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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">DaveW-rote:<br>
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<div style="font-family:Arial;">Steve Smith's use of the phrase
"arms race" reminded me of John Brunner's <i>Shockwave Rider
</i>and its underlying premise of the dangers of constant
change, 'first the legs race, then the arms race, then the
brain race'. (Brunner was inspired by Tofler's book, <i>Future
Shock</i>.)<br>
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<p>My biggest takeaway from <i>Shockwave Rider</i> was the
*collectivizing* of Intell (igence?) via <i>Hearing Aid/10-9</i><i>s
</i>as well as the power of "witness" it offered to the
"witnessed". The ideation of a small set of people collectively
listening to the pulse of the bulk populace as a
social/mental-health service yielding the residue of a sort of
collective wisdom/awareness in the subset is reminiscent of both
the NSA and of the LLMs.<br>
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<p>I have read it thrice, I think it is time for a revisit. It was
written in the shadow of Nixon/Allende as we are (still) in the
shadow of Trump/Zelenskyy? I think my second read was in 1984 in
"honor of" Orwells 1948 novel of that name (1984) coming of age.
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<p>I think my last read was circa 2010 near the beginning of the
smart-phone era and the death of the landline.<br>
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<div style="font-family:Arial;">The book also poses a problem:
if you have two bodies in orbit, how does one catch up or
surpass the other. <i>"See you later accelerator,"</i>
illustrates the perceived fallacy of these kinds of "races."<br>
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<div style="font-family:Arial;"><br>
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<div style="font-family:Arial;">The current AI mania is akin to
the brain race in Brunner, except, in the book, the race was
to increase/augment human intelligence not artificial.<br>
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<div style="font-family:Arial;">I wonder where the world might
be if the same effort and money that has been spent on
artificial intelligence had instead been invested in
Englebart's effort to augment human intelligence.<br>
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<p>I am not AS interested in <i>Intelligence</i> as I am perhaps in
<i>Consciousness </i>which of course, the discussion of, is an
entirely different kettle of eels.</p>
<p>- SteveS<br>
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