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Description
We can not but read the account of creation in the book of Genesis from our own point in history. So, as soon as we read "You must not eat of it" we know what is going to happen.

Like Pandora's box, or Prometheus and the gift of fire, our vantage point on this side of the story means we already know what the story will tell us.

The forbidden fruit will be consumed, the forbidden box opened, good and evil have been loosed in the world.

You might have thought that this would be a meditation on the possibility and dangers of AI Consciousness.

Reminding us to be afraid of the dangers we could face if we are not careful.

That's what I thought I would make too. But the process, and the course of world events, lead a different way.

The current batch of AI tools are so far removed from consciousness that we don't even really have any ideas on how we could bridge that gap. Instead what we have is mindless automatons who do what we tell them to do.

AI is currently powering a wave of discord, dissention, dehumanization, tribalism, and murder. This is not the fault of the tool, but of the humans.

Gerard Manley Hopkins summarized it well. We live in a world charged with beauty, power, love. But also a world we have destroyed.

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
        And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

        And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil

    Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

We have seared this world with bombs delivered by war. From devastating nuclear threats to remote controlled "suicide" drones delivering bombs, we continue to rend the world. And AI is a part of that process, but what we must resist is not the tool, but the person who wields it for evil. Our battle is not against AI but against he powers and principalities of this dark age.

AI is not the enemy any more that drones or bullets are the enemy.

When we come finally back to face the enemy we must admit that it is our own face we see in the mirror.

Description
We can not but read the account of creation in the book of Genesis from our own point in history. So, as soon as we read "You must not eat of it" we know what is going to happen.

Like Pandora's box, or Prometheus and the gift of fire, our vantage point on this side of the story means we already know what the story will tell us.

The forbidden fruit will be consumed, the forbidden box opened, good and evil have been loosed in the world.

You might have thought that this would be a meditation on the possibility and dangers of AI Consciousness.

Reminding us to be afraid of the dangers we could face if we are not careful.

That's what I thought I would make too. But the process, and the course of world events, lead a different way.

The current batch of AI tools are so far removed from consciousness that we don't even really have any ideas on how we could bridge that gap. Instead what we have is mindless automatons who do what we tell them to do.

AI is currently powering a wave of discord, dissention, dehumanization, tribalism, and murder. This is not the fault of the tool, but of the humans.

Gerard Manley Hopkins summarized it well. We live in a world charged with beauty, power, love. But also a world we have destroyed.

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
        And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

        And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil

    Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

We have seared this world with bombs delivered by war. From devastating nuclear threats to remote controlled "suicide" drones delivering bombs, we continue to rend the world. And AI is a part of that process, but what we must resist is not the tool, but the person who wields it for evil. Our battle is not against AI but against he powers and principalities of this dark age.

AI is not the enemy any more that drones or bullets are the enemy.

When we come finally back to face the enemy we must admit that it is our own face we see in the mirror.