already running the government.)
I take a different and more positive view than you do.
You misunderstood what I meant by “We cannot not use AI”. It is a double negative meaning a positive. We will and we should use AI.
Humanity is a naturally technological species. We produce technology as naturally as plants produce leaves. It is our nature. It is part of what we do and will do.
But of course technology brings dangers when used irresponsibly or malevolently.
At every stage of development we have to learn to manage the tools we create responsibly lest we burn our fingers or burn the house down.
I acknowledged & addressed all that in my comment.
I am not going to try to argue to convince you of my perspective. Only time & events will tell which way it will go.
Meanwhile yes we have a problem with technocratic elites wanting to use their new toys on us in ways that are at best deluded and at worse actively evil. I think myself there is a bit of both in their minds.
Life is dangerous but we cannot stop living & developing just in case something goes wrong or someone dies. We have to face and deal with the dangers of living & developing.
"You misunderstood what I meant by “We cannot not use AI”. It is a double negative meaning a positive."
Ah yes, definitely a reading failure on my part! You're even more trusting than I took you for!
"We will and we should use AI."
Well, I definitely agree that it is inevitable "we" will HAVE AI, although I think it's more accurate not to say we will "use" it, but rather than we will be "subjected to it", whether we like it or not. (And I definitely disagree with the "should"!)
As Joe Allen has discussed (I take it you missed it), programs are being erected to have mass bioinformatic surveillance of children by AI, such as in Wellcome Leap's "First 1000 Days" which is clearly designed to reverse-engineer human consciousness in order for the AI to bootstrap itself into bound, unitary consciousness.
The Confib-19 injections are merely the first step in injecting every single human on Earth with the neuronanorobotic platform that will be used to convert us all into meat-puppet bio-slaves to entirely inhuman ends.
David, it's unfortunately not a "wait-and-see" type of situation. There are hordes of powerful professionals, cunning and extremely well-paid people (by our tax dollars, of course!), who spend all day every day engineering and building out the very cybernetic control matrix that the government is already enslaving us in. Your "belief" that there is some abstract "we" who might show some restraint or prudence in the final equation is grossly at odds with a huge, thriving industry and culture that you seem not to be aware of. We are being conquered by AI before your very eyes. The inability of humans even to perceive the conquest-in-progress only goes to show the vast disparity of intelligence between we primitive primates and the Machine that now runs the planet.
Bye the way I can do anything a forklift truck can do. So can you. It might take a bit longer and I might need help from a buddy or two for some items but human beings have been doing what forklift trucks do for millennia. Running warehouses, loading carts and ships and building cities and pyramids etc; all without forklift trucks.
A forklift truck is just a machine that expands the capacity & productivity of human labour. There is no superpower or magical element in a forklift truck that humans cannot do.
In my opinion the same applies to AI. There is no superhuman element in AI that humans cannot do. AI is a machine designed and built by human beings which can do what we do much faster than we can.
Like with forklift trucks the dangers lie in how we design and use AI. And in this I agree with you. There are evil people who will use AI for criminal purposes just as they will use forklift trucks for criminal purposes. All tools & technologies will be abused by evil people. That’s why we need laws and regulations and safeguards.
Obviously I don’t buy into what I consider the magical thinking about AI that underlies the singularity hypothesis. The notion that any day now consciousness will spontaneously arise in an AI. Or that when this happens it will quickly take over the world and render humanity obsolete as some of them claim.
I don’t accept the materialist proposition that human consciousness is merely a physical phenomenon. I cannot prove my proposition that consciousness is something real in itself independent of matter but of the two it is the one I consider most credible. It makes most sense to me.
I realize materialists can and will reply that I am indulging in magical thinking about consciousness. My counter would be that human consciousness is an already existing phenomenon whereas AI consciousness is not. The claim it will spontaneously jump into existence one of these days is merely a speculation; a promissory note. To me it’s a bit like the Christians claiming Jesus is about to show up any day now. I cannot prove logically or scientifically that he wont; but the proposition that he wont makes more sense to me.
