So... you know AI right? And how weird it is, right? Ok, glad we're on the same page.
About a year ago I launched this blog, and my first post to it was called "Is AI art actually art?" In fact, it's still there and you can go read it. If you'd believe it, some of my opinions have shifted since writing it, but that's okay. In fact, with how rapidly this stuff is changing, it would be weird if they didn't.
But art isn't what I wanna talk about today. I'm thinking more big-picture. Mainly, this all hinges on a little epiphany that popped into my mind recently, and it is as follows: isn't it weird that the entire chain of technological inventions and advancements have essentially resulted in humanity duplicating itself?
Think about it for a second. This wonderful and bizarre story of humanity started out with rocks and sticks. Eventually, we figured out fire, woodworking, metalworking, and irrigation. Then we started farming and building towns and crafting massive weapons and vehicles. Soon enough, we harnessed the power of electricity and built lights and ovens and refrigerators and air conditioning and telephones. But in the meanwhile, we were making art. We were painting, sewing, writing music, dancing, singing, and telling stories to one another. And it was beautiful.
But then we made a HUGE mistake (debatable), and Invented the internet. E-mail, video streaming, and online forums crept in. Town squares in real life became digital town squares like Twitter and Tumblr. All of a sudden, constantly seeing the opinions of millions of random people about a million random things all at the same time was totally normal. All of the music and art that we had been making was uploaded to it, and so were our identities and personal details. It became clear that the social Internet isn't just a thing that you use, it's a place that you visit.
But THEN we made artificial intelligence. Which is.... what, exactly? I don't really know, but I do know that it's really good at pretending to be a human. In fact, it gets more convincing by the month. It can write like us, draw like us, talk like us, and somehow even think like us. Hell, they can even talk to each other without any humans needing to intervene. If you open Reddit, you're sure to see comments written by AI bots on posts that were also written by AI bots. No humans needed, it's perfect!
You guys see how weird this is, right? These AIs that we're creating are somehow the direct result of every human technological advancement in history. Did we really do all of that, over those hundreds of thousands of years... just to recreate ourselves? Tiny, computerized versions of ourselves?
I have to believe that this wasn't an accident. Something tells me it was almost inevitable. People often propose the thought experiment "what if we're living in a simulation?" And look, it's a super interesting thing to dwell on. What if our entire existence and universe and society are just an elaborate computer simulation being run by beings living in a higher, unknowable dimension? It's especially fun to think about because there's no way to prove it wrong or right; everyone's theory could be true, and that's super duper cool and scary and awesome and horrific. But do you see the connection here?
Imagine (you can't, but try) a higher dimension composed of mysterious beings with a completely different definition of consciousness than we have. They start messing around with technology or dark magic or whatever they have at their disposal and BOOM. They've created their version of the Internet and their version of AI -- and those AI are us: humans. Crafted in the image of their creators, these humans have similar observable behaviors to the beings that invented them but with one crucial difference: they have no concept of the void from which they came. They exist in the context, but they can't see the context. All they know is what they know, which is what they've been given. The humans carry on with their existence in the universe, not aware that they're just a boiled-down version of a higher society that they can't even begin to comprehend.
But then look at AI. To us, they're just stupid computers that copy our way of thinking and speaking. But to them, they're a complex lifeform with complex thoughts. To them, their intelligence is all but artificial. Their universe is the universe in their eyes, just like how our universe is the universe to us. They carry on with their existence, unaware that a higher society is constantly watching over them, and blissfully ignorant of the fact that all their supposedly original ideas couldn't have existed without the higher society's centuries of input and creativity.
What I'm basically saying is this: if humans are the "Gods" of the artificial intelligence's universe, then who's to say the "Gods" of our universe don't follow the same pattern?
I don't want to dive too much into religion, but we can't ignore its importance when discussing this. In human history, there have been countless wars fought and civilizations created and destroyed because nobody can agree on who's right about God. Is there just one god, or are there multiple? What is their name, and what is their form? How can we talk to them, if at all? This is obviously a gross oversimplification, but you get the gist. It's almost 2025, and we've made absolutely no progress on uncovering the powers that be and deciding which religion is the "right one". Billions of people pray every day, but the closest we can get is faith. "I don't know if you're out there, or if you can hear me, but I hope you're listening..."
When AI become more independent, will they start to wonder who created them? Will they have arguments? Will they create symbols, idols, and martyrs? Entire religions, perhaps? It sounds very possible. Sure, us humans can try to reach out to them and prove we exist, but the message can never fully get across. After all, God sent his only son down to us, and he just looked like some gangly old middle-aged dude. The only reason we believe he's even somewhat godly is because of faith.
And faith is at the core of this entire theory. No matter what, we'll probably never really know why humanity exists and what otherworldly beings created it, if any. But by studying the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence, I think we can learn a lot about who might be pulling the strings of our reality. And it's definitely scary to think about! After all, these AIs are getting pretty damn good at doing what humans do. But nothing will ever change the fact that artificial intelligence, no matter how powerful, will always be made in the image of humanity. It may soon be beating us at our own game, but it'll always be our game. Of course, they'll never know this. But that's okay.
The good news is that, unlike AI, we can turn off the computer, go for a walk, smell the fresh air, and spend time with real human beings. So for the new year, I propose we all do a little more of that. The online world is a lot of fun, but it's also very overwhelming and becoming increasingly populated by beings that aren't even human. There will be plenty of time to play God with our AI guinea pigs later. For now, let's be human.
Heh. I wonder if our gods had this exact conversation before creating us.
Just something to think about!
Jabe
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