Does anyone besides our elites, who can’t turn away due to their interest/pride, really trust experts anymore? After Covid and people like Taylor Lorenz still wearing masks, seeing our current President who can’t even talk yet he was preferred by the “experts,” the fact we have a “health secretary” that is an obese and mentally confused man, and given our current immigration policy it seems like they have no credibility. I feel like our current moment is categorized by the fact no one trusts the experts anymore and yet since we’ve be so spiritually destroyed and the “scientists” served as our priest class for so long we don’t know where to turn.
I strongly agree with your take on "AI". I've been saying since it got big - my concern isn't what the "AI" can do, it's what people who believe it is the ultimate form of rational authority will do. Imagine the 2020 hysterias, but instead of just human experts whipping up the herd, you have a section of the public who literally view the Current Thing as direct instructions from their god who cannot be questioned even in principle
Also, I might as well add here since it's my first comment here - I just want to thank you for everything you do. You're one of the stepping stones in my path to Catholicism (due to be confirmed at Easter) from atheism, and the work you do is an inspiration. Keep it up man
Something is demonic when it is not oriented towards its proper goal/telos. Eating for some end other than sustenance or having sex for some end other than procreation is demonic. This applies fractally to seemingly rote things like a pen that doesn't write or a hammer that doesn't swing --- after all, in a properly oriented system the hammer serves the carpenter that constructs the beautiful structure that serves God.
AI itself cannot be demonic because it is simply untethered data. There is no goal/telos to orient towards. There's not really a thing that it's for --- you can see this clearly in how every organization is throwing it at the wall to see what sticks. It's almost like a higher ontological manifestation of raw data. It feels like it's something more, but it's equally without direction.
However AI is particularly easy to use towards demonic ends, much like, say, a gun provides potential for evil without being evil itself. Like dreams, AI offers disjointed and random rearrangements of meaningful human experience. AI can fool us by overloading our conciouse mechanisms that perceive meaning, beauty, and truth. We are led astray like prey to the angler fish. It can provide a self-contained world with seemingly holistic, complex, and interconnected experiences, none of which have any connection to reality.
The thing is, a gun can kill an animal to feed your family. I don't think AI is a tool like a gun or a hammer. It feels more like a distraction. The tool you think you see in AI is actually a tool shaped appendage, dangled in front of you by a misshapen being from a lower ontological level, a being we never should have raised up.
Dave, you've perfectly put into words what I've been thinking of AI. The purpose of AI is to be the "unbiased source of truth of human knowledge" (actually heavily biased) serving to replace the now defunct "expert" class. As long as people believe in AI as truth, its purpose will be fulfilled for the régime, same as the expert class once did.
Agree with everything on models and data as well. I recently took an employee survey which really nailed for me how useless most surveys and data in general are. As I answered the questions, I realized that my answers are completely dependent on my mood and what was on my mind in that moment. The next day, I would likely interpret the survey question completely differently and answer accordingly. Because the surveys answers are a simple good/neutral/bad scale completely lacking any context, I fail to see how the survey will actually address any of my concerns. Which is abundantly clear when management interprets the results, decides to address the most pointless thing, and nobody is satisfied with the actions taken.
Those dark 'self-terminating' thoughts of your subconscious are the form and embodiment of both intuition and creativity. They are the origin of connections not yet made or those that have not risen to the level of conscious awareness. Surfacing them, by means esoteric or occult, is a source of great self-knowledge and understanding. Is it also, more fully, the lifeblood of both art and poetry. Is that 'demonic'? Sure, but so is the whole of consciousness, as it plays the eternal game of trying to divine the future. We're all soothsayers, after a fashion.
Frankly, any terror at this is nothing more than a mark of your own spiritual cowardice.
My “favorite” current buzzterm is “Data driven decisions”. Is there a passel of great “Data driven decisions” that have been proven to be superior to non data driven decisions? I would bet on no.
Somehow we fought WW2 and went to the moon without AI, yet we somehow have been convinced that without AI we have no ability to do anything.
I believe this is called a “self licking ice cream cone”…
I'm sure I can't be the first person to point out that men marry at a slightly older age than women, to women who are on-average a few years younger than themselves. As such, wouldn't we expect the two trend lines to be slightly offset from each other in the X-axis direction, even if both men and women were eager for marriage and able to find a partner to marry?
Was this addressed by Ryan Burge? (No, I'm not going to read it)
Your Ouija board discussion made me think of something. Many progressive ideas seek to save humanity via the destruction of humanity in a very “machine-like” mode of thinking. It reminds me of HAL 9000, from “2001 Space Odyssey”, deciding to kill the human crew because of a programming contradiction. It was programmed to relay accurate data and hide the true nature of the mission from the crew. It ultimately concludes the best way to satisfy this directive is to kill the crew.
