The Blindness of the 1%

I believe few would argue against the notion that humans are their own worst enemy. Of course when we’re talking about MAGA types (whether Red or Blue) most would rush to agree (excluding themselves of course). What is fascinating about this entire idea is that no group that is volitionally blind to truth believes it is so as to them . Instead, there is plenty of finger pointing, knowing nods and chuckles aimed at “those” people. Most interesting to me however are the self-absorbed ultra-wealthy who’ve worked long and hard to show that they are somehow exempt from this human flaw - they aren’t.

In general, when members of the ultra-wealthy of this world reach a point where they begin to believe they’re immune to unwanted events they eventually get a very rude awakening Unfortunately for them they rarely see it coming. Today, the ultra-wealthy are working overtime to create a world where they are no longer dependent on the folks who actually work. Servants, factory workers, repairmen, law enforcement, military and so on will be eliminated by AI driven bots capable of performing “menial” tasks. What are those tasks? That’s where the fun begins.

In the dream world of the ultra-rich, mundane, everyday tasks will be performed by various machines “taught” to do such things and physically manufactured to do so. A robotic executive chef will obtain ingredients delivered by a self-driving vehicle after being “shopped” by insect-like robots that retrieve them and send them on their way. While it’s certainly true that such a scenario has been “in the works” for actual decades that fact doesn’t seem to impact those blinded by such a vision.

The raw materials that have driven our world for decades are still primarily mined by humans. Without this vital first step, largely excluded in their fantasy world, the rest is largely psychic trash. Sure, there are now robotic police dogs easily made deadly with some modified firearms and drones (operated by humans) fitted with firearms to menace and manage crowds but humans, so far, still control those robots. That is not to mention that the underlings who construct and operate all of these wonderful “wealth preservation” apparati are, regardless of how well paid, also human.

The ultra-wealthy now believe that “AI,” about which they have very little understanding, can somehow surmount all problems associated with the “human” question. Anyone who’s ever monkeyed with writing a program in Basic or, worse, punch cards, can understand that AI pretty much boils down to “more code. The fact the code can be very complex only underscores the misunderstood nature of coding for AI.

The possibility that a truly self-aware, independent, human looking robot will be created and functional is likely at least 100 years away. That presumes someone’s figured out a solution to what I call the Sophist Problem. Prior to Socrates, Sophists spent a lot of time trying to explain to their “students” that the subjectivity of human existence precludes us from comprehending and communicating any external thing or concept in a perfectly objective way. Even then, it is all but impossible for any other person to “receive” the communication in a perfectly objective way. The net result of this is a flavor of the solipsism Descartes so tried to avoid. ANY AI will always be skewed toward the perspective of its ultimate developer. In the meantime, I suggest the other 99+% of us start getting ready to put the ultra-wealthy in their place, becoming the foundation for our species’ next vault forward, maybe something like the events of 1789.