“Disruptive Technology” is Doublespeak for “Disorganizing, Life Destroying, Career Ending”
AI is a disruptive technology. That’s good and bad but mostly bad?
First off, there are few absolutes in this world, but its time to just stop accepting technology as making our lives better. It makes it better in some ways and worse in others.
Today I’m feeling very much like “AI can go suck an egg.”
I heard a story about how disruptive technology is something that bored Westerners have idealized.
But in destabilized parts of the world, where war and economic uncertainty are prevalent, they don’t want disruptive anything. Why?They already have enough disruption.
I’ve been thinking about AI a lot lately and even though I’m excited about its medical advancements (sort of) I’m not excited about how its going to destroy countless industries and jobs, while creating a whole host of new problems. Why would I think that?
There was a great TV mini-series about 1001 Arabian Nights. In it, they said “All magic comes with a price.” Likewise all tech is a double edged sword. It makes some things easier and messes up a lot more. See the problem is that rich technologists have confused “progress” with “exponentially increasing complexity.”
Take for example the incredible modern day absurdity of logging into a computer. In 1994, we had passwords that were four characters long. That wasn’t good enough, because humans are human and just can’t help messing with each other. So we invented AN ENTIRE NEW THEATER OF WARFARE.
When I was born we only had land, air, ocean and space. Now we have “cyberspace.” The result?
Massive cyber insecurity, which resulted in the most ridiculously complex login processes. 12 characters, with numbers, symbols and capitals aren’t enough. Biometrics aren’t enough. 2 factor authentication, figuring out stupid captcha puzzles where you simultaneously train Google’s AI on how to find stop signs, are the new norm.
And it’s only getting worse. But that is child’s play compared to SPECTRE. Discovered in 2018, this entire new form of cyber attack exploits something nobody ever thought of. Your computer code can all be completely perfect and your systems might still be insecure because of sideways attacks that compromise EVERY CPU ON EARTH(if this video is correct).
This is disruptive technology people.
It’s not always friendly.
It’s often really sucky.
Sure it creates security jobs, but so what?
Every CPU on Earth can be attacked.
But wait there’s more…
This is just the start. What happens when you introduce AI into this equation?
The Windows world has been plagued by non-stop virus creation that’s cost hundreds of billions of dollars and countless lives. That’s a fancy way of saying it made a lot of people’s lives miserable.
And now we have our first AI virus. Yay humans!
What happens when you get AI driven micro-machines that can adapt to any anti-virus solution?
The flu virus already does this. It’s called “mutant swarms.” The process of RNA replication is frought with challenges and imperfections are often introduced. The result? Incredible viral diversity that is constantly changing, making prevention of the spread of disease difficult or impossible. What happens when that comes to AI?
Listen, the future is going to have some cool stuff, but according to the Yin-Yang principle, whenever you invent something cool, you must also invoke something that sucks. There is no pure good or pure evil. Case in point, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Or as I like to say “it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Now here’s GenAI. It’s going to help us make Flamingo Giraffes and completely revolutionize special FX and movie making. But it’s also going to put a lot of people out of jobs.
It’s also going to create AI weaponry, and a never ending spiral of ever escalating AI warfare.
The list goes on and on. Think security is an issue right now? Ha!
So back to “disruptive technology can suck an egg.”
25 years ago we had eight bookstores in town. Now we have 1.
We used to have camera stores. Now we have none.
Malls are all but dead.
Our brains are getting hacked by phones and social media to gain maximum attention at all costs.
NVidia’s CEO recently announced CODING IS DEAD. Seriously? The best paying job in tech is dead cause AI is going to do it?
So the real question is can we do anything about it?
Can we prevent our lives from being blown up by AI?
Should we all become techno-Amish, or “lo-tech” luddites? Maybe. I know I am really enjoying being lower tech these days.
But I’m going to ask this question as a Zen kind of guy whose meditated every day without fail for 32 years.
Does the tech make your life simpler or more complex?
Does it simplify it or make it a nightmare?
If it doesn’t simplify it, throw it out. If it destabilizes, turn it off.
You don’t have to accept it. I know multi-millionaires who don’t use social media, who stay off iphones and barely use the Internet.
You don’t need them. They’re distractions giving you the illusion of progress while eroding your peace of mind.
Screw the drama.
Go outside and find peace in nature.
