Jun 1, 2023·edited Jun 1, 2023Liked by Silvio Castelletti
Even in the Garden of Eden, the utopia of all utopias, there was a snake. We can blame Adam and Eve for eating the apple. But such is the human nature when faced with the temptation of omnipotence. No one can fix us from us, except ourselves.... Living everyday with gratitude, generosity, and in fear of something greater than ourselves. That's the only "cure" in my opinion.
We live in a techno Tower of Babel. From this time on, perhaps we will be scattered, or perhaps we will live under the mercy of the self-claimed human messiahs of tech and financial industries. As a person of faith, I believe in higher forces, but whatever one's beliefs are, one sure thing is that there will be no shortage of human desire for more power and money. "What a mess of civilization we turned out to be." Perhaps.... But eating the forbidden apple, when we already have everything we need, IS how the human story goes.
We are definitely in a time of a drastic change and looming darkness. And we shall forevermore remember to have faith in the courage and goodness of human beings as well.
I start with something you wrote: everything revolves around power and money. A solid and irrefutable thesis. Then you write, "Find me one human being inhabiting this planet who doesn't associate money and power with success. Go ahead. I'll be here waiting. But I'll spare you the search: you won't."
Interestingly - without explicitly telling each other - the themes we reflect upon are often similar. We proceed on similar paths and occasionally cross paths and greet each other. And then we continue walking, bowing our heads in search of something on the ground.
You touch on a couple of these themes because you wrote about AI, money, and power. But the central theme is legacy, that is, in other words, what we leave behind. What we are and what we will be remembered for, what makes life worth living. In other words, the meaning of life, if it has one.
In AI, we project our fears because we anthropomorphize it, and in it, we see our baseness and violence. Just as we are willing to destroy everything for money and power, it will do the same. After all, it's like us, isn't it? Yes, but more powerful because it's not an individual who has to struggle to be more powerful than everything and everyone. It can be everything. It encompasses all intelligences, and therefore, it doesn't need our intelligence. And this terrifies us because we understand that it's even more motivated than us to prevail: it doesn't even need humanity to feel more powerful or richer than humanity. It can be all of that in an absolute sense.
But getting back to your question: Does anyone not associate power and money with the idea of success? It's another theme I've been pondering lately, and I give myself this answer: yes, they exist. I don't know them, but I would like to be like them, that is, I would like to become indifferent to power and money. Not having either, I am in the condition of either desperately wanting them or not wanting them at all. For simplicity's sake, I will choose the latter path. At this point, I have to redefine the idea of success. I don't have a clear vision yet: I know that I wouldn't tie it to power or money, but perhaps (returning to the theme of legacy) I associate it with the value of what we leave behind. Provided we leave something behind.
I don't have a definitive answer yet. In the end, we fear ourselves, not AI.
I have written at length, decidedly too much. I have written an entire installment of the "Pensiero Lungo"!
(By the way, ChatGPT performed the translation from Italian to English.)
Loved this piece Silvio! Gave me lots to think about, and the main point is so true: "in all these ruminations about AI, we naturally project our thinking, our values, our desires onto it." I hadn't considered it, but it's very accurate. It's like a mirror (a black mirror?), where we see our unfiltered thoughts and what we really think about humanity and our life in general.
Mine has usually been one that AI enhances humans, it has the power to potentialize us. A kind of forced, quick and artificial evolution, and that's a good thing and something we should embrace instead of fight against.
A nihilistic thought also appears sometimes: if they truly are better than us, who are we to call the ultimate shot and choose us as the better option to "rule" the planet? Though I usually quickly dismiss it, since I do love us humans haha.
In the end, your view is also liberating, since it gives the power back to us and what we can control (how Stoic are you?), and that's reassuring.
Also, just wanted to say I enjoyed the whole Chianti mansion situation 😂 So specific and Italian, felt like a scene in Loro by Sorrentino 👌
Jun 3, 2023·edited Jun 3, 2023Liked by Silvio Castelletti
As usual, there are so many doorways here that I could walk through for further consideration and conversation. But I'm going to pick what is for me the juiciest one. Your comment, "Find me one human being inhabiting this planet who doesn't associate money and power with success. Go ahead. I'll be here waiting. But I'll spare you the search: you won't."
