We in the “developed” world have inherited an enormous treasure chest…
… of labor-saving technologies and healing medicines… safe drinking water and grocery stores… smart phones and air conditioning… automobiles, airplanes, and weather satellites… literacy, libraries, free speech, and entertainment on demand… to name but a few.
I’d never refuse to enjoy or employ any of these conveniences, luxuries, and liberties…
… but at what cost? And to what end? I am compelled to ask.
more like this… Existential Humanism
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I have asked myself this question, too, Frank; especially as AI has found its way to take for itself more of the human capacities and skills that make us independent. Think of choosing a home at a reasonable price or planning a trip. Add research on almost anything that we learned how to do beginning in grade school. Writing an eloquent sentence of our own has AI looking over our shoulders to make it sound better and organized properly.
Time. We do not think about it, but we make an enormous number of decisions with hardly a thought about the skills the machines have and will cost us. Other things are taken for granted. You mentioned free speech, now under terrific pressure. Thanks for raising this existential issue.