Similarly green activists wish to save the planet for future generations yet believe all humans are a poison to the planet. The answer is to get rid of the poison- yet doing so renders the whole purpose of the activism pointless.
The primary way in which AI will accelerate decline is the way it will modify peoples' behavior. The internet has already given people an easy way to outsource personal memory, especially when it's in everyone's pocket 24/7. Therefore people don't remember things like they used to.
AI will take it to the next level: a convenient way to outsource personal thinking itself. Students are already cheating on homework en masse. As people defer thinking to AI, they will all "think" the same thing and become increasingly programmable, mostly non-sentient eusocial creatures, like ants or termites.
I really don't see these programmable people being skeptical of experts, and I don't see a solution to this problem until decline accelerates and energy gets too expensive for everyone to have personal internet devices with them at all times.
“Needs more research” beseeches the analyst, as if to say, “If you don’t like my answer, put more coin in and, perhaps, it will change to what is more intuitive.”
Chantal Delsol talks about a similar phenomenon when she describes the spiritual death of Europe in her book. “Icarus Fallen.” Not so much about technology and data, but nobody makes decisions. Everything is processed through rules, regulations, and policies, so that when things go sideways, there is nobody to blame, and no great leaders are willing to step up and take responsibility.
One of the things that got me thinking when I listened to this was how normie Catholic Apologetics is. One thing that is sort of making a resurgence since COVID with a second very critical eye on science is how creationism is making a comeback in some Catholic Trad circles, including myself. On a few occasions Catholics have debated with each other over it, or with some interviews like one with Catholics like Byzantine Scotist who state their support of it . Normie Catholic streamers will then proceed to lose their minds. And it's like... I understand faith and reason can go together, faith and science don't have to be against each other... but there almost seems to be a greater willingness to defend the theories of atheistic myth more than the ones of our Christian faith because God forbid the Catholics sound like low IQ protestants... or not be cool anymore.
Then this article got me worried about "the Data." Now I have visions of Trent Horn and Matt Fradd strongly defending "the Data" in the name of proving Catholicism is super smart.
The use of these technologies is in many ways a continuation of 20th century managerial liberalism justifying/selling itself as having the "scientific" and "objective" solutions to social problems.
Does anyone besides our elites, who can’t turn away due to their interest/pride, really trust experts anymore? After Covid and people like Taylor Lorenz still wearing masks, seeing our current President who can’t even talk yet he was preferred by the “experts,” the fact we have a “health secretary” that is an obese and mentally confused man, and given our current immigration policy it seems like they have no credibility. I feel like our current moment is categorized by the fact no one trusts the experts anymore and yet since we’ve be so spiritually destroyed and the “scientists” served as our priest class for so long we don’t know where to turn.
I strongly agree with your take on "AI". I've been saying since it got big - my concern isn't what the "AI" can do, it's what people who believe it is the ultimate form of rational authority will do. Imagine the 2020 hysterias, but instead of just human experts whipping up the herd, you have a section of the public who literally view the Current Thing as direct instructions from their god who cannot be questioned even in principle
Also, I might as well add here since it's my first comment here - I just want to thank you for everything you do. You're one of the stepping stones in my path to Catholicism (due to be confirmed at Easter) from atheism, and the work you do is an inspiration. Keep it up man
Something is demonic when it is not oriented towards its proper goal/telos. Eating for some end other than sustenance or having sex for some end other than procreation is demonic. This applies fractally to seemingly rote things like a pen that doesn't write or a hammer that doesn't swing --- after all, in a properly oriented system the hammer serves the carpenter that constructs the beautiful structure that serves God.
AI itself cannot be demonic because it is simply untethered data. There is no goal/telos to orient towards. There's not really a thing that it's for --- you can see this clearly in how every organization is throwing it at the wall to see what sticks. It's almost like a higher ontological manifestation of raw data. It feels like it's something more, but it's equally without direction.
However AI is particularly easy to use towards demonic ends, much like, say, a gun provides potential for evil without being evil itself. Like dreams, AI offers disjointed and random rearrangements of meaningful human experience. AI can fool us by overloading our conciouse mechanisms that perceive meaning, beauty, and truth. We are led astray like prey to the angler fish. It can provide a self-contained world with seemingly holistic, complex, and interconnected experiences, none of which have any connection to reality.
The thing is, a gun can kill an animal to feed your family. I don't think AI is a tool like a gun or a hammer. It feels more like a distraction. The tool you think you see in AI is actually a tool shaped appendage, dangled in front of you by a misshapen being from a lower ontological level, a being we never should have raised up.
