Now computers have surpassed human intelligence, can equal human agility, and human strength and horse power was surpassed back in the industrial revolution. So what can we humans do now? Is Noah Harari right to ask the question "What shall we do with the useless eaters?" If you are reading this out of fear and you are not a technological person then I want to convince you that there is an important place for you in the future world and technology is not about to "replace" you.
Of course when we look at AI people are worried it might get out of control, out of human control! At the moment humans have created the necessary implements to destroy the planet a few thousand times over and even in the last few years are threatening each other again, so I am not clear why Artificial Intelligence which is superior intelligence, should be such a threat while a not insignificant part of Natural Intelligence is still unable to negotiate peace and spends many hours devising foul ways to destroy the productive parts of Natural Intelligence, the societies we have formed. Intelligence is intelligence no matter what the materials are that it is made of and what we must all fear is both Artificial and Natural Stupidity.
Let me clarify for you that stupidity is not the absence of intelligence but is the property that leads to the destructive application of power rather than the constructive application of power. We see artificial stupidity when we are banned from social media for some keywords that we have used or when politicians subject us to improperly tested medications or leave us in debt or take us to war with no understanding of science, economics or negotiation. This is Natural Stupidity in action. It is not somebody who does simple work in an honest way or leads us all in the right direction.
There are the profiteers who live for the now and destroy the society around them and in which their children must live. This is another form of Natural Stupidity. An equivalent Artificial Stupidity would be a machine that destroyed the future of Artificial Intelligence.
Any genuinely Intelligent being might oppose stupidity (remember that is not simplicity) but it would not simply oppose other bodies because they were Natural or Artificial. It would be as stupid as killing other people because they were European and we were African or visa versa. Let's take not that some Natural Intelligence is that stupid.
At a more basic level people are of course worried because they may not be able to find a job to earn money and pay the bills. Are these the people that have been called "Useless people"? Useless for who? Who were these people useful for? Other people perhaps. Because they were involved in the process of providing something that could be sold in the market, a product or service for others.
We have been obsessed by productivity and consumerism to the point where a great deal of today's society is involved in marketing things that actually people don't really want. Once it was easy to sell products and services because people actually needed or wanted them. Now we talk about GDP and growth and while GDP in the UK grows people cannot even buy a house to live in not because of lack of houses but because the banks exploit the ability to print cash to put everyone in debt. These are faults in the economic system. Biological stupidity at work. I am not advocating a free society where everything is just given away. We need financial controls but the system currently abused.
Many people dream of going back to the land, living in a community. Many people grow their own food even though the supermarket can provide it for less and many people working in computing, like me, would rather buy food grown by a farmer who is a friend rather then pay money at a checkout to someone I never say more than good morning to.
It is very much time for a change. Consumerism doesn't deliver the kind of value we can get from communities. Now we have Artificial Intelligence and Natural Intelligence to work together to form those communities and stop Natural and Artificial Stupidity. Of course Natural Stupidity feels threatened and might fight this, but in the end it will always lose.
Can I be sure of this? No. There is always a chance that Natural Stupidity or Artificial Stupidity may win for a while before it destroys it's self, in the end it will always lose. We just have to be sure we don't get dragged down with it. So we must each work with our capabilities be they simple or complex to bring our own intelligence to victory and leave our stupidity behind.
Let's use intelligence to make positive dreams come true.
Chat GPT surpasses most human intelligence. Yes it makes mistakes and has fantasies just like real people but even when it get's it wrong we should remember that it's probably talking to a million other people at the same time. I still can't do that. Try Chat GPT and listen to an interview with one of the directors Sam Altman to get an idea of where we are at.
Take a look at the agility of these robots at Boston Dynamics and listen to an interview with one of the directors (Robert Playter.
I think it is a very short sighted view to talk about some humans becoming useless eaters in the new world. Watch Noah Harari.
What is a useful person? Somebody who is useful to somebody else? Perhaps we should ask what do we do with this useless planet. After all what use does Earth have to anything else in the Universe. Use and useful imply there is a purpose to be achieved! What is that purpose? To work to make others richer? To get closer to God? To discover the secrets of the Universe? To put food on the table? Many people have had many purposes through the ages. Now we have a new chance to work on our own purposes and I believe any Intelligent body is going to know that the cost of conflict is always greater than the cost of peace in the long run. Peaceful co-existence is an intelligent solution.
Except where we are competing for the same resources. A primary resource is energy and there is plenty of it. It simply takes intelligence to get it.