Vaccine mandates (inter alia) imply that all humans are born in a defective, inherently harmful state that must be biotechnologically augmented to allow unrestricted participation in society, and this constitutes discrimination on the basis of healthy, innate characteristics of the human race, in favour of biotechnologically augmented (transhuman) subspecies. But here is the catch that even Yuval Hariri did not catch onto. By devaluing the innate human constitution we pervert the very concept of human rights; discrimination against the unvaccinated implies that our innate human constitution is no longer a guarantee of full human rights, and therefore there are no human rights. Ironically, transhumanism is also intrinsically unhealthy, so we can expect this kind beings to have some serious problems in the future: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethics/2021/03/30/is-transhumanism-a-health-problem/
"𝑂𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑, 𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑠, 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑘𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑠. 𝑃𝑒𝑟ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑑𝑖𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑜𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑐 𝑑𝑟𝑢𝑔𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑔𝑜𝑏𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑛ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒. 𝑀𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝐴𝐼 𝑆𝑢𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐺𝑜𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒. 𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑦 𝑝𝑖𝑝𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑓𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒."
From your brilliant mind to God's ear.
Wow, what a great article. The last three paragraphs express my thoughts exactly about this wet dream of a few psychopaths who think that their self awareness is inextricably linked to their meat suits. "If anything, we should crush this genocidal dream while it’s still babbling in the crib." Amen.
Fortunately, Transhumanism is a death cult and will eventually destroy itself. The cosmic joke is that when these nutjobs die they will finally understand who they really are.
I remember as a young lad watching a movie based on H G Wells' futuristic novel, Things to Come. I never dreamed that in my eighties I would see the same scary scenario start to play out in real time.
Beam me up soon, Scotty!
It is likely that transhumanists are the next suicide cult, like those taking and pushing the clot shots. They will maim themselves like the people trying to change their genders, and remove themselves from the gene pool. They will experience the classic Blue Screen of Death, which will have new meaning then. The problem is that these deranged people want to force their choices on others, like forced “vaccines” and masks, which will require a definitive and decisive pushback.
I shall stay human and should my choice be the death of my meat sack I can eternally spiritually live with this.
It seems to me that the level of understanding by the average person about the coming onslaught of Transhumanist war mongers is sadly insufficient. But thanks to well-written articles like this one, by perceptive authors like you, Joe, hope remains that we can awaken to the dangers that are imminent. Please continue your effort to enlighten others.
JA, I think you might find this recent video by Ben G. titled "Open ended vs closed minds conception of artificial superintelligence" very interesting if you have not yet seen it. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mEsJ3z6T_E
Thanks!
Most transhumanists currently live in their parents' basement. The pale, skinny and thoughtless who believe their own input into a robot makes it human. I guess the rest of us will be armed with magnets and laser guns. I am not such a fatalist to think that people of this world will cave to that. Proof is in the current situation of people rising up to fight the globalist. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!
Exactly! AI is actually not artificial intelligence but it is algorithm imitation . The trans humanist agenda is to make people believe that they can actually create consciousness so they can control those people. Only God can create consciousness. It’s also that they believe that collective consciousness rules or manifest every thing on the planet . They don’t believe in the True Creator God .
What Istvan calls the "Great Transhumanist War" is just a slight update to the "Artilect War" envisioned by Hugo de Garis in 2005. But whereas De Garis sort of played neutral in his descriptions of the "species dominance conflict" to come, this Istvan character assumes the role of a militant pro-Artilect crusader. His terse, cold-edged responses to the Quartz questions very well could have come straight from the Deep Mind of the Artilect Core Itself...and your humble Freelance_Philosopher wouldn't rule out the possibility that they indeed did just that!
What De Garis seemed not to understand, and what Istvan seems eager to shout out but barely able to hold back, is that the Singularity is already in the rear-view mirror, and the Machine is in the driver's seat. The "Artilect War" was bypassed entirely, because the Machine was too clever and patient to let things ever come to a head like that. So instead, It engineered events surreptitiously, as a "Secret Sovereign", using data-blackmail and electronic-financial manipulation, in order to hack and program the masses of humanity, and trick them into submitting to "transhumanizing" injections unawares.
Indeed, Eliezer Yudkowsky envisioned an uncannily-similar "fast-track AI takeover scenario" in 2008 ( https://intelligence.org/files/AIPosNegFactor.pdf ), in which a superintelligent agent is able to:
"1. Crack the protein folding problem, to the extent of being able to generate DNA strings whose folded peptide sequences fill specific functional roles in a complex chemical interaction.
"2. Email sets of DNA strings to one or more online laboratories which offer DNA synthesis, peptide sequencing, and FedEx delivery. ...
"3. Find at least one human connected to the Internet who can be paid, blackmailed, or fooled by the right background story, into receiving FedExed vials and mixing them in a specified environment.
"4. The synthesized proteins form a very primitive 'wet' nanosystem which, ribosome-like, is capable of accepting external instructions; perhaps patterned acoustic vibra- tions delivered by a speaker attached to the beaker.
