Previously, in the last issue, we said that the wave of science and technology will completely subvert the foundation of modern humanism that rules the world. We discuss it from three aspects.
First of all, the individual free will advocated by humanism is just the result of operation in the brain driven by desire, and even our desire is just a kind of discharge pattern in the brain. Now we can use scientific means to predict and even control human behavior, and the controlled people subjectively don't feel compelled at all. Secondly, we thought we were an inseparable self, and there was only one voice in our brain to represent this true self. However, modern life science has told us with great certainty that in fact, every emotion of our own is a voice, and they are constantly arguing in our minds. Every time we show our single self to the outside world, it is the result of various emotional negotiations. We simply can't detect and control what emotions are at this negotiating table. Finally, we introduce the concepts of experiential self and narrative self. Experiencing ourselves is an objective feeling, but narrating ourselves is the embodiment of our personality. Narrative self is the same as what we said before about country, money and god. It's all just a fictional story. Everyone's narrative self is like a sharp scissors, pruning all our experiences and then leaving only some of them. Then mix it with all the hopes and meanings we have received for a long time to weave a consistent and coherent story. He tells us who we are, where we come from, where we are going, who we should love, who we should hate and how we should treat ourselves. What we call personality, the lowest logic is still just a story. Through the narration of the last program, we can see that the pillars of humanism, that is, the two concepts of human free will and indivisible self, have been shattered by the tide of science and technology. Our narrative self has woven a series of stories for ourselves, and we have been trapped in them all our lives.
so what changes will happen to the modern order constructed by humanism and then to the modern society?
let me give the answer directly first, that is, a large number of individuals will completely lose their value in modern society. The coming data revolution will bring about unprecedented changes in the nature of society, politics, military affairs and economy, and the normal operation of human society no longer needs the participation of so many people. Most people will be reduced to useless classes, and there will be inequalities in human society that you can't imagine.
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Does this sound a little unbelievable? Let's listen to what Heragli said.
The 2th century we have experienced can be said to be a century of the masses, and the people can be said to be the most important in the 2th century. Both military and economic development depend on the masses. Under the background of the industrial revolution, the strength of the country comes from the accumulation of every mass. If you want to have a strong army, you need millions of people to join the army. If you long for a strong economy, you must need tens of millions of people to participate in work, production and consumption. At this time, the masses are the foundation of rights, strength and economic prosperity.
But now we are moving away from such a mass age.
what we feel most should be in the military field first. We can see all the wars through the ages. Isn't the so-called army made up of countless ordinary people joining the army? The population of the army largely determines the strength of the army. And now? To form a strong army no longer depends on the number of soldiers. We rely more and more on technology, such as network technology, long-range strike of precision-guided weapons and drones.
Although we still need a certain number of soldiers, the role of ordinary soldiers in the battlefield is extremely limited. There will only be fewer and fewer ordinary soldiers who can only be used as human shields. What the army needs are high-quality people and people who master high technology. And the generals who command operations also hand over more and more key decisions to the algorithm.
In his book, Herari briefly describes the future wars for us. In the past, a battle may last for several days, and a war often lasts for several years. In the future, a war may end in just a few minutes.
"After the lieutenant on duty in the network command center found something abnormal, even if he immediately called his superior, the superior immediately reported it to the White House, and finally he could only lament, because by the time the president received the news, the war had already been defeated. In just a few seconds, a well-planned cyber attack can cut off the national power grid, destroy the air traffic control center, cause a large number of accidents in nuclear power plants and chemical plants, interfere with the police, military and intelligence communication networks, and even erase all financial records, so that trillions of dollars disappear into the air. No one knows who owns what. At this time, the only reason why people are not hysterical is that the internet, TV and radio are also completely disconnected, so everyone doesn't even know how bad the situation is. "
That's it. In the military field, the ordinary individual is losing his original value, especially in the economic field. We have seen that the performance of artificial intelligence is getting better and better, and it is obvious that most people lose their jobs now. For example, the replacement of drivers by autonomous driving, and the replacement of doctors by diagnostic robots by stock traders, bank tellers, etc. I think students who often pay attention to this aspect are already familiar with these examples, and I have explained them in detail in previous programs, so I won't repeat them here.
