Dean Ball speaks

I know I rail a lot about all the flavors of AI copium but I do empathize.

A few companies are making machines smarter in most ways than humans, and they are going to succeed. The cope is byproduct of an especially immature grieving stage, but all of us are early in our grief.

Link here.  You can understand so much of the media these days, or for that matter MR comments, if you keep this simple observation in mind.  It is essential for understanding the words around you, and one’s reactions also reveal at least one part of the true inner self.  I have never seen the Western world in this position before, so yes it is difficult to believe and internalize.  But believe and internalize it you must.

Politics is another reason why some people are reluctant to admit this reality.  Moving forward, the two biggest questions are likely to be “how do we deal with AI?”, and also some rather difficult to analyze issues surrounding major international conflicts.  A lot of the rest will seem trivial, and so much of today’s partisan puffery will not age well, even if a person is correct on the issues they are emphasizing.  The two biggest and most important questions do not fit into standard ideological categories.  Yes, the Guelphs vs. the Ghibellines really did matter…until it did not.