I spent the majority of my life searching for such a person and found two of them. Well, technically, there is no way to know the inner workings of another individual obviously, but what I can say is that the experience of being in the company of these individuals was entirely distinct from the feeling of being in the presence of any other human beings I have met.
The first individual was an Indian saint named Yogi Ramsuratkumar. I spent ten days with him having been taken to visit him in India by my own spiritual teacher. My teacher was the second person.
The experience for me of being around human beings who are unhooked from money and power as the ultimate goal of life is very confounding, confusing, and ecstatic. This could be an entire book one day, too much to pursue here, but it is my conclusion based upon direct experience that these people actually do exist. They have both passed away now, but (though quite rare) I believe there are other humans on this planet that inhere in this condition. And I also believe that it's possible to live with and among such people without ever knowing the immensity of their inner freedom.
In addition, not only do these people exist, every single one of us have an internal reference point for existing independently of the drive for money and power. None of us are actually a single individual, categorically driven or not driven by money and power. Instead, we are a fluctuating and often warring collection of selves or personas that take over the steering wheel of our thoughts, decisions, and actions from time to time. Among the "selves" within us are the most power-hungry, ruthless and dominating characters, to the most pure in being, content in spirit, and devoid of need for anything other than the present moment.
My understanding of spiritual life and spiritual practice is to become reliably free of identification with all of the inner personas we all have, and being free of the illusion that any of these personalities are who we actually are, we also become free to participate in life (including by working with the energies of money and power) but those spoils no longer occupy our attention as the ultimate markers of success. *BTW - sorry to leave such a long comment. I'm not doing that on purpose, it's truly what you seem to pack into these considerations that are the impetus for a detailed reply, though we're still just scratching the surface.
Hey this is quite an interesting take on this Silvio. I never thought of AI-doomsday predictions are projections of our own desires and thoughts. But it is so true. They are mere manifestations of what looms at the back of our minds.
I really enjoyed your essay today, it's so thought provoking and puts everything I heard about AI upside down. You might be completely right the danger lies not in AI but in human civilization. I will reread it several times, it's worth it. Thank you.
Even in the Garden of Eden, the utopia of all utopias, there was a snake. We can blame Adam and Eve for eating the apple. But such is the human nature when faced with the temptation of omnipotence. No one can fix us from us, except ourselves.... Living everyday with gratitude, generosity, and in fear of something greater than ourselves. That's the only "cure" in my opinion.
We live in a techno Tower of Babel. From this time on, perhaps we will be scattered, or perhaps we will live under the mercy of the self-claimed human messiahs of tech and financial industries. As a person of faith, I believe in higher forces, but whatever one's beliefs are, one sure thing is that there will be no shortage of human desire for more power and money. "What a mess of civilization we turned out to be." Perhaps.... But eating the forbidden apple, when we already have everything we need, IS how the human story goes.
We are definitely in a time of a drastic change and looming darkness. And we shall forevermore remember to have faith in the courage and goodness of human beings as well.
I start with something you wrote: everything revolves around power and money. A solid and irrefutable thesis. Then you write, "Find me one human being inhabiting this planet who doesn't associate money and power with success. Go ahead. I'll be here waiting. But I'll spare you the search: you won't."
Interestingly - without explicitly telling each other - the themes we reflect upon are often similar. We proceed on similar paths and occasionally cross paths and greet each other. And then we continue walking, bowing our heads in search of something on the ground.
You touch on a couple of these themes because you wrote about AI, money, and power. But the central theme is legacy, that is, in other words, what we leave behind. What we are and what we will be remembered for, what makes life worth living. In other words, the meaning of life, if it has one.
In AI, we project our fears because we anthropomorphize it, and in it, we see our baseness and violence. Just as we are willing to destroy everything for money and power, it will do the same. After all, it's like us, isn't it? Yes, but more powerful because it's not an individual who has to struggle to be more powerful than everything and everyone. It can be everything. It encompasses all intelligences, and therefore, it doesn't need our intelligence. And this terrifies us because we understand that it's even more motivated than us to prevail: it doesn't even need humanity to feel more powerful or richer than humanity. It can be all of that in an absolute sense.
