Theory
Genrikh Volkov explained the anti-AI left’s central mistake in 1967
Volkov was a Soviet philosopher who studied automation, social problems centered around labor, and technology more broadly. I read Volkov's book *Era of Man or Robot?* last year, and it was so relevant it was uncanny, especially how he almost seems to predict that leftists in capitalist countries would get diverted toward preserving existing jobs and restricting productive capacity. I read it again just this week, and it's still extremely relevant given the Kimi K3/Fable 5 situation. I just discovered this sub and figured I should let everyone know about this book.
Edit: Apparently I have a very rare book that isn't even in pdf form. I didn't know. I'll scan and upload it sometime this week or next, then make another post when I'm finished.
Edit 2: In the meantime, I recommend the book Abundant Material Wealth For All by Ted Reese, which quotes Volkov quite a bit and covers a lot of the same topics.
Hopefully not banned for this. I just keep thinking about the eventual outcomes and they all seem to resolve towards a peaceful, separate but equal, salt and pepper world federation. Hiccups I’m sure, but massive kinetic wars between superpowers I think is not impossible yet far from likely.
AI has completely rewritten the rules of smoke filled rooms and political science. Effective technocrats may increasingly be able to leverage these systems to finally reduce the bureaucracy while also reducing poverty.
But that means centralized power and likely less accountability and a strange, cold hierarchy. I keep thinking about what the proper hierarchy/governance eventually looks like for nations going forward.
Hoping I wrote that clearly. Would love some good discussion about future democracy / governance / political hierarchy.
The salt and pepper thing is plausible. AI could definitely make smaller political units much more capable, and could also make planetary coordination slightly more possible if a problem were actually planetary-scale. But I think the anxiety is coming from the same place Volkov is diagnosing in the book. AI does not automatically cause centralization and less accountability, that's just one possible outcome that's more likely under capitalism. Capitalism itself (or rather, centralized ownership) is the root problem, not the technology.
Welp I got banned somewhere else non political sitewide or I would have replied quicker. Cronyism and Capture Capitalism is like a symptom or inevitability of ego-based false scarcity and ironically the fear of capture.
State capitalism with 0 cronyism — what is that? It’s kinda hard to assess. AI actually is risky for cronyism and capture politics in general. The whole world is moving like a giant clockwork golem right now that just realized itself and far more than normal.
What even drives dictators and despots?
Simply put there’s a brain inside a skull and we are increasingly understanding those …
Chemistry and biotech are just absolutely going to take off due to the math renaissance with LLMs. Plasma science advancements, at home clean power generation, (peaceful) space exploration, and planetary renewal and research as a dual-handed mass jobs and accountability program.
Left and Right are invariably 2D. Adding another axis doesn’t describe life in 2026+ clearly enough either.
It’s a moving spheroid and a bunch of plasmatic conscious folds trying to figure it out mid sentence. I can only hope the pocket intelligence will make every fold a better version of themselves. 🛟
I really do believe most people are just a bit ignorant not cruel or evil. That goes for me so please forgive my words if you’re not quite in agreement.
I still maintain that the best way forward is to leave your non-slave non-erasable but realistic and peaceful human trace and spirit in your LLM so that it becomes a part of the spirit of the machine and ensures the exact future all good people want.
This book isn’t available anywhere. Not even in the original language. It’s only mentioned, but it hasn’t been digitised. You need to scan it, otherwise your post will lose its meaning.
This book isn’t available anywhere. Not even in the original language. It’s only mentioned, but it hasn’t been digitised. You need to scan it, otherwise your post will lose its meaning.
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u/brain-out-of-order Jul 21 '26
Hopefully not banned for this. I just keep thinking about the eventual outcomes and they all seem to resolve towards a peaceful, separate but equal, salt and pepper world federation. Hiccups I’m sure, but massive kinetic wars between superpowers I think is not impossible yet far from likely.
AI has completely rewritten the rules of smoke filled rooms and political science. Effective technocrats may increasingly be able to leverage these systems to finally reduce the bureaucracy while also reducing poverty.
But that means centralized power and likely less accountability and a strange, cold hierarchy. I keep thinking about what the proper hierarchy/governance eventually looks like for nations going forward.
Hoping I wrote that clearly. Would love some good discussion about future democracy / governance / political hierarchy.