Atlas Shrugged
While I’ve been rehabbing my new titanium knee replacement, I’ve been reading a lot. Currently I’m reading ‘Careless People’, tell-all from one of the insiders back when Facebook was just getting started. If you aren’t already totally cynical about social media and the demise of democracy, this will darken your day … and any sunny expectations for the future.
These people, Zuckerberg and his very few cohorts, were setting up an internet connection service. You know, stay in touch with your friends and family, maybe your co-workers, all in pursuit of open communication. But as usual, like Dylan said, ‘until greed got in the way.’ Greed and power and egoes. Turns out you can make a lot more profit if you provide misinformation, bot fake news and click bait. You can also swing elections. Not just in third wold countries but right here in the Yew Ess Aye.
I suspect Facebook is no different than Twitter or X, the Washington Post under Bezos, Google, Microsoft, all these tech boyz with socially stunted personalities still playing video games but now the riches yahoos on earth. Adolescent geniuses who now rule the world, who control the strings of power, who mostly want more More MORE, damn the cost to society. Atlas Shrugged — bow down to the captains of industry, the job creators, the developers of Artificial Intelligence. They avoid taxes, they have no loyalty to nations, they’re above the laws of mere mortals.
Back here on earth, I live across the road from Microsoft’s head of AI. Helluva nice guy. The other morning I heard him interviewed on NPR, talking about the positives of AI, how it could create a better battery six times faster than us humans, maybe not me, which would be 1000 times faster. Plenty of folks working for these companies would tell you they’re creating a better world, a connected world, curing diseases, eliminating drudge work, dreaming the future. They’ve got their hands on the throttle. And their boot on our necks. Us mere humans don’t stand a chance.
Tags: AI Apocalypse, My Neighbor Will Kill Us All, Tech Billionaires