What precious thing do I owe an AI? What precious thing is an AI giving me?
Perhaps this is a thing that seems one way to us now, but will seem quite another way to the next generations.
For instance: to my parents, and many boomers and older, btc is a bridge too far -- it's foreign in fundamental ways; the idea of money-as-ledger, which a person 'posesses' when they know a large number, vs paper that comes from the government, is a bridge too far. And yet, if you grow up where this idea has been at least sort-of mainstream, perhaps you adapt. Bitcoiners sure have invested a lot of hope that it will prove to be the case.
For a more culture-warry example, it appears that far greater numbers of Gen-Z than I would have ever dreamed possible seem to have a hell of a lot of wiggle room in who they want to fuck, or what gender even is and implies. Whether you think this is a perverse state of affairs, or what you believe to be the source of this shift, is beside the point. It's a re-thinking of a way of being in the world that many were not ready for.
So perhaps how much we care about human-ness will also prove more fluid than it seems now. I know I have some conversations w/ LLMs that I would be delighted to have with friends. In some cases I feel a real fondness for my conversational partner, even though I know there's no consciousness on the other side of it.
Perhaps this is a fixation our descendants will find quaint.
I think you're right. I'm fixing the world view of future people to our current world view. It's like I'm being pre-nostalgic or something. I usually pride myself on not needing to wish things are familiar or simple but I made that mistake here without even noticing it.
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