we suffered from. It’s possible that our kids will switch schools, we will
change jobs, economic policies will abruptly shift, governments will rewrite
their constitutions—and none of us will comprehend the full reasons why. It
will just happen. Our Thinking Brains will be too slow, and our Feeling
Brains too erratic and dangerous. Like AlphaZero inventing chess strategies
in mere hours that chess’s greatest minds could not anticipate, advanced AI
could reorganize society and all our places within it in ways we can’t imagine.
Then, we will end up right back where we began: worshipping impossible
and unknowable forces that seemingly control our fates. Just as primitive
humans prayed to their gods for rain and flame—the same way they made
sacrifices, offered gifts, devised rituals, and altered their behavior and
appearance to curry favor with the naturalistic gods—so will we. But instead
of the primitive gods, we will offer ourselves up to the AI gods.
We will develop superstitions about the algorithms. If you wear this, the
algorithms will favor you. If you wake at a certain hour and say the right
thing and show up at the right place, the machines will bless you with great
fortune. If you are honest and you don’t hurt others and you take care of
yourself and your family, the AI gods will protect you.
The old gods will be replaced by the new gods: the algorithms. And in a
twist of evolutionary irony, the same science that killed the gods of old will
have built the gods of new. There will be a great return to religiosity among
mankind. And our religions won’t necessarily be so different from the
religions of the ancient world—after all, our psychology is fundamentally
evolved to deify what it doesn’t understand, to exalt the forces that help or
harm us, to construct systems of values around our experiences, to seek out
conflict that generates hope.
Why would AI be any different?
Our AI gods will understand this, of course. And either they will find a
way to “upgrade” our brains out of our primitive psychological need for
continuous strife, or they will simply manufacture artificial strife for us. We
will be like their pet dogs, convinced that we are protecting and fighting for
our territory at all costs but, in reality, merely peeing on an endless series of
digital fire hydrants.
This may frighten you. This may excite you. Either way, it is likely
inevitable. Power emerges from the ability to manipulate and process
information, and we always end up worshipping whatever has the most power
over us.
So, allow me to say that I, for one, welcome our AI overlords.