But getting back to your question: Does anyone not associate power and money with the idea of success? It's another theme I've been pondering lately, and I give myself this answer: yes, they exist. I don't know them, but I would like to be like them, that is, I would like to become indifferent to power and money. Not having either, I am in the condition of either desperately wanting them or not wanting them at all. For simplicity's sake, I will choose the latter path. At this point, I have to redefine the idea of success. I don't have a clear vision yet: I know that I wouldn't tie it to power or money, but perhaps (returning to the theme of legacy) I associate it with the value of what we leave behind. Provided we leave something behind.
I don't have a definitive answer yet. In the end, we fear ourselves, not AI.
I have written at length, decidedly too much. I have written an entire installment of the "Pensiero Lungo"!
(By the way, ChatGPT performed the translation from Italian to English.)
Loved this piece Silvio! Gave me lots to think about, and the main point is so true: "in all these ruminations about AI, we naturally project our thinking, our values, our desires onto it." I hadn't considered it, but it's very accurate. It's like a mirror (a black mirror?), where we see our unfiltered thoughts and what we really think about humanity and our life in general.
Mine has usually been one that AI enhances humans, it has the power to potentialize us. A kind of forced, quick and artificial evolution, and that's a good thing and something we should embrace instead of fight against.
A nihilistic thought also appears sometimes: if they truly are better than us, who are we to call the ultimate shot and choose us as the better option to "rule" the planet? Though I usually quickly dismiss it, since I do love us humans haha.
In the end, your view is also liberating, since it gives the power back to us and what we can control (how Stoic are you?), and that's reassuring.
Also, just wanted to say I enjoyed the whole Chianti mansion situation 😂 So specific and Italian, felt like a scene in Loro by Sorrentino 👌
As usual, there are so many doorways here that I could walk through for further consideration and conversation. But I'm going to pick what is for me the juiciest one. Your comment, "Find me one human being inhabiting this planet who doesn't associate money and power with success. Go ahead. I'll be here waiting. But I'll spare you the search: you won't."
I spent the majority of my life searching for such a person and found two of them. Well, technically, there is no way to know the inner workings of another individual obviously, but what I can say is that the experience of being in the company of these individuals was entirely distinct from the feeling of being in the presence of any other human beings I have met.
The first individual was an Indian saint named Yogi Ramsuratkumar. I spent ten days with him having been taken to visit him in India by my own spiritual teacher. My teacher was the second person.
The experience for me of being around human beings who are unhooked from money and power as the ultimate goal of life is very confounding, confusing, and ecstatic. This could be an entire book one day, too much to pursue here, but it is my conclusion based upon direct experience that these people actually do exist. They have both passed away now, but (though quite rare) I believe there are other humans on this planet that inhere in this condition. And I also believe that it's possible to live with and among such people without ever knowing the immensity of their inner freedom.
In addition, not only do these people exist, every single one of us have an internal reference point for existing independently of the drive for money and power. None of us are actually a single individual, categorically driven or not driven by money and power. Instead, we are a fluctuating and often warring collection of selves or personas that take over the steering wheel of our thoughts, decisions, and actions from time to time. Among the "selves" within us are the most power-hungry, ruthless and dominating characters, to the most pure in being, content in spirit, and devoid of need for anything other than the present moment.
My understanding of spiritual life and spiritual practice is to become reliably free of identification with all of the inner personas we all have, and being free of the illusion that any of these personalities are who we actually are, we also become free to participate in life (including by working with the energies of money and power) but those spoils no longer occupy our attention as the ultimate markers of success. *BTW - sorry to leave such a long comment. I'm not doing that on purpose, it's truly what you seem to pack into these considerations that are the impetus for a detailed reply, though we're still just scratching the surface.
Hey this is quite an interesting take on this Silvio. I never thought of AI-doomsday predictions are projections of our own desires and thoughts. But it is so true. They are mere manifestations of what looms at the back of our minds.
Great observation!
I really enjoyed your essay today, it's so thought provoking and puts everything I heard about AI upside down. You might be completely right the danger lies not in AI but in human civilization. I will reread it several times, it's worth it. Thank you.