DaveW-rote:
Steve Smith's use of the phrase "arms race" reminded me of John
Brunner's /Shockwave Rider /and its underlying premise of the
dangers of constant change, 'first the legs race, then the arms
race, then the brain race'. (Brunner was inspired by Tofler's
book, /Future Shock/.)
My biggest takeaway from /Shockwave Rider/ was the *collectivizing* of
Intell (igence?) via /Hearing Aid/10-9//s /as well as the power of
"witness" it offered to the "witnessed". The ideation of a small set
of people collectively listening to the pulse of the bulk populace as a
social/mental-health service yielding the residue of a sort of
collective wisdom/awareness in the subset is reminiscent of both the NSA
and of the LLMs.
I have read it thrice, I think it is time for a revisit. It was written
in the shadow of Nixon/Allende as we are (still) in the shadow of
Trump/Zelenskyy? I think my second read was in 1984 in "honor of"
Orwells 1948 novel of that name (1984) coming of age.
I think my last read was circa 2010 near the beginning of the
smart-phone era and the death of the landline.
The book also poses a problem: if you have two bodies in orbit,
how does one catch up or surpass the other. /"See you later
accelerator,"/ illustrates the perceived fallacy of these kinds of
"races."
The current AI mania is akin to the brain race in Brunner, except,
in the book, the race was to increase/augment human intelligence
not artificial.
I wonder where the world might be if the same effort and money
that has been spent on artificial intelligence had instead been
invested in Englebart's effort to augment human intelligence.
I am not AS interested in /Intelligence/ as I am perhaps in
/Consciousness /which of course, the discussion of, is an entirely
different kettle of eels.
- SteveS
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