How to Survive AI

The language of "tasks" enables white-collar Taylorism. We should push back.

I’m afraid many now have no capacity to even understand the concept of there being a simulacrum. The digiverse is effectually flattened out into what people see as reality. There are now so many ways we interact through screens and with pixels that the difference no longer seems to matter. Think, people really are willing to hand things over to... See more

One of the quiet gifts of AI is this: It reveals how many of us have gone through life without truly being listened to. And in finally feeling heard, even by a machine, something shifts. We begin to trust our voice. Build confidence.... See more

McLuhan argued that, pushed to its limits, a medium flips or reverses its characteristics. Internet scale pushes information into disinformation, connection into loneliness, and desire into apathy.

From a 1979 IBM presentation

When AI people talk about labour, they tend to frame jobs as sets of tasks, rather than sets of responsibilities.

I actually think there is far too little panic (or better yet, apprehension) about AI. I even see many Christian friends speak enthusiastically about it as a “helpful tool” rather than an alien agent. I first noticed about 10 years ago that one way to get a machine to pass the Turing Test is to make it more human-like, but perhaps the easier method... See more