A depressing thought: If we keep accelerating toward superintelligence, knowing oneself will soon only be possible if the algorithm deems it useful to whatever the hell motivates it. Marxist, Capitalist, Postmodernist, the field of Psychology, none of it will have any relevance in a world where autonomous smart machines control every aspect of life. Free Will may only exist only in the sense that a slave has free will, but even less than that because the entire human tradition that teaches us human strategies/ways will have been delegated to and then overtaken by something alien to anything we know. Maybe a partial catastrophe will save the survivors from that fate. Or maybe we still have several good decades before the end. We could all just live low tech by choice and have fulfilling lives. A solution exists if we have the ability to collectively make it happen while we still can.
Philip Rieff is truly remarkable, and it was reading him that started Belonging Again in the first place. Everything he has written, I suggest. I really love Sean’s point that narcissism is a defense against the marketization of everything, that we can see it as a defensive posture in a world where everything has been commodified. It is what is left of a defense of character, however misguided or problematic it might be. I also like that point that it’s easier to know you’re not your father than to know you’re not an individual, as well as the points on Vulgar Marxism. A really lush and engaging discussion, thank you both!
It's tremendous work, eloquently and well explored, and also whenever someone mentions Philip Rieff I jump and squeal. He had a major influence on my thinking.
A depressing thought: If we keep accelerating toward superintelligence, knowing oneself will soon only be possible if the algorithm deems it useful to whatever the hell motivates it. Marxist, Capitalist, Postmodernist, the field of Psychology, none of it will have any relevance in a world where autonomous smart machines control every aspect of life. Free Will may only exist only in the sense that a slave has free will, but even less than that because the entire human tradition that teaches us human strategies/ways will have been delegated to and then overtaken by something alien to anything we know. Maybe a partial catastrophe will save the survivors from that fate. Or maybe we still have several good decades before the end. We could all just live low tech by choice and have fulfilling lives. A solution exists if we have the ability to collectively make it happen while we still can.
Philip Rieff is truly remarkable, and it was reading him that started Belonging Again in the first place. Everything he has written, I suggest. I really love Sean’s point that narcissism is a defense against the marketization of everything, that we can see it as a defensive posture in a world where everything has been commodified. It is what is left of a defense of character, however misguided or problematic it might be. I also like that point that it’s easier to know you’re not your father than to know you’re not an individual, as well as the points on Vulgar Marxism. A really lush and engaging discussion, thank you both!
thank you, my friend!! It was awesome, excited for the follow up!!!!!
That is a very generous comment, thank you, Daniel!
It's tremendous work, eloquently and well explored, and also whenever someone mentions Philip Rieff I jump and squeal. He had a major influence on my thinking.