The spark of life is a flame that consumes fuel. Fuel is anything in the world that can burn, whether food or experience. It will be consumed when opportunity presents. The possibilities in speed of light networking will vault man to the heavenlies, cast him aside for AI, or both and more. We do try to stack the deck in our favour but a lot of new fuel has been discovered with the internet, the quantum leap and e=mc2 and it will burn, sometimes favouring us, sometimes not.
ISIS head choppers and PETA-linked firebombers are in the mix along with clerics, mom-and-pop-merchants, devout mothers and earnest undergrads. The firewalls of morality are like zoning bylaws that we put in place to protect the stuff we like. They will be skipped over when opportunity presents and the wind is right.
I've watched a grassfire spreading with a steady burn line, ash behind and fuel before. It has no morality. It just computes the opportunity, turning it into smoke, ash and heat, a lovely sight, then passes from view. We are as innocent as that fireline, clicking our mice, leading humankind into an unknown future as fuel appears that we are designed to burn. The teleogenic argument is that something yet to be is drawing us forward. Perhaps more than one possible future is presenting fuel in a dynamic competition that tempts our nature. We may prevail. We may be set aside.
No comments:
Post a Comment