I’ve been thinking about AI again. More so than usual. Yet this time I noticed I was exploring more on the side of philosophy rather than economics.
I’ve wrote before why AI should never be regulated, that it’s the same as the gun ownership problem, where those with guns have an advantage over those without.
But this time, what if we think about what our world will look like in the future when most jobs are fully automated.
Truck driving most likely will become automated, most computer jobs will, reception and store jobs probably will. Factory work definitely will.
So then what do humans do when everything is automated?
This is where I discovered that looking at it through the lens of ancient Greece may be the answer.
And the reason for that is the way in which they used slavery. It seems strange that this is the relatable factor, and maybe because of our aversion to the topic, we haven’t been able to make this connection yet.
But observe the Spartans for instance. A lot of the general material work, especially agricultural work, was done by the helots. This allowed the Spartans to spend more time on physical training, military education, and various studies, etc.
The Athenians were another example, although their society did it differently. Of note with the Athenians is the amount of time spent in their forums, markets, and gymnasiums, among other things.
If we learn from what jobs the Greeks did in a society where a lot of the material matters were handled by others, it might give us a clue as to the type of work we should be thinking about with AI now filling a similar role.
Philosophy is one stereotypical field that the Greeks spent a lot of time in, maybe not as much as our glorification of them would suggest, but still notable.
The next is the stereotypes of the gymnasium, marketplaces, and the worship of the gods. All noble and useful ventures, but trying to find the less well known roles would be useful too.
As technology gets more advanced, we should be looking to do what the Romans did and copy the Greeks, with a focus on making sure we advance ourselves at the same rate as our technology.
And I believe what we should be looking to encourage are schools of thought that explore the philosophical side of technology in order to help understand our rapidly changing world.
Already we’re struggling as a society to grasp the future, and to even grasp what AI itself is. The way we look at technology is simply the material and logical side of it.
👉Right now we know the questions and are fixated on answering them, instead of being fixated on finding the questions, and letting the answers find their own way after.
For instance, AI right now is not actually AI, it’s machine learning. Not many people know this. And without contemplating what it is, and having meaningful conversations with people in the industry, we wouldn’t know.
We should be questioning what it is, why it is, and what is its future in relation to our future, rather than looking exclusively at what it does right now.
But 20 years from now we may be at the stage of actual AI. Which makes one begin asking questions. So here are some examples;
What is artificial intelligence? Can a program reach sentience? What is sentience? Can a person reach singularity with the machine? Can someone be merged with the machine? Would they survive the procedure, or would they die? What is the point of having AI at such an advanced level? Is it too dangerous? Will it reach a stage were it gets out of control? Can it rebel? Can it create?
And also some questions about ourselves;
What do we do with our lives when everything is automated? Is there a point to humanity? Should we reduce our populations? Should we expand our populations? Is their a cut off point for its use? What areas do we not want automated? Are their things in our life which should be sheltered from the machine? What is sacred? Why are we doing this and is it working? Is there a way to stop it if we need too? Should we be focusing on evolving alongside it? Or will it only ever be a reflection of our own advancement?
There are millions of questions that can be asked. And some Ideas that I have I can barely even describe.
Philosophical schools of thought that exclusively deal with technological concepts would excel at putting the more complicated questions into words, and also help in finding the questions that we don’t know of yet.
I’m curious about this.
I wonder if our society may one day mimic ancient Greece in this regard, or if we’ll screw it all up through negligence and hubris, possibly leading to total catastrophe.
I’m worried that society doesn’t ask questions anymore.
And without asking a serious amount of meaningful questions for the purposes of understanding our changing world, I don’t know if we’ll be able to comprehend the technological world we’re stepping into.
But we can always redirect ourselves, like what is happening drastically in the political world right now. And I hope this happens as well for our understanding of the concepts directly related to our rapidly increasing technological advances. Even though at the moment we believe we have a clear grasp of the present, by continuing to only stare at our reflections in the mirror, we may not be able to see the potential threat lurking behind it.
Alex James.