It had been a long day for Brad. The market was more volatile than normal, and the increasing pace of the stock market made every day a race. But his last assignment was simple. He had been ordered to set a sell order for some E-mini contracts.
He hadn’t written the algorithm, and he didn’t change it. He simply added the specifics. Almost as soon as he hit the button, all hell broke loose. Over the next thirty minutes, the stock market lost a trillion dollars in value as computers and algorithms took over, each triggered by all the other algorithms into a cycle that Brad had triggered. Luckily for everyone that day, another automatic system froze the system, allowing humans to retake control of the market.
I don’t step into the discussion about AI very often. That isn’t because I don’t have opinions, but because, like so many things, people on both sides have become so entrenched that they haven’t worked out that being pro-AI or anti-AI isn’t very useful and often inaccurate because they ignore or dismiss the parts they are OK with.
Luckily for us, science fiction has been exploring this question for decades. And at its most basic, the question isn’t if technology is good or bad, but if the technology is working for us, or if we’re working for the technology.
Like many people, my first thought turns to doomsday scenarios. In The Terminator, we have an excellent example of technology turning on its creators. That is worth considering, but while avoiding that is important, it’s more important to face the more real dystopias.
Which brings us to the Matrix. It is similar to Terminator in that the robots have won. But rather than destroy humanity, they use humans as batteries. And the day-to-day dread that your entire life is fueling a system that gives you nothing is becoming more real all the time. You’re not creating art; you’re helping the machine do it. You’re not writing code, you’re telling the computer to do it. And you’re not deciding what stock to buy or sell; you’re simply entering a bit of data so the computer can do it and hoping that it won’t break the market, or the world, in doing so.
I think the franchise that shows the two sides of this the best is, shockingly, Star Trek. But not just because it’s my favorite. It’s because it shows both what happens when technology is designed to work for humans and what happens when humans work for the machine.
The Federation is a technological utopia. The ideals of the Federation have created a system where technology makes people’s lives better. The replicators let everyone have what they want, the holodeck lets you live out almost any fantasy, transporters allow people to explore their own world, and people are encouraged to spend that time working to better themselves and the rest of humanity.
I hope that’s where we end up. But most days it feels like we’re moving in the direction where our biological and technological distinctiveness is being used to power the system that oppresses us.
The Borg have all the technological advantages of the Federation and more. And it is, technically, a collection of worlds and cultures, like the Federation. But it’s hard to see that because the system has been designed so that everyone works for the technology rather than it working for them. There is a personality buried under all the weight of the system, but it’s overwhelmed by the vastness of the machine.
What Star Trek and so many other science fiction stories are trying to get us to understand is that the advancement of technology isn’t the danger. AI can be used to help us find cures for diseases, write personalized programs, and encourage human creativity. Or it can be used to make the Borg drones more effective workers for the hive.
Because the question isn’t about the flaws in the technology. Those can and likely will be improved, like with every other technology. And because things like water usage and power usage cost money, the companies will make the effort. But also like every technology, the system will want to adapt it to service it.
That shift in focus is vital because the best trick those who want to rule the world have is to have us focused on anything but them. They don’t care if you’re angry at immigrants for taking your job or at AI so long as you don’t blame the people making the decisions. But the day that we decide that the wealth and prosperity created by these systems should be used to serve humanity instead of the systems they’re at the top of is the day they start to lose their power.
Question of the Week
As a small creator, the patrons and those who help in other ways are the only reason I’m able to do this every week. If you can help, that is fantastic, but I don’t want anyone left out. So if money is tight, then grab a free month, and if at the end of the month you want to stick around, please get another one.
With every new revelation that a public figure is terrible in a new and unique way, the idea of admiring anyone has become dangerous. Even enjoying someone’s writing or storytelling risks endorsing some scandal you hadn’t heard about.
I wrote this story about the importance of having heroes and the dangers of learning too much.
I write four Second Hand Treasure stories a year and have for a few years. Each story follows a different customer of the interdimensional and mystical pawn shop, “Second Hand Treasures”
Each visitor is given one of the treasures. A powerful or useful piece of magic that teaches them something about themselves or the world.
In this story a king is fleeing his people as they rise up against him, but instead of finding the escape tunnel out of his palace he discovers Second Hand Treasures and is given a box of magical tags that can alter the people who wear them in useful ways.
There are several older free Second Hand Treasure Stories.
I love telling stories, but storytelling is by its nature collaborative. A book requires a reader to fulfil its purpose. But often getting readers is the hardest part for an author. These giveaways allow you to read the work of people who have poured their heart into these works, so please give them a chance. I know they will appreciate you giving them a chance.
Free Sci-fi, Fantasy and Paranormal
For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three.
Alice Kahn
I want to take a moment to say that I understand why people don’t want to use AI. Even if that technology is useful and could be ethical if used correctly, it is currently all but impossible to do both at the same time and that’s assuming you’re willing to understand that it does more than just the one thing you’ve seen it do badly.
Even assuming that the water and energy issues are solved, you’re still in a broken system that is using AI to hurt people. What I am saying is that we need to focus our attention on fixing the system so that the we see technologies able to dramatically increese efficincy as a way to make our lives better thar than a threat to the subsistence level jobs we hate.
Elton Gahr
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