No, I'm not on drugs writing this.
Humans really are an interesting bunch. And there happens to be a lot of weird, interesting stuff going on in the world that I think some bitcoiners like myself can be naturally drawn to.
Let me ask you a weird question: How do I know that I'm not just writing to AI right now? How do I know it's you -- a human -- not some robot?
Have you noticed an uptick in enthusiam about LK-99, superconductors, and other various word salads lately that likely have ~0 importance to the people writing about it online?
And beyond niche social media, have you noticed yourself or others more exposed to all different kinds of political movements, tragedies, random trains crashing and spilling toxic chemicals, wildfires, or various wars across the globe?
How much collective mindshare in the US has gotten caught up in Ukraine/Russia propaganda? How many random Ukraine flags have suddenly sprung up on people's front porches??
Probably less than 1% of the people talking about Ukraine online actually understand or care about anything that's going on there.
The point of my rambling is that the world, and particularly the US, is going through a bit (major) of an identity crisis.
The internet fundamentally changed our psyche in ways that humans won't realize till long after we're dead. New ideas, beliefs, cultures, and values are more accessible than ever before, and have exposed billions of people to far more information than our ancestors had ever access to.
There's an endless plethora of good and bad ideas out there that humans can "identify" with, but as our identities continue to overlap more and more with others, it becomes easier than ever to lose all sense of identity to begin with.
The result, particularly what wee see in the US, is wokeism, anti-wokeism (which includes plenty of bitcoiners online), shitcoiners, less policing, worsening city conditions -- they're all many results of a declining identity.
Data from the Visual Capitalist really makes this crystal clear. Click on the link for the animation to see it separate over time.
Notice the separation in the peaks between what's considered the "median" Dem or Repub over time:
It's so easy to get washed away in it all -- caught up in the latest political movements, arguing with strangers online about something neither of you know anything about, larping about wildfires or UFOs, being manipulated into caring about every issue in the world enough to distract you from working on yourself and what you can control.
Over the long term, it's clear that, while various political structures can offer better or worse living conditions to live within, technology is ultimately what raises quality of life across the globe.
Governments merely try (and mostly fail) to "manage" the people they've assumed authority over for generations.
Tensions are rising all over the place, like here in West Africa, apparently. You or I would've probably never learned or thought about any of this stuff if we were born without the internet.
Ukraine and Russia are beefing. China's probably gonna invade Taiwan. Etc. etc..
All this rising tension just highlights the problem: we're losing ourselves. And the identity crisis has and will keep getting more people hurt.
Artificial intelligence of course doesn't help this fact. But at the same time, it does.
AI & Humanity: A Harmonious or Dissonant Combination?
As AI continues its rise to the top of the technological food chain, humans naturally worry about their future place in the world. Watch Bryan Cranston's recent speech at the SAG-AFTRA strike (yet another random event I'd have zero exposure to had it not been for the internet).
It's a 2-minute clip. 0:49 for the relevant section.
Film and TV workers want [insert corporation that's not the real problem here] to "hear us and listen to us when we tell you:
We will not be having our jobs taken away and given to robots!
We will not have you take away our right to work and earn a decent living!
And lastly, and most importantly, we will not allow you take away our dignity!"
Perhaps our angst is not over the fact that AI will replace us, it's that our humanity has already been replaced.
Humans in the 21st century rarely live as our biological roots intended. And it's driving us mad.
The vast majority of people already operate rather robotically, carrying out operational tasks assigned by higher authorities. It's as if you're their own ChatGPT, just waiting for the prompts to follow your next action.
I'm sure some 9-5ers out there can understand this. It's monotonous, and it feels unnatural (for me, at least).
Now this isn't to bad talk 9-5s. That structure can be really great for people, and certainly can work well to bring people a fulfilling life.
I'm just saying that for the most part, we're on the payroll's clock, not nature's. We're so distracted by our next deadline or the "current thing" that we don't have time to go smell the roses very often.
Certainly, there are millions out there who've escaped the rat race and can live more on their own terms, but I'm speaking to the majority here.
All the fear surrounding AI, while certainly understandable, perhaps is more of a reflection of the frustration society has with the standard right now: Robotic. Meticulous. Calculated. Planned. We don't like feeling like we're becoming more useless.
And certainly there are endless culprits to blame for it.
We bitcoiners probably like this one:
Let's not get cocky and act like it's the only problem though.
But anyways,
Let's just zoom out a bit.
When's the last time you took a weekend off to go rock climbing with friends? Two months off to go walk the El Camino? Three years off to go provide company and care for your elderly parents in their home country?
How often do you have the freedom to do something like that? Most people can't even dream of doing these things frequently.
Taking a step back and looking at humanity, technological growth, history, etc., it becomes clear how incredibly narrow our worldviews must be regarding what's possible for the typical "human experience."
Just separate the ego from it: we're just a mere 200,000 year old mammal. Obviously we don't know it all. No one is arguing that we have problems to work out.
In the 21st century, most of the world lives by the rhythm of their paychecks. Perhaps in the 22nd century, we won't even have paychecks anymore. What about the 99th century? The 500th? What does the human day-to-day look like then? Movies won't even exist then Bryan.
A harsh-sounding reality we probably do psychologically have to face is that humans can be bottlenecks in a lot of operations.
We figured that out long ago with assembly lines, but we're quickly learning the same can be true for restaurant workers, TV and film producers, veterinarians, coders, writers, editors, etc...
Now, some people can take this WAY too far. I've been noticing a lot more "transhumanism" thinking among some loud voices online ever since AI tech has taken off this year:
We obviously don't want to start growing babies out of pods and usher in a full on Matrix dystopia, but I can optimistically recognize that despite inevitable job "losses", AI, Bitcoin, Superconductors(?), and a whole host of new technology will bring unheard of abundance to the world, relative to today.
Look beyond job losses -- look at the trend -- we're becoming less reliant on jobs altogether, while becoming exponentially wealthier.
We stopped shoveling kids into coal mines with grown men, we're probably also gonna get teenagers out of the McDonald's drive thru too. Great. Now we're wealthier, and these kids have more capacity to learn and earn doing what they want to do, not what they have to do.
It's a tale as old as time that will probably continue.
The key here is: technology is enabling us to recoup the time we had prior to placing so many systems on top of ourselves over the millennia.
AI in the form of labor.
Bitcoin in the form of money.
I'm sure you can think of others.
So, no, Bryan Cranston won't his ability to write and produce cinema. AI will free him up to spend as much time and energy as he wants working on the most important things to him, whether that be storytelling, or dropping Hollywood altogether and truly living out the meth-cooking dream.
Obviously, it's a long road to get to this point. Future generations will probably be the ones to truly experience and appreciate it. But the internet needs more damn optimists. Negativity spreads far too easily in the 21st century mind.
There really wasn't any sort of grandiose conclusion to this, but here are some
Questions I have for you:
Am I wrong about all this? Are things really, really about to go to shit?
Is it a good thing that national identity is breaking down? Is it not?
How else is the internet changing our culture, on a global scale?
Will AI not dominate as much as we anticipate it to? Will it dominate even more than we think?
What's your take on transhumanism? Where do we draw the line between human vs. robot?
How does money tie into culture? How will Bitcoin revitalize a fiat culture?