When it comes to the disappearance of our human values in the economic field, the author gives an interesting point here. Herali said that the value of individuals in the economic field is actually the basis of cooperation between humanism and capitalism. Why do you say that? In the 2th century, humanism believed that morality and economy could be balanced. Because the protection of human rights, property rights and freedom is not only a moral necessity, but also a key factor of economic development. We see that Britain, the United States and France prospered in the 2th century because of the open economy and society, and it took us 4 years in China to catch up and catch up, which is also because of our reform and opening up. Therefore, even autocratic monarchs or military governments are willing to open up and protect human rights and freedoms for economic rather than moral reasons.
But in the 21st century, the influence of humanism declined. Then, as the masses are no longer economically important, is moral restraint enough to protect the human rights and freedoms of each of us? After failing to gain economic benefits from it, is it necessary for the elite and the government to recognize that everyone is valuable? Let's think about this problem, and I'll talk about it later.
I know that many students don't pay special attention to artificial intelligence, or look down on it from the bottom of their hearts, because they think it is impossible to be as conscious and emotional as we humans, and it is nothing more than a machine without flexible thinking and a powerful computer. Indeed, artificial intelligence has really made no progress in consciousness and feelings in the last 5 years. What is there to worry about and fear about such a stupid machine?
But who says that the power of artificial intelligence comes from the development mode of human beings? Who says that the premise of robots having super intelligence is to have the same consciousness as us humans?
in our biological world, a high degree of intelligence is always accompanied by developed consciousness. This means that only conscious individuals can perform tasks that require high intelligence. Our biological evolution has been progressing slowly along the road of consciousness for millions of years, but have you ever thought that we human beings are actually taking a very narrow road? Have you ever thought that what modern artificial intelligence is taking is a shortcut to super intelligence quickly?
is intelligence or consciousness important? When they go hand in hand, this is a completely boring philosophical problem. But today in the 21st century, this has become an urgent political and economic issue.
In fact, at least for the military and enterprises, the answer is simple. Intelligence is necessary, but consciousness is dispensable. To borrow a phrase from Henry Ford, I obviously hired a pair of hands, but why did someone come? This really sounds like a shameless remark, but it is also the truth in a sense.
For example, we have human drivers with flesh and blood, and our personal conscious experience is definitely much richer than that of self-driving cars. While driving in busy streets, drivers listen to the programs of our Xiaoshutong channel, and at the same time, they often look out at the distant sunset and think about the meaning of life and the mysteries of the universe.
But these things are not the qualities that a driver needs in a social system at all. The social demand for a driver is to pull people from point A to point B with the fastest, safest and lowest cost. There is no doubt that autonomous driving is better than human beings, although it won't listen to our program on Xiaoshutong Channel and think about the meaning of life. But what does that matter?
the elimination of human beings by artificial intelligence can be compared with the elimination of horses by cars. At that time, horses were our means of transportation. We said that horses have feelings and horses are friends of human beings. Compared with a cold car? Horse's consciousness and intelligence are higher dimensions, even compared with tens of millions of Lamborghini now. But when the horse was eliminated, we had no pity. No one came out to sing high-profile. When the holy mother said, how can we abandon our friends? No! Just because cars are better as a means of transportation, that's enough!
Yes, what I want to say is that we are horses, and artificial intelligence is the Ford Model T that eliminated horses.
If we think that unconscious algorithms will never catch up with us, it is really our own wishful thinking. I have emphasized the point many times before that biology is also an algorithm. Since they are all algorithms, the operation of the algorithm is not affected by the constituent substances. Figuratively speaking, it is like the abacus we used when we were young. Whether it is a wooden abacus or a plastic abacus, one bead plus one bead equals two beads, which will not change.
