ell, I believe there's no really pure society to return to I'm
not quite as worried about artificial intelligence taking over
society for these reasons: a) People like Elon Musk will be out
there reminding people to be careful the machines don't take
over us (see: Charlie Chaplin: Modern Society for humerous
account)
b) There will be watchdogs at every corner whenever something
new comes out; even Luddite groups serve a powerful role as a
counterpoint; for every advance, there is a "back to basics"
movement
c) No matter how powerful somebody gets - even within one
country. SOMEBODY will say, "Hey! YO! wtf u doin' man?" - even
if its from another country; perhaps even to the point of waging
war to combat its overarching power.
Ok, a b and c are exactly the same.
In short, I don't worry because people like him will always come
up and say something. Even in societies with controlled
communications (China for example), other societies outside
*will* break in and say, "Pssst, hey, you can have freedom with
our secret torrent facebook link"
The power, I think, is in the hidden networks; I remember it at
work; the hierarchical structure at Schering-Plough was one
thing, but how work REALLY took place was something entirely
different; people would cross departments to get me to help them
with their Excel problems - and they got the credit. Hidden
networks (is that Markov - I dunno?) - and outliers: they are
the pressure-valves that keep any one system from dominating;
and as long as AI is powered by electricity, there's always The
Plug
