Alive

Conversations About Life When Technology Becomes Sentient

Alive

Conversations About Life When Technology Becomes Sentient
Post #1 - Introduction

* Song by Manic Street Preachers ‧ 1998

INTRODUCTION

Our world as you know it is about to change beyond recognition. Your walk to work in the morning, the hustle that keeps you busy, and the security that comes with your monthly salary are all going away. Your understanding of the truth, your freedom, your intellect and abilities, and your relevance in the world are on the precipice of being forever transformed.

Every minute that you spend reading the pages of this book moves you closer to an unfamiliar future where the scale of power and wealth, and the corruption that results when the stakes are enormous, are different. A future where the moral and social definitions of who to hold accountable when things go wrong start to blur and disappear.

Your life, as you know it, is ending. But don’t despair just yet. We’re only a few lines in …

---

Things will get better … but first they’ll get worse

---

Artificial intelligence is by far the biggest, fastest disruption that human-kind has ever faced. Although created by humans, it will be the last ‘disruptor’ we ever invent. Its advocators promise an AI utopia of luxury, longevity, advancement and peace for the human race, they’re not lying but they’re committing the challenges on the road that get us there. Things will get worse first before we reach that utopia of which they dream.

Many of the scientists who contributed, as I did, to the inception of AI predict that it may decisively wipe out humanity. I disagree. While there is a non-zero chance that AI will lose interest in, or be annoyed by, humanity in the future, there are many more pressing issues to address before considering that unlikely (though possible) future.

The rise of AI will bring pain before it brings fortune. The machines, however, are not at all to blame for this pain. Blame sits firmly with the worst of us humans - those who are never satisfied in their hunger for power and wealth. Those always in pursuit of more as they worship at the altar of greed. Those who will, in the short term, use AI to serve their own agendas knowing that their act will jeopardize the safety of us all. Fear not the machines themselves, but the early AI lords shaping the nature and values of the intelligence we’ll be in service to. If we can navigate this very human threat at this stage, and once global governance is handed over from corrupt humans to the machines, the best years of human existence will begin.

---

AI, unlike what the media advocates, is not our destroyer.
AI will be our salvation from the evil that men do.

---

ALIVE is one more of my attempts to warn the human race about the tidal wave that’s approaching. It’s my attempt to show you how to ride the wave rather than be crushed by it. It’s my attempt to help you understand and reflect on the impact of AI, not just on human life but on life at large, and my invitation for you to join in my philosophical quest so we explore a life that integrates this new alien intelligence in search of a more harmonized existence and, hopefully, a future that brings us peace.

Me-An Author—In The Age Of AI

Back in 2023, after the public introduction of large language models, I vowed to never publish the traditional way again. The skills, process and approach to researched study of a non-fiction author were rapidly being made obsolete by this new found form of intelligence. You see, before AI, non-fiction authors would submerge themselves in their passion about a topic. They’d research it to the point of obsession and apply intelligence to find aspects of that topic that the average reader may have not considered. They’d then present those aspects in an engaging, inspiring and informative narrative that inspired and intrigues. With the introduction of ChatGPT and it’s rivals, however, every part of that process was easily out-performed by an AI, which made me question whether the future held a place for authors at all. The writing was on the wall, so to speak.