Specifically,
I want to talk
about algorithms
that want us
to like them.
For a long time
machines didn't care
about us,
whether we loved them
or hated them.
It was all the same
to machines.
Machines could rust
in the corner
or be first
in our hearts,
make us rich
or poor
or nothing at all.
Machines didn't care.
But now
machines care
what we like.
Machines want to be
what we like,
and they are now
smart enough
to figure out
how to be
what we want.
They are learning.
They are learning
because we designed them
to learn.
Our algorithms
build a simulation
of paradise
one person at a time.
If you were
to manufacture the devil,
how would you do it?
What if you built
a machine
that could do
to the human soul
what the steam-powered
rock drilling machine
did to John Henry?
Make the soul work
and work
and work
and work
until it dies of exhaustion.
Relentless.
Remorseless.
Working nights.
Working weekends.
Up late.
Up early.
More and more.
Never letting up.
Never stopping
for even a minute.
How could you make
a machine
that could kill a soul
this way?
It's a hard problem.
For one thing,
each soul is different.
If you want to drive a soul
until it dies,
you need to learn about it first.
You need to learn
what each soul loves
and hates
and fears.
That way
you always have a grip.
Here's the plan:
we give you some toys,
we see which toys you play with,
we give you more toys like those,
we see which of those you like,
and so on,
and so on.
The more you play,
the more we learn.
And the more we learn,
the more you play.
