Many anti-AI arguments are conservative arguments(seangoedecke.com)
seangoedecke.com
Many anti-AI arguments are conservative arguments
https://www.seangoedecke.com/many-anti-ai-arguments-are-conservative/
4 comments
This seems like a somewhat shallow reading of the leftist position. To go through the initial bullets point by point.
- The copyright issue is more about equality and justice and any conceptual belief in copyright. I think many leftists would like copyright to be abolished, but take justice as a higher priority. You do not get to abolish copyright as soon as it becomes convenient to the rich and powerful. The hypocrisy is the issue.
- The second seems to hinge on the belief that leftists are all radical, nihilistic materialists and thus can't make spiritual arguments. I agree that these arguments have not so much in vogue in mainstream culture during the era of neoliberalism, but there's a long storied tradition here. Some form of transcendentalism is necessary in any sort of communistic project.
- The third seems like a category error. The consistent axis of critique is around the liberty of the individual vs the larger power structure. Individuals can do weird, technological art in a decentralized manner without contradiction.
- Fourth is just a prioritization thing. The left mourn job losses where the redundant are abandoned to manage in this unfair system on their own, but not so much as they mourn the imminent un-inhabitability of our one planet.
My take on this sort of thought is that the left/right wing axis is mostly about your core belief in whether humans have personal agency, or "free will". The more leftist you are, the more you believe that humans do not have very much independent agency at all, and therefore are much more suspect of systems that can so broadly alter the inputs that cause humans to make decisions and form opinions, especially in such a centrally controlled manner.
- The copyright issue is more about equality and justice and any conceptual belief in copyright. I think many leftists would like copyright to be abolished, but take justice as a higher priority. You do not get to abolish copyright as soon as it becomes convenient to the rich and powerful. The hypocrisy is the issue.
- The second seems to hinge on the belief that leftists are all radical, nihilistic materialists and thus can't make spiritual arguments. I agree that these arguments have not so much in vogue in mainstream culture during the era of neoliberalism, but there's a long storied tradition here. Some form of transcendentalism is necessary in any sort of communistic project.
- The third seems like a category error. The consistent axis of critique is around the liberty of the individual vs the larger power structure. Individuals can do weird, technological art in a decentralized manner without contradiction.
- Fourth is just a prioritization thing. The left mourn job losses where the redundant are abandoned to manage in this unfair system on their own, but not so much as they mourn the imminent un-inhabitability of our one planet.
My take on this sort of thought is that the left/right wing axis is mostly about your core belief in whether humans have personal agency, or "free will". The more leftist you are, the more you believe that humans do not have very much independent agency at all, and therefore are much more suspect of systems that can so broadly alter the inputs that cause humans to make decisions and form opinions, especially in such a centrally controlled manner.
1000% Agreed. Limiting Beliefs are more toxic to humanity than anything else. I insist.
> I am no fan of Donald Trump, but it doesn’t follow that everything he supports is bad (e.g. the First Step Act).
First Step Act is bipartisan. Did he "really" supports it? According to Wikipedia:
Budget: Though the First Step Act authorizes Congress to appropriate $75 million per year between 2019 and 2023, only $14 million was explicitly earmarked for funding the legislation when President Trump released his 2020 budget priorities in March 2019. This lead First Step Act advocates to worry that the bill's underfunding represented an attempt to "starve it to death".
First Step Act is bipartisan. Did he "really" supports it? According to Wikipedia:
Budget: Though the First Step Act authorizes Congress to appropriate $75 million per year between 2019 and 2023, only $14 million was explicitly earmarked for funding the legislation when President Trump released his 2020 budget priorities in March 2019. This lead First Step Act advocates to worry that the bill's underfunding represented an attempt to "starve it to death".
I think this needs a better example. This isn't just left-wing opinion being unsympathetic to job losses due to new technology. This is because the specific job of coal mining needs to go away for the sake of a liveable future climate.
If renewable energy companies were promising to make, say, teachers redundant, the story would be different.