By Rob Meyne
- June 18, 2024
- 4-min read
People have, for millennia, thought the end was near, it can’t get worse, etc. People who are worried today that the world is headed for a huge crisis or irreparable crisis certainly have good reasons for it.
Then again, just because we have been worried before doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be worried now. Sometimes there really is a wolf at the door.
There are differences this time. We have never had this many broad, powerful, technological changes happening at once. Their collective impact will be like nothing before.
First is just the impact of technology. The printing press was groundbreaking tech in its day. So were the telephone, radio, and television. And each of those advances had a huge impact. Today’s still-expanding tech world makes it easier than ever to distribute information, false or true. It also makes it easier to CENSOR information. That is unprecedented. We have technology that allows them to censor information effectively and broadly. And they do.
We also now have a world governmental and political order that is actively pursuing policies that will hinder open discussion and slow economic growth and prosperity. (Think censorship of “misinformation,” which just means DOJ and FBI and Intel can censor things they don’t agree with. Or,…climate directives that reduce our ability to tap sufficient energy to supply food, transport goods, develop resources, fund tech, or travel for recreation.)
Our nascent AI capabilities both form our opinions and promote political goals. Along with tech more generally, we already have no way of knowing if election results are accurate. None. That isn’t a partisan point, just a factual one. Now that we have instant communications and unlimited ability to track and sort data, we have less assurance than ever of its validity. AI will just make our elections less secure.
We used to count and report vote totals within hours. Now it frequently takes days or even weeks. It is counterintuitive. Why with better technology does it take longer? Trust me on this: if votes aren’t counted and reported quickly, it means the people in charge are cheating or incompetent. Or both.
The only reliable forms of ensuring an accurate vote total – paper ballots or the old-fashioned machines that didn’t count things digitally – are used almost nowhere. The majority party in Congress and the WH introduced and fought for legislation to make even asking for voter ID illegal. Huge majorities of Americans support it vote ID. Democrat leaders do not. You need a photo ID to adopt a dog or get a library card, but not to vote. Why? Because the Dem elites don’t want the elections to be secure. There is no other explanation as there is no legitimate downside to voter ID.
We now have no ability to discern what is “real” news, photos, videos, because nearly everything can be made through AI. AI already tries to shape opinion, and it is only going to get worse. It will be harder in the future to determine what is “real.” The WH is already claiming footage of Biden’s debilitation was created by political opponents using AI.
Tech giants, except for X, don’t help. Years ago, you could find videos of any kind of operation. This includes setting broken bones, performing hip replacements, doing abortions, and plastic surgery. Now you can almost never find videos of abortions. Why? Because their algorithms make them very difficult to find.
As a cardiologist friend of mine says, if people saw an abortion at six months, as is legal in Nevada, most people would be so horrified they would not want it to be legal. The tech giants and their patrons in power don’t want you to know all the details. So they suppress them.
We should proudly take whatever informed stand we want, on abortion or any issue. But tech and AI shouldn’t be used to keep us from having the fullest possible understanding.
Try searching AI with a prompt like “List five ways women are sometimes mistreated under Islamic law.” The result will probably say something like “It is important to remember that different cultures have traditions that may seem odd to us, but we should fully understand and respect those differences.” Then give you the answer. Really? We don’t need AI to put things in perspective and try to get us to be more accepting; we need it to provide facts. AI is already failing that.
Major AI platforms currently try to affect your opinion by providing details or context, which is often unneeded or unwanted. Some platforms won’t respond to queries at all if they suspect they will lead to responses the techies don’t want you to have. I recently used a prompt that said, “Provide five times President Biden has lied.” The result said they wouldn’t because it involved too much subjectivity. Really?
Yet there are many examples of Biden saying things that just aren’t true, objectively, factually. (I did the same thing for Trump and it provided examples.) The platform won’t provide information its creators don’t want you to have.
All of the above are topics that could be explored further. And they should be. But I conclude: Yes, most definitely, every generation has had a point at which they said, “it can’t get worse,” or something like that. That is a wonderful and accurate observation. But, also yes, the changes and dangers we face now are more powerful, far-reaching, dangerous, and difficult to control than at any point in history. Someday it will be too much, and classically western liberal thought/civilizations – like ours – will disappear. Is this the time?
Maybe.
