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When it comes to "humans collectively..." kind of grand scheme issues, I just can't take the risk of AI making us stupider too seriously, compared to: - Wars a

When it comes to "humans collectively..." kind of grand scheme issues, I just can't take the risk of AI making us stupider too seriously, compared to: - Wars and violence to resolve geopolitical problems - The biggest trading partner of most countries is waging tariff warfare - Climate change - Declining birth rate in almost every country - Healthier foods are getting more expensive despite our technology and nutrition knowledge [0] I'm not saying there is 0 chance that AI will make people dumb, but it just doesn't seem to be such an emergency humans should collectively be worried about. [0] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpql53p9w14o.amp https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpql53p9w14o.amp

justonceokay 1y ago
I don’t want to nitpick but the declining birthrate is almost certainly driven by us becoming smarter, not dumber. In most countries the birthrate was propped up heavily by teen pregnancy, which the internet and access to healthcare is slowly eradicating worldwide. If we as humans can’t maintain our current population without getting high schoolers pregnant, then so be it.
- raincole 1y ago
  I didn't say declining birth rate is a result of people being dumber. And I also don't think higher education necessarily means smarter. I'm quite confident that in the next decade, worldwide educational attainment will keep rising with only some temporary setbacks. If making people smart is as simple as sending them to colleges we really have nothing to worry about. But anyway neither was my point.
foxglacier 1y ago
You've been reading too much news. There are global societal risks but they're not just whatever the popular bogeymen of hour are supposed to be. Some of your concerns might even be backwards. I doubt you've critically thought about any of these and are just regurgitating what was fed to you. If you lived in an earlier time, you'd be worrying about the rise of homosexuality, communism, atheism, etc.
- raincole 1y ago
  The exact same argument can be made for people who claiming AI would make us dumber: If they lived in an earlier time, they'd be worrying about the rise of google, the internet, tv, radio... were going to make people stop using their brains. Socrates believed writing was going to make people stop memorizing stuff. I'm not a doomsayer who thinks the world is on the edge of collapsing. But I do think the issues I listed are much more 'real' than AI making people stop thinking. (Including the birth rate one - yeah, I'm well aware that many people think it's a good thing. As someone whose mother worked at a nursing home, in a country with TFR of 0.78, I just don't agree with them. I believe people hugely underestimate the manpower needed to take care of the elderly and disabled.)
  - questionableans 1y ago
    At a global level, a more reasonably sized human population is exactly what we need, and a decline in birth rate is the most ethical way to achieve that. We have to find a way to make it work, because otherwise our trajectory takes us beyond the carrying capacity for our planet. There are three things we need to deal with the temporary population imbalance: Older people who remain healthy continuing to work to care for their peers—-not necessarily hard physical labor, but being out in their communities helping, which is rewarding and will help them stay healthy, too. Easy immigration for regular people so they can move to where they’re needed. General efficiency so we’re not wasting resources. This requires both technological and lifestyle changes, even for the rich. The more efficient we can get, the less we have to reduce our overall population.
    - 1718627440 1y ago
      Okay, that sounds like a reasonable plan, but this also means that we need to stop the decline at some point, and this is not currently a solved problems since that's what governments try to achieve right now. Also the decline happens in the regions were not much decline is needed and in regions were it would be needed the population is currently increasing. Also population growth was how we have dealt with technological shifts in the past, so we need a new way for that.

justonceokay 1y ago

I don’t want to nitpick but the declining birthrate is almost certainly driven by us becoming smarter, not dumber. In most countries the birthrate was propped up heavily by teen pregnancy, which the internet and access to healthcare is slowly eradicating worldwide. If we as humans can’t maintain our current population without getting high schoolers pregnant, then so be it.

raincole 1y ago
I didn't say declining birth rate is a result of people being dumber. And I also don't think higher education necessarily means smarter. I'm quite confident that in the next decade, worldwide educational attainment will keep rising with only some temporary setbacks. If making people smart is as simple as sending them to colleges we really have nothing to worry about. But anyway neither was my point.

foxglacier 1y ago

You've been reading too much news. There are global societal risks but they're not just whatever the popular bogeymen of hour are supposed to be. Some of your concerns might even be backwards. I doubt you've critically thought about any of these and are just regurgitating what was fed to you. If you lived in an earlier time, you'd be worrying about the rise of homosexuality, communism, atheism, etc.

raincole 1y ago
The exact same argument can be made for people who claiming AI would make us dumber: If they lived in an earlier time, they'd be worrying about the rise of google, the internet, tv, radio... were going to make people stop using their brains. Socrates believed writing was going to make people stop memorizing stuff. I'm not a doomsayer who thinks the world is on the edge of collapsing. But I do think the issues I listed are much more 'real' than AI making people stop thinking. (Including the birth rate one - yeah, I'm well aware that many people think it's a good thing. As someone whose mother worked at a nursing home, in a country with TFR of 0.78, I just don't agree with them. I believe people hugely underestimate the manpower needed to take care of the elderly and disabled.)
- questionableans 1y ago
  At a global level, a more reasonably sized human population is exactly what we need, and a decline in birth rate is the most ethical way to achieve that. We have to find a way to make it work, because otherwise our trajectory takes us beyond the carrying capacity for our planet. There are three things we need to deal with the temporary population imbalance: Older people who remain healthy continuing to work to care for their peers—-not necessarily hard physical labor, but being out in their communities helping, which is rewarding and will help them stay healthy, too. Easy immigration for regular people so they can move to where they’re needed. General efficiency so we’re not wasting resources. This requires both technological and lifestyle changes, even for the rich. The more efficient we can get, the less we have to reduce our overall population.
  - 1718627440 1y ago
    Okay, that sounds like a reasonable plan, but this also means that we need to stop the decline at some point, and this is not currently a solved problems since that's what governments try to achieve right now. Also the decline happens in the regions were not much decline is needed and in regions were it would be needed the population is currently increasing. Also population growth was how we have dealt with technological shifts in the past, so we need a new way for that.