A Critical Look at Technology

In this post, I will describe some tips you can use as an individual human being to contribute to a more sustainable relationship with nature. I’ve talked about some of these in my newsletter but these are slightly different, so you should read these too.

1. Find something you enjoy doing, and spend a lot of time doing it. Learn something and learn it well. But at the same time, understand at every point how the knowledge you learn has shaped society and how it will shape society. Understand the impact of the new power you gain with your knowledge.
2. Spend less time paying attention to what other relatively anonymous people are doing, and pay more attention to the people you really know in real life.
3. If you enjoy something special, do not consume it too often, whether it is something like food or something intellectual. Take more time to truly savour fewer things.
4. I’ve said this before, but take at least one day per week where you do not use the internet at all.
5. Learn more about plants and animals in your area by simply watching them.
6. Avoid upgrading your technology for as long as you can. Use what you have and find new uses for what you have.

The latest AI technologies such as ChatGTP and image generation threaten humanity in more ways than one. I already previously wrote about them at some length, but today I’d like to explain one way in which they propose a threat to us.

Unlike the human generation of art, AI art generation can be done at a much faster rate compared to the rate at which humans produce art. In fact, it’s not just faster but an order of magnitude faster. Thus, AI content generation promises to essentially replace human content generation in several realms.

Why is this harmful? There are two primary reasons:

1. Removal of purpose: allowing computers to do the mental work of humans removes the type of work that we are most suited for, and that gives us a purpose. Unlike menial labor that was the domain of machines decades ago, now we are attempting to replace what gives us a purpose. Thus, instead of being a convenience that makes our lives easier, the current level of AI is a convenience that makes life more purposeless.
2. Removal of communication: human-generated content is one way in which we communicate to each other and rely on each other. By creating a system where AI-generated content is cheaper (because our hyper-capitalistic system only gives worth to what makes money), it removes our awareness that there are other thinking and feeling humans out there.

Companies like OpenAI do not care about these disastrous consequences. They do not approach their immense power with precaution. Some developers of AI state that they want to be ethical, but their level of precaution is reckless compared with the precaution that we should be using in the development of these technologies.

Therefore, if you can, resist AI technology at all costs.