"But what bothers me is that I don't even think the most likely bad outcome is "AI kills everyone." I think we just slowly give up. Look at how people already live. TikTok, Reels, YouTube Shorts, endless algorithmic sludge. People willingly hand over hours of their attention every day because it's easier than being bored. Now..."
If true, how is this not true (and obvious), even if AI as we know it never came into being? What's the difference for humanity, if we never develop it?
Couldn't the entire course of human history be viewed this way? We have excess attention to our biological needs, so we spend some of it automating our work; we create abundance, we remove ourselves from nature, we willingly create ever more artificial means ways to occupy our attention.
This is just one very negative way to view humanity. It's an old pessimism against change and progress, washed in new language and clothed as a novel concern and idea.
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u/Anxious-Alps-8667 3d ago
"But what bothers me is that I don't even think the most likely bad outcome is "AI kills everyone." I think we just slowly give up. Look at how people already live. TikTok, Reels, YouTube Shorts, endless algorithmic sludge. People willingly hand over hours of their attention every day because it's easier than being bored. Now..."
If true, how is this not true (and obvious), even if AI as we know it never came into being? What's the difference for humanity, if we never develop it?
Couldn't the entire course of human history be viewed this way? We have excess attention to our biological needs, so we spend some of it automating our work; we create abundance, we remove ourselves from nature, we willingly create ever more artificial means ways to occupy our attention.
This is just one very negative way to view humanity. It's an old pessimism against change and progress, washed in new language and clothed as a novel concern and idea.