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Like so: if by mapping, tracking and anticipating all human frailty, [[artificial intelligence]] can predict with greater confidence than can even we what our next moves will be — and this does seem to be the present state of play — then ''the machines can emulate human frailty''. They can ''impersonate'' it. One cannot tell the two apart. We cannot, and a machine cannot. | Like so: if by mapping, tracking and anticipating all human frailty, [[artificial intelligence]] can predict with greater confidence than can even we what our next moves will be — and this does seem to be the present state of play — then ''the machines can emulate human frailty''. They can ''impersonate'' it. One cannot tell the two apart. We cannot, and a machine cannot. | ||
If a machine can perfectly ''impersonate'' us, it can ''fake'' us. The point must soon arrive, therefore, when ''we can deploy [[AI]] to doom-scroll on our behalf''. And that ought to be devastating. Think [[GameStop]], only with the [[Redditor]]s tooled up with the same tech the hedgies have. While the machines joust furiously at each other we can escape through the side entrance and go back to what we were doing. | If a machine can perfectly ''impersonate'' us, it can ''fake'' us. The point must soon arrive, therefore, when ''we can deploy [[AI]] to doom-scroll on our behalf''. And that ''ought'' to be devastating. Think [[GameStop]], only with the [[Redditor]]s tooled up with the same tech the hedgies have. While the machines joust furiously at each other we can escape through the side entrance and go back to what we were doing. | ||
===Where are our [[electric monk]]s?=== | |||
As {{author|Douglas Adams}} remarked of the video-recorder which watches television for us that we don’t have time to watch ourselves<ref>For thirty years, [[Grandma Contrarian]] had the 1981 Royal Wedding taped on video. It was her most prized possession. Not once did any of us watch it.</ref> such an “[[electric monk]]” would be a ''labour-saving device''. | As {{author|Douglas Adams}} remarked of the video-recorder which watches television for us that we don’t have time to watch ourselves<ref>For thirty years, [[Grandma Contrarian]] had the 1981 Royal Wedding taped on video. It was her most prized possession. Not once did any of us watch it.</ref> such an “[[electric monk]]” would be a ''labour-saving device''. | ||
Call this new implementation our “[[avatar]]”. An [[electric monk]], even. But it is a ''virtual'' [[electric monk]]. | Call this new implementation our “[[avatar]]”. An [[electric monk]], even. But it is a ''virtual'' [[electric monk]]. | ||
''Real'' [[electric monk|electric monks]], like electric sheep,<ref>You know, | ''Real'' [[electric monk|electric monks]], like electric sheep,<ref>You know, the ones androids dream of. They didn’t make the cut in the film version. Too — ahh — expensive?</ref> would be costly: they would take up space, drain energy and require servicing. | ||
''But virtual [[electric monk]]s would not''. | |||
Now if I can have ''one'' | Now, if I can have ''one'' electric monk to do my doomscrolling, I can have ''one thousand''. we all can. And if the technology works<ref>If it doesn’t — by no means certain to — then nor does The Man’s, and this phase of our cultural existence will pass on all by itself.</ref> then the forthcoming [[Apocalypse|apocalyptic]] battle will not be between ''us'' and ''The Man'', but between ''our'' technology and ''The Man’s'', and since, [[Q.E.D.]], The Man’s technology has no way of telling ''us'' from ''our electric monks'', then ''we'' have the advantage. The Man needs us. We don’t need The Man. Especially since our [[electric monks]]s ''don’t'' have to emulate ''our'' behaviour at all. We can obstreperously configure them to emulate ''someone else''. This is how Russian twitter bots hacked the US election, you see. | ||
So, if we each deploy a thousand [[ | So, if we each deploy a thousand [[electric monk]]s to randomly browse, like and share content ''at random'', constrained only by the requirement that our synthetic doomscrolling should emulate ''some'' human’s habits, even if not necessarily ours, then all that wondrous aggregated data that the FANGS have on us ''isn’t on us''. It is worthless, meaningless, hypothetical. | ||
[[Systems theory]], folks: the same way [[algorithm]]s can extract profound insight from [[data]] they can inject ineffable absurdity into it. | [[Systems theory]], folks: the same way [[algorithm]]s can extract profound insight from [[data]] they can inject ineffable absurdity into it. | ||