: The futurists love to talk about the time when human consciousness is can’t be uploaded into a computer, a virtual reality, and transcend biology. Nobody ever ask them about stuff like Carrington events, hacking, “black boxes” and secret programming back doors, and off switches.
That’s why I don’t take a single one of them seriously at all. They’re just a mech/tech version of utopianists, and I don’t have time for them either.
And no, that is not to say I don’t have time for optimistic…
: …people. So those of you who started getting them out, pull your claws back in. You should not feel seen or personally attacked, unless of course you are a true utopianist. I used the word “utopianists” for a reason, a very specific reason. I don’t do Pollyannic stuff. That kind of stuff is nice in books and comic books, and cartoons and movies and TV shows and fables, in escapism, but alas, we live in this world, not those. That said, back to futurists.
Nobody ever asks them either about…
: …accident insurance for the flying cars and robot taxis. Or about armed AI security guards and who’s responsible and what happens to them when they fuck up and injure, maim, or kill people because of mistakes by them.
Is it “caveat emptor”? For companies that make such AI things are the board and personnel personally immune from civil lawsuits for decisions made or not made? Will things become “no fault” since no humans made the mistakes or erred?
These are the kinds of questions that…
: … I ask quite casually and as a matter, of course, and that make a variety of people perturbed or really, really weirdly defensive. I’m not asking as thought experiment but seriously, the same way I am not Unknown to ask about the safety condition of roller coasters and the side effects and interactions of pharmaceuticals.
It all makes me think of what Malcolm said about science, technology, money, ethics, and lunchboxes at the table in Jurassic Park.