[FRIAM] now it all makes sense

[glen ☣]

fAIth: The most avid believers in AI are aggressively secular – yet their language is eerily religious. Why?
https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-the-language-of-transhumanists-and-religion-so-similar

To go along with the article back in 2013:

  Belief in the Singularity is Fideistic
  http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/2013-May/069348.html

Idealism is pernicious.  I was very happy to see Musk protest Trump's decision to exit the Paris accord.  It was a nice contrast to the argument for being on that business council. [†] People like Musk, unfortunately end up being "useful fools" to people like Trump.  The authentically intelligent and well intentioned become tools for the gamers/defectors.  In the end, it's that _faith_ in human nature, social or evolutionary progress, or whatever that allows them to be used that way.


[†] The argument is that you have to have access to the evil dictator or ignorant bumbler in order to influence them into some better direction.  So, e.g., Dennis Rodman visiting NK is a good thing.  But a) we have Nietzsche's warning about staring into the abyss -- i.e. the gamer is more likely to make you a gamer than you are likely to make them a cooperator.  And b) we are known by the company we keep -- e.g. congress members who vote against or for some bill for technical reasons even when they agree or disagree, respectively, with the bill's gist.  Idealism ignores the lessons of both (a) and (b).  In the end, regardless of the good intentions of any member of the clique, access and cliquishness eventually dominate.  The longer you're in the clique, the more difficult it becomes to walk away and the more complicit you become.


On 06/16/2017 09:39 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> Now it all makes sense.  Trump is feeding escapist dreams by purposely destroying the planet, to create a market for Mars-a-Lago.
> 
> http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/06/the_30_month_trip_to_mars_and_back_would_increase_your_chances_of_long_term.html


-- 
☣ glen