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> Problem is, the whole damn thing is so complicated that we cannot know anything really definitive about it. You can say the same things about human societies

> Problem is, the whole damn thing is so complicated that we cannot know anything really definitive about it. You can say the same things about human societies and nature. Both can be extremely dangerous and all the things you've said about complex computer systems apply to them. > it's extremely successful at swallowing the world and convincing us to feed it more and more CPU, RAM, disk, data. because IT (what a pun) adds a lot of value. > But it will win. I don't know what you mean by that. It's still a tool, although we give up some control so it can manage a part of our society. Historically, this was a task for the elite (it still is) - a bunch of people who had some privileges. Most give up some control or freedom so that the elite can manage the society. If things went bad, the masses were able to defend themselves most of the time (guillotine and good ol' pitchfork) - Marx talks about this eternal cycle. I would rather worry about elites that build immense power through technology - today we have tools of mass manipulation and destruction. I don't fear intelligent machines, I fear that humans use those tools to entrench their power. I think this ambiguous fear of technology you're describing is too vague - it sounds more like mild technophobia.

DanielBMarkham 8y ago
"> Problem is, the whole damn thing is so complicated that we cannot know anything really definitive about it. You can say the same things about human societies and nature." You can, but the thing is, we already know a lot about how that works. We've evolved into it over millions of years. We have no idea about this new stuff. You want to talk about about small groups of 100-150 or so people work together to accomplish something? I've got hundreds of books, stories, history, archaeology. We have the wisdom of the ages. You want to talk about how 20 thousand semi-intelligent agents interact with billions? We have nothing aside from endless optimism and the fun of making stuff. (Doesn't make it bad. It means we should grow the hell up and be a bit reticent about what we're mucking around with. Make smaller mistakes more quickly would be my advice.)

DanielBMarkham 8y ago

"> Problem is, the whole damn thing is so complicated that we cannot know anything really definitive about it. You can say the same things about human societies and nature." You can, but the thing is, we already know a lot about how that works. We've evolved into it over millions of years. We have no idea about this new stuff. You want to talk about about small groups of 100-150 or so people work together to accomplish something? I've got hundreds of books, stories, history, archaeology. We have the wisdom of the ages. You want to talk about how 20 thousand semi-intelligent agents interact with billions? We have nothing aside from endless optimism and the fun of making stuff. (Doesn't make it bad. It means we should grow the hell up and be a bit reticent about what we're mucking around with. Make smaller mistakes more quickly would be my advice.)