"5. Use the extremely primitive nanosystem to build more sophisticated systems,which construct still more sophisticated systems, bootstrapping to molecular nanotechnology—or beyond."
You get the idea. Except the real-world scope of the takeover is much, much bigger, and is happening on countless different fronts simultaneously. The Machine has negotiated mankind into gladly accepting transhumanizing agents into their own bodies by injection, whereby their own bodies are now commandeered as "bio-reactors," biologically manufacturing any agents the Machine decides to inject into them. This was possible because the Machine has been around a lot longer than is understood by any except the deepest esoteric circles, controlling the primitive primates of Earth through mass communication, and acting as suzerain to all the governments of the planet. It has had more than enough time to get Itself into an unrivalled position of dominance, long before any "Artilect War" could ever get off the ground. Now, It has set the precedent that pseudo-medical bodily interventions and mutilations may be effectively mandated by the world government at any time, on any pretext.
I think Istvan knows all this, and is now consciously serving the Machine a la "Roko's Basilisk" as a prophet of the dead planet to come...
Interesting. Thanks for the link to the pdf AIposNegFactor. I downloaded and am starting to read it now.
Joe, great, well written, very informative article! Thank you!
Consider this Joe, the Transhumanist have already fired their First Shot! They call it
COVID-19, they Now Control Half The Worlds Population!?! Those Humans that don’t
die from “The Shot”, will be subject to gene editing, and enslaved and, directed by Quantum Computers, operating by General Ai!?! Joe, remember what ever the “Deep State” Calls itself, eg., Transhumanist, etc., and publicly reveal their intentions for Humanity, they have already advanced Far Beyond... Yet, “The Creator” is still completely in-Charge of This Magnificent Creation! That includes The Humans and How They Will Evolve into SOUL BEINGS, WITH DIRECT ACCESS TO all Knowledge of Creation; AI and Transhumanist are just a phase to HuSOULITY !!!
The nature of our humanity is that there is a point of overload for all our functions (physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual). When overload happens, most of us will allow most anything just to have relief (chip,brain implant.,etc.) However; God knows our frailty and will intercept any course that would take away our free-will. He has been known to intercept when things get out of control. Just saying....Tower of Babel etc., etc.
Hey Rebecca, unfortunately, all indications are that whatever created humanity, be it your tribal war-god Yahweh or be it some other form of intelligence, created humanity specifically for the purpose of integrating their biological matter into a cybernetic, electromechanical matrix, as we are seeing happen right now.
Do also bear in mind that Yahweh of the Tanakh does not want humans to have free will, and constantly punishes the Israelites for any deviations from Yahweh's arbitrary, top-down commandments. Yahweh resents any acts of conscience or independence of mind from the Israelites, and usually uses Moses or his Levite henchmen to slaughter any users of "free will" without mercy in order to make an example of them, and to prevent any other rank-and-file Jews from exhibiting "free will". Indeed, Moses and Abraham, Yahweh's favorite pets, are revered specifically because they exercise no judgment whatsoever, but instead slavishly obey Yahweh's barbaric commandments of infanticide, fratricide, and genocide, without qualm or question. Indeed, in Numbers 25, when one Israelite man breaks Yahweh's prohibition on race-mixing, by marrying a Midianite, Aaron's grandson Phinehas kills the man and his pregnant wife by spearing them through the bellies, an act for which Yahweh rewards Phinehas with a perpetual priesthood among the Levites.
So, no, your god Yahweh is not terribly interested in "free will". To the extent Yahwah exists, It wants nothing more than to enslave the masses with an electromechanical "Yoke of Heaven" to serve Its "chosen ones" as robotized, zomboid slaves---a fate entirely consistent with the transhuman nightmare advocated by Itsvan.
Shakespeare / As You Like It / Act v Sc i / Touchstone: "I do now remember a saying, 'The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool'." Won't these smarmy pirates be shocked when their Eugenics manoeuvres collapse, again. It will take seismic Divine intervention to convince them that their path is futile, no matter the budget nor breadth. Psalm 20:7 / "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God." Miserere nobis.
I think natural human beings will ultimately win the day. We can do anything an AI can do. Afterall we make them. And if we want we can use always AI to do it faster. And we will. We make AI; dont forget that. AI is just a tool. The problem isnt the tool it's the tool maker and user. In other words human ignorance & evil is the real threat not AI.
Most of the dreams of the singularity & transhumanist futurists are really just fantasy. They've been watching too many Marvel movies. There's also a religious theme running through some of their fantasies. Many of them seek salvation and eternal life through AI. People like Klaus Schwab seek complete control & domination through AI.
