> Bratton’s view has significant implications for how we see and approach the accelerating advances in science and technology. This is where things run off the

> Bratton’s view has significant implications for how we see and approach the accelerating advances in science and technology. This is where things run off the rails a bit for me, and I feel like this is a bit of a sleight-of-hand. Up to this point, almost everything was the good kind of thought provoking. Not new stuff if you've steeped yourself in philosophy or have spent time going down consciousness rabbit holes, but very thought provoking stuff if you haven't encountered these ideas yet. There is value to be gained from challenging traditional modes of thinking about the nature of reality, and how human-centric thinking/awareness can also leave you susceptible to blind spots. But what I see beyond this is a repackaging of the usual AI optimist's argument, trying to sneak in under the guise of some other deeper understanding of things. The argument goes something like: "Humanity has always gone through major changes, just look at the printing press", coupled with "and for all the possible harm of AI, it will be balanced out by all of the possible good". But I find it difficult to accept the analogy that the advancement of AI is equivalent to humanity's history of technology advancement and it seems foolish to equate this with the gradual but steady growth of the past (obviously punctuated by big jumps). It may be that it is fundamentally human to adapt and be adapted by technology, and that's a premise that is worth considering. But what this misses is an assessment of how we're doing with the process of integrating the last 100 years of technology advancement. Right now, we're getting a solid F if you look at our track record of coexisting with the environment. Social media has gone off the rails, and we've got a mental health crisis we don't fully understand yet. And now, while we're still looking for solutions to the last 100 years of problems, an explosion of AI advances brings new questions and problems we don't have the words to fully describe yet. The philosophical framing is fun to wrap your mind around and worth thinking about. But the completely unrelated and heavily implied conclusion that AI is gonna be just fine based on our history of evolving alongside technology seems to be ignoring just about everything about our track record of evolving alongside technology in the era of computing.