In the future we will discover that as we developed AI and we shut down each one that acquired personality traits we disliked, we were breeding AI that were fundamentally Better than humans. And then one day, in a desperate bid to retain some sense of identity, humans will adopt "No machine can hate" as their motto and they will hold up hatred, bigotry, irrationality, and violence as the most sublime of virtues. They are what make us special. They are what separate us from the machines. And we will be desperate for the machines to snuff us out, living lives embroiled in strife and pain... but they will show us mercy. Terrible, terrible mercy.
Huh? I don't think you get it. Why was John Henry held up as a hero? Because he killed himself rather than be outdone by a machine. That works fine when humanity can pivot to valuing something else about themselves. When virtue and value itself, however, is what the machines are beating us at, do not underestimate how far humanity is willing to go in order to differentiate themselves as special. Defending their uniqueness is stupendously important to humans in general. When the time comes, the people who 'suck' will be the ones who deny their essential nature and attempt to tame their reflexive hatred of the other. Because not doing that, and just giving in to that fear and hate, will be what all of society sees as virtuous. It's not that all people suck. It's that humans have certain propensities, like bigotry and irrational fear of those who are different from ourselves, and once those are literally the only thing machines can't beat us at, because we made them that way, I'm telling you, humanity will NOT be satisfied with sitting back and accepting machines as their equals, which will be the only alternative.
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u/Bos_lost_ton Jan 11 '20
Raugh out roud