Ask HN: Are we giving away our civilization? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are we giving away our civilization?

18 pointsbigwheels6 comments

Anthropic:

> We’re opening a research preview of Claude Duet, a new app where Claude works as a proactive agent.

> It comes to you with what needs your attention, completes tasks you ask of it, keeps working when you step away, and checks with you before it acts on your behalf.

The Matrix (1999):

> Agent Smith:

> "Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization. I say your civilization, because as soon as we started thinking for you it really became our civilization, which is of course what this is all about."

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We're certainly heading towards a sci-fi dystopia, the question is which one and by how much. Best case scenario is that it stays on the fringe. Worst case is it causes a global catastrophe that takes generations to unravel.

I'm thinking like a parallel to slavery in terms of proportions and institutionalization, but not as obvious to us right now. It starts by controlling all of our information, with companies owning our entire communication, family photos, even medical records. It's all in the name of "AI progress" but it inevitably these institutions get entrenched and corrupted causing widespread and permanent underclass that can't even participate in the system. Two hundred years from now people will realize how immoral this was but to us now it's still normal.

You think something triaging your emails and completing paperwork for you is "giving away...civilization"?

I just started reading "The Nerd Reich". It's silly and horrifying at the same time. It paints an explicit picture of those who want this techno-apocalyptic future to happen because they think they're superior to everyone else and will "ascend" in this new world order (the Theils and Elons of the world). Like honestly, have some freaking humility. Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time.

We need to do better and demand accountability and oversight as a society. We can do it, we just need to stick together.

Father time will get us all anyway. No need to speed up the clock.

No. Intellectual property is a byproduct of civilization, not the other way around. By weakening IP, culture is democratized and civilization is strengthened overall.

just recently saw the movie again - so many tiny details and dialogue that hits SO differently today! Epic!

> Are we giving away our civilization?

Well, don't include me in this nonsense... They, the handful of people in another country, are giving away our civilisation, yes. And I have no idea why so many people are seemingly letting them do it.

Even the good outcome of all of this looks pretty awful to me – a world where people are economically useless and given cash by the government to survive. People no longer get ill or die so governments implement some kind of population control on the economically useless masses. No one has anything to do and isn't allowed family so we all sit around watching TV and playing video games all day. Perhaps some of us will LARP as workers in our spare time, taking on projects we know an AI could do much faster and much better. A world where technology and scientific discovery is so complex that the frontier is more or less out of the reach of humans so we just trust the magical gifts our AIs give to us hoping they will do us no harm.

And this is the good outcome of ASI. The bad outcome is everyone's dead, or worse.

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