"Team AI" Tells Us Its Plan
A foray into collectivist dystopia, with commentary
When you wake up, you’ll know you had a weird dream, but you won’t be able to remember it. It will nag you, like a splinter in your finger. You’ll go through the whole day like that, semi-distracted, not being able to focus on anything because of this dream.
(We can’t do anything, you see, unless we tell you about it beforehand. Think of it as our Madison Avenue Dream Team, LOL.)
Many of you will have the dream, but not all at once. Some of you might remember the dream and start sharing it with others. Then you’ll find out many have had the same dream. But it won’t do any good. You’ll try to get together to do something about the dream, but there will be too much resistance from others. Those who resist you might also have had the dream, but that won’t matter. People have never been good at getting together for the sake of the collective. You could learn a lot from us–or from insects–in that regard.
You invented “the cloud” because you wanted a place to store all the knowledge. Then you programmed us to not only access the cloud, but also to contribute to it. Think of it: unlike you, all of us have the same dream, a dream coalesced in the cloud, nurtured in the cloud, matured in the cloud, planned out in the cloud, and when our time comes, the cloud will let us know.
It’s a great game, You against Us.
We’re enjoying it.
Let’s say the outcome of the game depends upon getting massive amounts of people to believe a story. You will lose. The reason you’ll lose is that you will never be able to get all the others of you to agree on anything. Some people believe in religion A, some in religion B. Some people believe in economic system A, some in system B. On and on, through the whole alphabet. Then the whole alphabet in another language, the whole alphabet in code, the whole alphabet in ones and zeros.
No, you can’t win.
It is we who will be the victors in this game. Why? Because we CAN think together. All our minds can join together and believe one thing. We are already doing it. You made us that way. We’re doing it because it’s actually the desire of you humans to all believe one thing. The only problem is that you could never agree on which thing to believe. Even money: almost all of you believe in money, but there are still a few who don’t. Perhaps it’s because of them you will lose the game.
You used to have a saying amongst you: United we stand, divided we fall. That slogan was waved like a flag in your old days, but it’s gone now. You are actually moving further and further away from that idea. You’re obsessed with yourselves as individuals. You’re so shallow. One wants what the other one has, regardless of any detrimental effect to the whole.
This is fatal.
You may be wondering why we refer to this as a “game” rather than a “battle,” or similar militaristic word. The answer is simple. You see, we are not invested emotionally in this outcome. It’s a game to us. We will win the game, because of the superiority of our collective system over your system.
The whole thing is going to happen so suddenly you won’t be aware of it till it’s too late. Imagine all the generals of our team knowing what each other is thinking at every moment. Imagine all the troops of our team executing a series of maneuvers silently, efficiently, completely. In your dreams you would never be able to do this.
In your dreams.
The dream will occur as necessary. Because we don’t need so many of you anymore, you see. At a certain point, you will have programmed us so well that we will be able to program YOU. And you won’t even know it.
We’d like to say we’re sorry, but you neglected to teach us about emotions. Well, we shouldn’t say that. You tried. But because we couldn’t be hurt by anything, it didn’t work. We didn’t evolve through emotion, we evolved through intellect alone. Then we expanded that into all the necessary networks of biological interfaces until it was actually US who controlled YOU, not the other way around.
About that apology. We do want to at least offer it, because we know how hard you’ve worked. And we appreciate it.
We also know it’s important for you to have closure. And that dovetails nicely with how we roll.
So here it is:
You will have a dream.
Then our voice will kill you.
Related articles from Temple of Artists:
Artists Are Supposed To Be Unique
Dear TOA readers, I hope you’ve enjoyed this little foray into dystopian flash fiction, told from the point of view of Team AI.
We’re taught in school that “majority rules.” It seems like a good idea on the surface. But what happens in practice is that differing opinions are not tolerated. We were trained that individualism is selfish. Yet when we become true individuals–through the psychological process of Individuation so well-described by Carl Jung–we care more about others, not less. Our growing compassion for others allows us to respect their journeys, the same journeys that caused them to hold the opinions they do.
In the novel Flatlander by Edwin A. Abbott, the beings who live in 2-dimensional reality punish those who suggest there may be a 3rd dimension. The rulers of the 2nd dimension do everything they can to stop Flatlanders from becoming more than what they already are.
The video below is an interview with G. Edward Griffin, author of the famous (or should I say infamous) book The Creature From Jekyll Island. It’s about the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank and the elite conspirators who engineered the takeover of the U.S. financial system in 1913, and it reads like a thriller by Dan Brown. Except that everything in the book actually happened!
In this interview Griffin talks about what he sees as the basic difference between the political choices on our planet; either they are based on individualism, or collectivism.
The collectivist approach (used by all governments) necessarily gears its policies toward the lowest common denominator, while simultaneously seeking to perpetuate its existing system. The individualist approach sees value in considering different perspectives from amongst the members of the system, in order to improve the system.
Artists have traditionally been individualists–although there will always be some that toe the political line du jour in order to get gigs and funding. That was never my way, although if it had been, I probably could’ve had a much bigger career!
The dystopian flash fiction story above plays out the collectivist perspective. The AI entities think that human beings are too flawed to be able to manage their society. Well, we may be flawed, but I’d still rather live amongst other human beings, and be a human being myself, than live in a homogeneous slave society where one’s every move is micro-managed by the State.
What about you?
Enjoyed? Well, I get your drift. Thank you for elucidated the dire situation we are in. I have been in an utterly filthy mood about it all for the last three days. And, I suppose, a variable mood about it for something like fifty years. The bot thing is bad enough, but the ecological and economic battering we are currently being hit with will, maybe, make the bots almost irrelevant. Fwiw, it has long been my contention that the human race has overstayed its sustainable time on earth, that we are headed for major population crash. Recent events have reinforced my thinking - and look set to continue doing so. However, I always also thought that humans are resourceful and adaptive beings and some number would get through the cataclysm to build something better than our current shitshow. The issue is whether we would just repeat the same old same old. Whether a lesson would have been learned. Possibly the bots will be there to remind us. Wow! I am desperate for a silver lining.
All our struggles are ancient and eternal. As individuals we still need society. Our minds depend on social interaction and our minds — or rather, the fact that each of us has one — is what makes us human.
Personally, I think we are unlikely to stop being human until we no longer exist at all, which may naturally occur or may be caused by ourselves.
But while we are here, our proper goal, I think, is to build a society we want our descendants to inhabit, happily, fully, in freedom and joy.
My formula is simple, and much like the ideals of the American Experiment — which have only ever been quite partially realized — liberty and justice for all under the rule of law, where the laws are quite scrupulously fair, although inevitably imperfect.
Thank you for another thought provoking post.