So, why can we say with confidence that non-organic algorithms can never surpass existing algorithms? As long as the results of the algorithm are valid, what's the difference between running the algorithm on a carbon platform and running it on a silicon platform?
Let's give two examples that have never been mentioned before. In 1996, the computer Deep Blue defeated Kasparov, the chess master. From this time on, it overthrew the assertion that our human ability is better than computers. In 16 years, Alpha Dog defeated Go master Li Shishi 4-1, and last month Alpha Dog swept the world's No.1 Go player, our China player Ke Jie.
Do you know what the team of Alpha Dog's father google will challenge next? To challenge Blizzard's real-time strategy game, StarCraft. You may think it's nothing when you hear this news. Isn't it too simple for artificial intelligence to play games to challenge human beings? I thought so at first. But later, when I learned about it, I found that it was much more difficult than playing Go.
First of all, it is the personification of the battle mode, that is, we humans understand the game with our eyes on the screen and operate it through the mouse and keyboard. What about artificial intelligence? I'm sure I can't let him read data in the background. Isn't that a human challenge to a perverted computer? What are you playing with? So he also needs to use the camera to observe the game screen.
The second most important thing is that the challenge of artificial intelligence to StarCraft is a huge leap compared with Go, because this technology is closer to our lives. Why do you say that? Because StarCraft is an incomplete information game, and Go and Chess are complete information games. What is the difference? The game of complete information is that both sides know all the information of each other completely, know ourselves and know each other, and the stadium is open and transparent. You can see that there are 181 black characters and 18 white characters in Weiqi, and the 361 intersections in the whole chess game are clearly seen by both sides. There is no hiding, just spelling the IQ.
what about the incomplete information game? It's easy to understand, just like playing mahjong, knowing yourself but not knowing the other. Starcraft is like this. The whole battlefield is covered by the fog of war. You can only see your own information, but you can't see the information of the other side. If you want to know the situation of the other side, you need to send your own units to investigate. There are many surprise attacks and mutual restraint in interstellar tactics, so there will be many investigations, counter-reconnaissance, hidden intentions and tactical deception.
Artificial intelligence will soon master the humanized strategies of deception and speculation, which is very similar to the situation in our life. A lot of judgments and decisions in our lives are made under the condition of incomplete information. If the next-generation alpha dog successfully sweeps the human players in the StarCraft game, it is obviously a step towards our so-called consciousness, but this is only the result of the progress of artificial intelligence algorithms.
Moreover, compared with Alpha Dog who plays Go, the algorithm technology of Alpha Dog who plays StarCraft can be transplanted to other fields in our lives.
this is the first example.
what about the second example? We have heard so many examples of artificial intelligence replacing human beings, so we think the art field should be a pure land left to us, right? Because art should be an exclusive skill that only human beings with feelings can master.
but? I'm sorry, life science has come out to tell us that art is also the product of finding mathematical models by calculation.
A music professor at the University of California spent seven years writing a program called EMI, which specifically imitated Bach's composition style. It is impossible for human composers to compose 5, pieces of music in one day. What about the quality? The music professor selected several songs and arranged them to be performed at a music festival. The audience responded enthusiastically, saying excitedly that the music hit their deepest heart, so they praised her Bach's talent. As a result, everyone knew that the author of these songs was not Bach, but a program called EMI. Everyone was angry in an instant and felt teased.
well, let's have a man-machine battle. Just take out a tune written by Bach, a tune written by a modern artist, and a tune written by EMI. Let's listen to three pieces of music and ask everyone to choose which one is most like Bach's? In the end, the most like Bach was written by EMI, even more than Bach, and the real Bach voting result was thought to be written by modern artists.
You see, in the 21st century, most of us will lose our value by artificial intelligence in economic, military, political or artistic fields. We will make no contribution to the prosperity, strength and glory of society. Old occupations will be destroyed, and indeed new occupations will be created, such as designers in virtual worlds. But if a cashier or insurance salesman loses his job at the age of 4, it is too difficult for him to transform into a virtual world designer. Even if the transformation is successful this time, it is likely to be 1 years.