Elon Musk sees technology as taking over the human world and we’d best consider our options. Ma points out that humans build computers but no computer has ever built a human:
For Musk, technology is not a tool to promote humanity. Rather, technology will take humanity’s place of leadership in the world. Humans will have a choice to integrate with our technological masters or be left behind as a relic of evolutionary history, just one more living fossil roaming the landscape.
It is interesting how the theory of evolution contributes to this idea of a technological singularity (an endpoint of human history as we know it). Ma, while impressed with technology, is more impressed with humans. He points out that humans build computers but no computer has ever built a human.
For Musk, the truth is the opposite. Chimp-like ancestors gave rise to humans, which eventually surpassed their own capabilities. He uses evolution as a demonstration that something lesser can give rise to something greater without intelligent input. In a similar way, Musk believes that computers will eventually gain abilities beyond those of their creators.
JonathanBartlett, “Is technology a tool or a tyrant?” at Mind Matters News
See also: Chinese technocracy surges ahead with AI surveillance. So what do the reservations expressed, about “the soul” and “love,” really mean? (Jack Ma offers further reflections.)
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