
Why Technology Favors Tyranny - neaden
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/yuval-noah-harari-technology-tyranny/568330/?single_page=true
======
Isamu
Clickbait for HN.

They can imagine ways in which AI can be used to consolidate power, but they
can't quite imagine the ways in which tech can democratize and distribute
power.

Which is funny, because "democratization" is in every other technology pitch I
see.

They bring up the issue of eventual consciousness of AI, which is scary
because nobody can say what that is. Except that humans have it, and
apparently that is the "je ne sais quoi" that sets us apart.

So yeah, they call on everyone to help avert a dystopian future. Which I can
agree with. But they frame it as "us vs. technologists" where I see it as we
are all participating in creating the future. Build your own robot startup,
don't wait around for Judgement Day.

~~~
zeeed
Haven’t read the article so just picking up on your comment, out of interest:

You bring up tech and democratization. I think that’s interesting yet I can’t
directly come up with an example. Do you have one, where tech actually helped
democratize and distribute power?

------
benlorenzetti
There's a lot of plotting and plodding over artificial intelligence in our
culture, from movies to politics. But we should look forward to the automation
of simple tasks and not worry about creative and complicated ones.

Appealing to both science and religion: look at group IV of the periodic table
where the structure of brains is higher than computers (C and Si) and then
think about the creativity of Fairchild, Backus, Hopper, Richie, Jobs,
Mcarthy, Page, etc. and have even more faith in our creator.

