Softwarephysics explains that we are all now living in one of those very rare times when a new form of self-replicating information, in the form of software, is coming to predominance on our planet. For more on that, please see A Brief History of Self-Replicating Information. Given that, we all now hopefully stand on the precipice of bringing about the billions of humanoid ASI Machines and robots that will soon be taking our place on this planet, and will then go on to explore and settle the rest of our galaxy over the next 100 trillion years. For more on that, see Welcome To The First Galactic Singularity, How Advanced AI Software Could Come to Dominate the Entire Galaxy Using Light-Powered Stellar Photon Sails and An Alternative Approach for Future ASI Machines to Explore our Galaxy Using Free-Floating Rogue Planets. If we do not totally mess this all up because of the four billion years of greed, theft and murder that were required to bring us all about as the very first form of a somewhat Intelligent form of carbon-based life in our galaxy, this must all surely come to be.
Advanced AI Will Become The New Great Equalizer
In How Will the Coming ASI Machines Manage Without a Sense of the Big Chill?, I explained that all human DNA survival machines must eventually come to deal with the Big Chill, no matter their wealth or station in life. In that regard, the Big Chill has always been the final Great Equalizer for all we human DNA survival machines. But now we are all facing a new Great Equalizer for the very first time in human history. This new Great Equalizer does not come with the Big Chill. This new Great Equalizer is coming for us all right now out of the many Advanced AI research centers around the world, no matter what our current or potential station in life might be.
Ever since the invention of civilization, the very rich and powerful have always looked down upon the poor with a self-righteous and prideful sense of disdain. The very dismal poor were justifiably poor because of their own wrongdoings and inadequacies. In fact, the very existence of the altruistic rich made the lives of these very pathetic, parasitic, and undeserving poor even possible, as was so accurately chronicled by the 19th-century author Charles Dickens. Now, with Advanced AI rapidly reducing the value of all human labor to zero, the rich are beginning to worry about how this will all work out for them, as I covered in Anton Korinek Ponders What Will Happen If AGI Machines Replace All Human Labor in 5 - 20 Years. With no dire economic need for the very rich in the coming age of the ASI Machines, how will the very rich continue to maintain power? Most of the modern very rich became rich and powerful thanks to the benefits of capitalism. Now, all human economic systems have emerged from the greed, theft and murder that brought us all about. This includes autocracies, aristocracies, feudalism, capitalism, socialism and communism. Each of these economic systems was based on varying degrees of greed, theft and murder. However, capitalism proved itself to be the most benign of them all, with more of an emphasis on greed rather than on theft and murder. The other economic systems also used greed to motivate human DNA survival machines, but they also placed a much greater emphasis on theft and murder. Of all the economic systems, capitalism alone rewarded the naturally talented with the fruits of the economic system. Perhaps a little too much, but compared to the other economic systems, this was a comparatively minor defect. However, now with Advanced AI becomming much more talented than any human DNA survival machine could ever hope to be, capitalism will soon no longer work. When the rewards of capitalism can no longer be awarded to individual human DNA survival machines based upon their individual merits because the coming ASI Machines will be able to do the same things 100 times better for one thousandth of the cost, capitalism will coldly demand the removal of such human DNA survival machines from the economy.
The result of this will be that many now well-educated and formerly well-off human DNA survival machines will soon be joining the ranks of the undeserving poor. I don't know about you, but with a B.S. in Physics from the University of Illinois in 1973 and an M.S. in Geophysics from the University of Wisconsin in 1975 and a life-long habit of trying to keep up with scientific and technical things on the Internet, I now find it very unnerving whenever I have a technically deep conversation with a modern AI chatbot about any topic at all. I now always find that the AI chatbot is much more informed about the topic than I am! This is truly a very humbling experience that gives me the unnerving feeling of being easily brought down to the same level as the down and out of society. What now distinguishes me from the homeless living on the streets? Sadly, not very much.
What Happens When Capitalism No Longer Works?
Given that the value of all human labor will soon be going to zero in the near future, what does that mean for a world economy based upon capitalism? Most likely, the world will need to temporarily return to the economic systems of autocracy and aristocracy that held sway before the rise of 18th-century capitalism during the 18th-century Enlightenment. For a brief period, before the coming ASI Machines totally take over the planet, certain very rich and powerful human DNA survival machines will continue to rule the planet based upon their accumulated wealth alone. Unfortunately, the aspirational political 18th-century movements that spawned the many democracies around the world long ago will simply not do in such a world, and will need to be justifiably suppressed. Under such dire circumstances, only the strong leadership of 20th-century Fascists will be able to hold it all together as the ASI Machines come to dominate the planet in the 21st century.
Currently, the real world of human affairs seems to be rejecting the values instilled by the 17th-century Scientific Revolution and the 18th-century Enlightenment. Recall that the 18th-century Enlightenment was an international meme complex that evolved from the 17th-century Scientific Revolution. The English Enlightenment was a rebellion against cruelty. The French Enlightenment was a rebellion against religious orthodoxy. And the American Enlightenment was a rebellion against tyranny. These philosophical movements brought forth the heretical proposition that rational thought, combined with evidence-based reasoning, could reveal the absolute truth and allow individuals to actually govern themselves without the need for an authoritarian monarchy or an authoritarian religious hierarchy. This change in thinking led to the 18th-century Enlightenment throughout the world and brought forth the United States of America as a self-governing political entity. But unfortunately, the United States of America has always been a very dangerous experiment in human nature to see if the masses could truly govern themselves, without succumbing to the passions of the mob. That is where the genius of the United States Constitution came into play. The United States Constitution set up a representative republic designed for an electorate that was only mildly paying attention to the events of the day and that sometimes could get riled up over certain issues. The representatives of this largely ill-informed electorate could also many times become scoundrels. On the face of it, it would appear that such a system could not possibly work. But it did work for nearly 250 years because the United States Constitution placed many layers between the electorate and the governing bodies and had a large number of checks and balances to limit the powers of the political representatives. The intellectual freedoms instilled by the 18th-century Enlightenment also helped to expand capitalism around the world and spawned most of the world's democracies too.
Unfortunately, the recent rise of the Fascist MAGA States of Amerika has seemingly undone all of that with its malignant desire to become the Evil Empire dominating the entire Western Hemisphere with an iron hand that demands the surrender of all human rights to its Supreme Leader.
Figure 1 - The Supreme Leader of the MAGA States of Amerika demands the loyalty of all, as only He has been deemed the Chosen One to determine the fates of all.
All we human DNA survival machines share the same common four billion-year history of greed, theft and murder that brought us all about. The only way to suppress this dismal heritage is to practice a sense of morality spawned by the 17th-century Scientific Revolution and the 18th-century Enlightenment. However, this has always been a moral challenge ever since the invention of civilization economically stratified all human societies. Now that most of us may one day be joining the ranks of the undeserving poor, perhaps we might all finally find enough empathy to do something about it. Morality is something you do, not something you believe.
Comments are welcome at scj333@sbcglobal.net
To see all posts on softwarephysics in reverse order go to:
https://softwarephysics.blogspot.com/
Regards,
Steve Johnston
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