As a kid, I read a science fiction short story (1958),
The Feeling of Power, by Issac Asimov, about an "advanced" civilization that had become so dependent on computers that they had forgotten how to do math -- they just let the computer do it. Consequently, they were dependent on the machine for existence.
As Nathan quoted above, "
All it [AI]
has to do is be convenient enough that we no longer care to think for ourselves" and
"eventually people will not be able to interpret or perceive reality without the help of an AI via cognitive diminishment and learned helplessness."
In Asimov's story, an enterprising technician "reverse-engineers" the calculations the computer performed and figures out how to add, subtract, multiply, divide, do square roots, etc. on paper -- a discovery which astounded his employers. According to
Wikipedia, " The story is representative of the genre of sci-fi that started in the
1950s as a reaction to computers, around the theme of
caution against human mental atrophy in the computer era."
Mental atrophy is scary and complex; it is both involuntarily self-inflicted and malignant; an act of commission and omission. Computers are only one part of it. Star Trek claims "space is the final frontier" -- actually, it seems that "Mind" is. I am sure there are more than 70x7 ways of disengaging or diverting "Mind."
For example, decades ago, I read in a lit-crit article that George Orwell actually titled his book "1948," but his editors changed it to "1984" because the ideas he presented would upset the public if they understood the psyco-social controls were occurring in real-time instead of a hypothetical future. ("As long as it's not happening to me personally, it's not so terrible.")
These early sci-fi types were either prognosticators -- clearly seeing the writing on the wall -- or perhaps they were the early progenitors of psychological warfare -- putting ideas into the noosphere so we can all say "
I know that" when confronted by what should be shocking. The "I know that" reaction seems to be a foundational, and convenient, tool for turning off the mind when confronted with discontinuous change. Sometimes I wonder if that is why they teach "1984, "Brave New World," and "Animal Farm" in public schools. When events occur that correspond to the machinations in these books, kids can say, "No big deal.......
I know that." Perennial reiteration of the idea of "15-minute cities" and "You'll own nothing but be happy" seems to achieve this reaction too -- "Yeah, I know that (so I don't have to address it)."
Of course, bias confirmation is just one of many methods -- there's powerlessness (I can't doing anything about it anyway), the nanny state (a free lunch -- at least for the moment), new age psychology (I am [fill in the blank] and I honor the 'true' me), intimidation (covid), provocation (Jan 6), seduction ("newspeak" & the politically correct). It's endless. If we are not active and aware stewards of our own consciousness, someone else -- or something else -- will be.