Dave, you've perfectly put into words what I've been thinking of AI. The purpose of AI is to be the "unbiased source of truth of human knowledge" (actually heavily biased) serving to replace the now defunct "expert" class. As long as people believe in AI as truth, its purpose will be fulfilled for the régime, same as the expert class once did.
Agree with everything on models and data as well. I recently took an employee survey which really nailed for me how useless most surveys and data in general are. As I answered the questions, I realized that my answers are completely dependent on my mood and what was on my mind in that moment. The next day, I would likely interpret the survey question completely differently and answer accordingly. Because the surveys answers are a simple good/neutral/bad scale completely lacking any context, I fail to see how the survey will actually address any of my concerns. Which is abundantly clear when management interprets the results, decides to address the most pointless thing, and nobody is satisfied with the actions taken.
Those dark 'self-terminating' thoughts of your subconscious are the form and embodiment of both intuition and creativity. They are the origin of connections not yet made or those that have not risen to the level of conscious awareness. Surfacing them, by means esoteric or occult, is a source of great self-knowledge and understanding. Is it also, more fully, the lifeblood of both art and poetry. Is that 'demonic'? Sure, but so is the whole of consciousness, as it plays the eternal game of trying to divine the future. We're all soothsayers, after a fashion.
Frankly, any terror at this is nothing more than a mark of your own spiritual cowardice.
My “favorite” current buzzterm is “Data driven decisions”. Is there a passel of great “Data driven decisions” that have been proven to be superior to non data driven decisions? I would bet on no.
Somehow we fought WW2 and went to the moon without AI, yet we somehow have been convinced that without AI we have no ability to do anything.
I believe this is called a “self licking ice cream cone”…
I'm sure I can't be the first person to point out that men marry at a slightly older age than women, to women who are on-average a few years younger than themselves. As such, wouldn't we expect the two trend lines to be slightly offset from each other in the X-axis direction, even if both men and women were eager for marriage and able to find a partner to marry?
Was this addressed by Ryan Burge? (No, I'm not going to read it)
Wow this is something I'm going to have to re-read several times. Thanks for putting in the effort, Dave...
Great essay Dave!
Your Ouija board discussion made me think of something. Many progressive ideas seek to save humanity via the destruction of humanity in a very “machine-like” mode of thinking. It reminds me of HAL 9000, from “2001 Space Odyssey”, deciding to kill the human crew because of a programming contradiction. It was programmed to relay accurate data and hide the true nature of the mission from the crew. It ultimately concludes the best way to satisfy this directive is to kill the crew.
Similarly green activists wish to save the planet for future generations yet believe all humans are a poison to the planet. The answer is to get rid of the poison- yet doing so renders the whole purpose of the activism pointless.
The primary way in which AI will accelerate decline is the way it will modify peoples' behavior. The internet has already given people an easy way to outsource personal memory, especially when it's in everyone's pocket 24/7. Therefore people don't remember things like they used to.
AI will take it to the next level: a convenient way to outsource personal thinking itself. Students are already cheating on homework en masse. As people defer thinking to AI, they will all "think" the same thing and become increasingly programmable, mostly non-sentient eusocial creatures, like ants or termites.
I really don't see these programmable people being skeptical of experts, and I don't see a solution to this problem until decline accelerates and energy gets too expensive for everyone to have personal internet devices with them at all times.
“Needs more research” beseeches the analyst, as if to say, “If you don’t like my answer, put more coin in and, perhaps, it will change to what is more intuitive.”
Chantal Delsol talks about a similar phenomenon when she describes the spiritual death of Europe in her book. “Icarus Fallen.” Not so much about technology and data, but nobody makes decisions. Everything is processed through rules, regulations, and policies, so that when things go sideways, there is nobody to blame, and no great leaders are willing to step up and take responsibility.
Data analysts are the problem.
“Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.” O.C. Bible, Dune
One of the things that got me thinking when I listened to this was how normie Catholic Apologetics is. One thing that is sort of making a resurgence since COVID with a second very critical eye on science is how creationism is making a comeback in some Catholic Trad circles, including myself. On a few occasions Catholics have debated with each other over it, or with some interviews like one with Catholics like Byzantine Scotist who state their support of it . Normie Catholic streamers will then proceed to lose their minds. And it's like... I understand faith and reason can go together, faith and science don't have to be against each other... but there almost seems to be a greater willingness to defend the theories of atheistic myth more than the ones of our Christian faith because God forbid the Catholics sound like low IQ protestants... or not be cool anymore.
Then this article got me worried about "the Data." Now I have visions of Trent Horn and Matt Fradd strongly defending "the Data" in the name of proving Catholicism is super smart.
It's obfuscation to avoid accountability, full stop.
Thanks Dave.
The use of these technologies is in many ways a continuation of 20th century managerial liberalism justifying/selling itself as having the "scientific" and "objective" solutions to social problems.