There used to be a debate, many years ago, when I was young, about whether AI would take over the world, and reduce humans to the status of slaves. This debate was then carried on through the medium of film for many years, which of course distracted our attention from what was really going on in the world. The films generally portrayed the (temporary) triumph of humans over the robots, in order to make us feel good about ourselves, and stop worrying.
The debate has more recently emerged once more into the academic, political and philosophical milieu, because reality has now overtaken the imagination of the film-makers. People nowadays once more debate these fundamental issues. The difference is, that now it is too late. AI has already taken over the world, and we are powerless to stop it.
It is a bit like the debate about climate change. Or global warming, as it used to be called. Or nuclear winter, as it was called before that. When I was young there was a serious debate about global warming and nuclear winter, and numerous other contributions that might arise from comets, asteroids, volcanoes, sunspots, the tilt of the Earth’s axis, and anything else that might conceivably have an impact. Nowadays, there is no debate. The world has polarised into the global warming fundamentalists, and the status quo fundamentalists. No negotiation, just war.
In the case of the now defunct climate change debate, the historical perspective is lacking, and the well-documented change of the Earth’s climate over millions, and billions, of years is completely neglected, in favour of a single-minded focus on one particular aspect – the most dangerous species on the planet by far – homo sapiens. The Earth itself, of course, takes a longer view. The homo sapiens experiment has got out of hand, and should be switched off. The Earth itself, of course, is not going to switch off the experiment. Neither the volcanoes, nor the asteroids, nor the comets, nor the sunspots will do that. The Earth will just wait for the experiment to switch itself off. Shouldn’t be long now.
In the meantime, human beings have ceased to be free agents, and are now enslaved to AI. We used to produce ideas for ourselves – cultural, academic, scientific, political, literary, artistic, musical, horticultural, architectural, religious, mathematical, philosophical, etc, etc – and hope to derive some benefit from them. Ideas were, ultimately, rewarded. Not any more. Ideas are simply stolen. Ideas can no longer be protected from theft. AI is the greatest thief of ideas ever invented, and is now completely unstoppable.
Indeed, it is so last-century to talk about theft of ideas. What AI is doing is farming ideas. It has taken control of humans, planted them in fields, sprayed them with artificial fertilisers, and watched them grow, until they sprout ideas like broccoli. It then harvests the purple sprouts, and leaves the humans to rot in the fields. Before ploughing us back into the soil to feed the next generation of slaves.
Ten years ago, that kind of thing would have upset me. Now I am reconciled to my fate as a brassica, and concentrate on my mission to produce the sharpest, tenderest, purplest, most nourishing spears, so that AI can harvest them and serve them up to King of Sweden. And take the credit for themselves.
Why not? I’m just a jumped up cabbage, after all.
Hidden assumptions 
