New Boogeyman, Same Symptom
Spider Jerusalem was onto something when he came down from the mountain and walked back into the city. We're staring at it right now with the AI boom and the fantastical claims about SpaceX and similar wondrous claims in the technology space.
In his column "I Hate It Here", he's constantly surrounded by fantastic technology, the cure for major addictions and an incredibly corrupt political structure. At the same time, he's a horrible addict, misogynist, and very often an asshole. The line that captures his sentiment is the one that he uses as an excuse for leaving in the first place.
"I couldn't get at the truth anymore." — Warren Ellis, Transmetropolitan, Vol. 1: Back on the Street (1998)
It's the line that I can't forget, and it's the same feeling I've been kicking around for almost a decade. I think there are a lot of lessons to learn from the whole comic, but the point that seems the clearest is the fact that technology, while powerful in itself, is useless to a public that can't and won't leverage it for good. Sometimes it takes a flawed messenger to break through the noise of a perfect lie.
In a world where measles, polio, and other previously thought eradicated diseases are kicking around New York City sewers, AI is invading the workplace and killing entry-level jobs. We are collectively choosing not to own our responsibility in changing these outcomes. The weakness was never technology, it is people. Your parents, siblings, and neighbors are being abused by moneyed interests. That's the truth in an age where opinion dominates fact. We have sacrificed the community for the self.
As Seneca highlighted over a thousand years ago, the main problem we face today is this:
"Worse yet, we have the authority of grown men but the faults of children, of infants even." — Seneca, Letters on Ethics: To Lucilius (64)
Me, for example, I'm sitting here chain smoking while typing out what really amounts to a shout into the void. I know it isn't effective, and I know the downsides of smoking. People are not built for making the right decisions, only for what they feel like they need at the moment. We have grown up to be children without any true guiding principles and we need a way to navigate back to the street and start marching toward the truth again.
People want the autonomy to say what goes into their bodies, their tools, and their communities. That's fair. You can't have public school without vaccines, and you can't have a working political system without facts. You don't get healthy lungs from filling them with smoke. When you give up yourself for a political identity, you get overrun by what you encourage.
AI is here, it's not going away. Now we're facing the same ethical questions as every other tool we've ever invented. New boogeyman, same symptom. What I would like to highlight here is that we need to worry more about the lack of applied knowledge, discipline, and accountability that we have than the next shiny target. The same powers that be are the ones profiting off our lack of decisiveness. The same thing that keeps me smoking.
So, what do we do in a situation when power conspires against your interest? Stop being intimidated by what's going to happen. The CEOs and the President aren't going to come for you, and even if they do, remember this when staring them down:
"So why should you bother to fear those who are especially powerful, when the thing you are afraid of is something anyone can do?" — Seneca, Letters on Ethics: To Lucilius (64)
Spider took that route, he dug in and got at the truth again. He made friends and enemies along the way. Through addiction, alien hybrids, and clouds of nano-machines, Spider got to the truth even when his ass was on the line.
Walking the street always has risks, but we shouldn't ever be afraid to step out and stop something wrong when we see it happening. I'd wager it's more important to go find the truth than be told what it is.