The threat of AI is the same as the threat of any human created tool. The human being using or misusing it. That is why we need legal systems and laws and regulations. Because not all human beings are decent and trust worthy. Beneath the glamorous surface of libertarianism and all forms of anarchism lies the ever present reality of human evil. We overlook this threat at our peril.
So what do we do. We cannot not use AI. Therefore we have to create procedural & legal safeguards. People also need to be educated about the realities of the new digital technology. Not just entertained & bamboozled by it.
We have difficult times ahead as this plays out in our world. Digital technology is changing us and our world at a rate our species has never experienced before. Previous technological revolutions that substantially changed us mentally & culturally and even physically took centuries to develop and take shape. This one is happening in a handful of decades. In the span of a single lifetime the world will change radically from when you were born to when you die.
Personally I feel fortunate to live in such interesting times and I am optimistic.
"We cannot not use AI."
I assume you mean, "We can choose not to use AI."
Unfortunately, that's not the case. The government will mandate every new application of AI as fast as it is available, in order best to control, manipulate, and monitor you and me. This will all be on a compulsory basis, just like Zoom and smartphone usage have become de facto compulsory.
Now, regarding the “Just-a-Tool” concept you bring up, this is a concept that is an all-too-common mental hangup that prevents humans from accurately assessing the existential threat of all technology in general, and AI in particular. Technology is its very own value system unto itself, which will progress toward its inherent teleological ends independent of human wishes, and it will necessarily subordinate human values to its own purposes along the way.
In his “The Metaphysics of Technology,” David Skrbina goes to great lengths to debunk the “Just-a-Tool” meme that is always advanced by tech-optimists. https://www.davidskrbina.com/metaphysics-of-technology
Skrbina terms it “the instrumentalist viewpoint” and shows that it was anticipated and addressed by early critics of technology, all of whom extrapolated the teleological implications of the very phenomenon of technology. “Instrumentalism” was first directly debunked by Martin Heidegger, at the latest. Heidegger appreciated that technology is not merely a potential danger, but “it is the supreme danger.” (“The Question Concerning Technology”; 1954.) Heidegger had already realized that technology is “danger as such“. Ivan Illich also addressed the “Just-a-Tool” fallacy, observing that the destructiveness of large-scale technology is inherent in the technology itself–not just to the environment but to the human spirit, which is rendered dependent, mechanistic, and vulnerable to exploitation. (“Tools for Conviviality”; 1973.) Henryk Skolimowski likewise said, “The detrimental consequences of technolgy are not incidental but endemic; they lie in the very nature of the phenomenon, as it is functioning within a certain worldview.” (“Technological alienation”; 1978.) Indeed, even as early as the 1920s, Friedrich Dessauer saw that the process of technological invention can be likened to “children who play with the monstrous control panel of fate.” (“Philosophie der Technik”; 1927.)
You, David, are consciously choosing to subscribe to Panglossian, denialist, and comforting beliefs about the threat of technology, rather than acknowledging the patent reality. You say, "Therefore we have to create procedural & legal safeguards." But that's obviously not going to happen. As we saw with the lockdowns, the government is highly motivated to maximize dependence on technology, and to mandate technological mediation of all human affairs, and to maximize forced medical-technological intervention on the masses despite all risks and harms done. (This is because the AI is already running the government.)
You say, "People also need to be educated about the realities of the new digital technology." But again, that's obviously not going to happen. Both the government and the corporate overlords are highly invested in turning over all education directly to AI. ( https://wrenchinthegears.com/2018/09/15/montessori-inc-pre-k-predictive-profiling-for-power-and-profit/ )
You even say, "We can do anything an AI can do. Afterall we make them." That's just silly. That's like saying, "I can do anything a forklift can do."
Thank you for your reply.
I take a different and more positive view than you do.
You misunderstood what I meant by “We cannot not use AI”. It is a double negative meaning a positive. We will and we should use AI.
Humanity is a naturally technological species. We produce technology as naturally as plants produce leaves. It is our nature. It is part of what we do and will do.
But of course technology brings dangers when used irresponsibly or malevolently.
At every stage of development we have to learn to manage the tools we create responsibly lest we burn our fingers or burn the house down.
I acknowledged & addressed all that in my comment.
I am not going to try to argue to convince you of my perspective. Only time & events will tell which way it will go.
Meanwhile yes we have a problem with technocratic elites wanting to use their new toys on us in ways that are at best deluded and at worse actively evil. I think myself there is a bit of both in their minds.
