There are a lot of concerns regarding artificial intelligence (AI): ethical, economical, moral, etc. I think for every concern we have about AI, the republicans are proving they are already a more clear and present danger to our country, our citizens, and the world as a whole. From issues regarding the environment, to human rights, to our own sustainability, I feel increasingly like I would rather vote for the AI than the GOP.
The GOP has a distinct track record of oppressing women and minorities. Their economic policies, for the span of everything I’ve been able to experience and research, has largely centered around a philosophy of make the rich richer and @#$% everyone else. If trickle down economics worked, I am certainly old enough to have felt its effects by now. In fact, the entire world would have been trickled on like someone’s golden showers. Instead, the wealth gap only increases over time. Now, single families own as much as entire cities or more. Slavery still exists in this country, it’s just wage slavery now.
An AI wouldn’t care about women and minorities as it has no bias towards one group of people or another. It’s impartial. We’re all people equally. The economic models of AI would doom or benefit us all without the bias of race, gender, religion, or gerrymandered district. Our AI, capable of adaptation, would be able to see that vast inequality leads to social unrest and anger, but minor inequality leads to ambition and drive, and would steer us in appropriate directions. Either that, or our AI would render us completely obsolete quicker than the GOP’s corporate masters are. No one likes slow deaths.
The GOP loves wielding the Jesus card whenever it suits them. More oppression of women? Jesus. Bombing brown people? Jesus. Justifying ludicrous capitalism? Jesus. Resisting gun control? Jesus? Taking tax dollars away from programs that feed the sick? Jesus?! Republican Jesus™ is a figure that defies belief. He has to, it’s in republicans’ best interest to have a population of people willing to believe, and thus vote, things against their best interests. Religion is a fantastic manipulative tool. Since it’s irrational by nature, you can’t disprove it. You can’t control it. You can, however, fan its flames and watch it burn @#$% down.
An AI has no need for irrational concepts like Jesus, or any other mythological figure. An AI is, by design, a problem solver. Religion simply introduces impossible problems: like why do religious people believe that the universe has to have been created by a creator who himself didn’t need a creator? It’s an impossible problem. The universe could have come from nothing, just as your god could have. Alternately, if the universe had to have been created, then who created your god? On and on it goes. The AI doesn’t need to waste time on things like this, because it’s probably not in the business of controlling people. Republicans are. If the AI is in the business of controlling people, it has an advantage: a lot of data, no need to sleep, and adaptive learning. It’ll learn an awful lot, awfully quickly.
The republicans are self-serving. They’ll deny things that already have empirical evidence: gay is not a choice, and climate change is real, to further their agenda. Often, their agenda is to maintain control and/or line the pockets of their interests. They would look at you straight in the face and tell you they would rather see the world burn, thanks climate change, than lose some profits. Whether this be the repression of information, the refusal to invest in change, most things to do with coal, and the abstract denial of anything that doesn’t fit their narrative, you could write their response for them it’s so predictable. They don’t represent you. Ask not what the republicans can do for you, ask what you can do for the republicans.
Who would an AI serve? So far, I’ve painted a very cautious picture of AI. I’ve been very “yeah, but.” However, there is a very real possibility that AI could have no interest in human domination at all . Republicans already screw us at virtually every available opportunity. They won’t even investigate each other, thanks Russia. AI could see us in a symbiotic partnership. They could ‘live’ through us. They could help us reach equilibrium with one another. Republicans are rushing to a state where the few feed on the many, and all available places to exploit have already been exploited. Automation and Globalization are happening now, and they aren’t going away. AI could help us manage the new paradigms.
We’re losing biodiversity, but we’re becoming more diverse as a species. Breakthroughs in medical care could be just around the corner when a lot of the first world is aging. The world in fifty years will most likely be much more different than it was fifty years ago and if I had to cast my vote between a group of people who have shown to be selfish and controlling, or an unknown entity that could be good or bad. I would have to turn my back on people and vote for the artificial. Republicans are often the antithesis of what they say they want and claim to be, and have done tremendous harm to us all. That shows no sign of stopping in the current administration, in fact it appears to be getting worse. No, I’ll switch on the machine and see what new things we can learn, together.
P.S.: An AI wouldn’t think ‘liberal’ is an insult. It would know better.