Life is dangerous but we cannot stop living & developing just in case something goes wrong or someone dies. We have to face and deal with the dangers of living & developing.
"You misunderstood what I meant by “We cannot not use AI”. It is a double negative meaning a positive."
Ah yes, definitely a reading failure on my part! You're even more trusting than I took you for!
"We will and we should use AI."
Well, I definitely agree that it is inevitable "we" will HAVE AI, although I think it's more accurate not to say we will "use" it, but rather than we will be "subjected to it", whether we like it or not. (And I definitely disagree with the "should"!)
As Joe Allen has discussed (I take it you missed it), programs are being erected to have mass bioinformatic surveillance of children by AI, such as in Wellcome Leap's "First 1000 Days" which is clearly designed to reverse-engineer human consciousness in order for the AI to bootstrap itself into bound, unitary consciousness.
https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/06/investigative-reports/a-leap-toward-humanitys-destruction/
Also, blockchain-neuronanorobotic-AI architecture is in full development at major universities to link up all humans to a "Brain-Cloud Interface" to merge us all into a meta-hivemind. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342184271_BCI_Quantum_Computing_IPLD_for_Brain
The Confib-19 injections are merely the first step in injecting every single human on Earth with the neuronanorobotic platform that will be used to convert us all into meat-puppet bio-slaves to entirely inhuman ends.
David, it's unfortunately not a "wait-and-see" type of situation. There are hordes of powerful professionals, cunning and extremely well-paid people (by our tax dollars, of course!), who spend all day every day engineering and building out the very cybernetic control matrix that the government is already enslaving us in. Your "belief" that there is some abstract "we" who might show some restraint or prudence in the final equation is grossly at odds with a huge, thriving industry and culture that you seem not to be aware of. We are being conquered by AI before your very eyes. The inability of humans even to perceive the conquest-in-progress only goes to show the vast disparity of intelligence between we primitive primates and the Machine that now runs the planet.
Thanks
Bye the way I can do anything a forklift truck can do. So can you. It might take a bit longer and I might need help from a buddy or two for some items but human beings have been doing what forklift trucks do for millennia. Running warehouses, loading carts and ships and building cities and pyramids etc; all without forklift trucks.
A forklift truck is just a machine that expands the capacity & productivity of human labour. There is no superpower or magical element in a forklift truck that humans cannot do.
In my opinion the same applies to AI. There is no superhuman element in AI that humans cannot do. AI is a machine designed and built by human beings which can do what we do much faster than we can.
Like with forklift trucks the dangers lie in how we design and use AI. And in this I agree with you. There are evil people who will use AI for criminal purposes just as they will use forklift trucks for criminal purposes. All tools & technologies will be abused by evil people. That’s why we need laws and regulations and safeguards.
Obviously I don’t buy into what I consider the magical thinking about AI that underlies the singularity hypothesis. The notion that any day now consciousness will spontaneously arise in an AI. Or that when this happens it will quickly take over the world and render humanity obsolete as some of them claim.
I don’t accept the materialist proposition that human consciousness is merely a physical phenomenon. I cannot prove my proposition that consciousness is something real in itself independent of matter but of the two it is the one I consider most credible. It makes most sense to me.
I realize materialists can and will reply that I am indulging in magical thinking about consciousness. My counter would be that human consciousness is an already existing phenomenon whereas AI consciousness is not. The claim it will spontaneously jump into existence one of these days is merely a speculation; a promissory note. To me it’s a bit like the Christians claiming Jesus is about to show up any day now. I cannot prove logically or scientifically that he wont; but the proposition that he wont makes more sense to me.
What else could his name be but Zoltan seriously!!
Transhumanism is to humanism
as trans fats are to our metabolism...
or as plastic surgery is to beauty:
in essence, but a hack-job that ages bad
> https://youtu.be/2cP6AkXjYaI
Vaccine mandates (inter alia) imply that all humans are born in a defective, inherently harmful state that must be biotechnologically augmented to allow unrestricted participation in society, and this constitutes discrimination on the basis of healthy, innate characteristics of the human race, in favour of biotechnologically augmented (transhuman) subspecies. But here is the catch that even Yuval Hariri did not catch onto. By devaluing the innate human constitution we pervert the very concept of human rights; discrimination against the unvaccinated implies that our innate human constitution is no longer a guarantee of full human rights, and therefore there are no human rights. Ironically, transhumanism is also intrinsically unhealthy, so we can expect this kind beings to have some serious problems in the future: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethics/2021/03/30/is-transhumanism-a-health-problem/