The Prisoner’s Dilemma of AI
Posted by freedomforall 3 days, 22 hours ago to Philosophy
Excerpt:
"Democracy and capitalism as we know it have long coexisted in a tense but workable marriage. But now there’s a third party in the relationship: AI.
Unlike previous disruptions, this one isn’t going anywhere. AI is not just a disruptive mistress – it’s a permanent, exponential presence. The question is no longer whether democracy and capitalism in their current forms can survive together, but which one will collapse first.
The presence of AI creates a zero-sum game between democracy and capitalism. Both won’t survive. AI renders those two concepts mutually exclusive; one is now an existential threat to the other, and one of those pillars is going to fall first. Unless we flip the statistical script and break the algorithm by taking collective action, my money is on democracy.
If we continue on our current path – favoring market logic, technological acceleration, and private and government-linked private power over a robust, healthy economy and society – democracy is likely to yield first because the entrenched interests that benefit from the current structure will suspend, subvert, or ignore democratic will, rather than relinquish control of the system that sustains their power.
Out of the gate, our first handicap is the corrupted, bastardized version of what we are calling “capitalism.” Theory and practice are two different animals…ideological capitalism (true capitalism) has been hijacked by the apex predator called Crony Corporate Capitalism. While actual capitalism (an uncorrupted free marketplace and adherence to true free market principles in conjunction with human and civil rights) is something to which we should aspire, it is not in practice right now. In its place are regulated markets, pillaged small producers, disempowered consumers, privileged huge corporate interests, and agency capture (agencies funded by the very corporate industries they are charged with regulating). Capitalism in its current form would be better described as “corporatism.”
The ideology or ideological state of capitalism and a true free-market society as a concept lies in stark contrast to the implementation of it today in this country. It’s capitalism’s car, but capitalism is asleep in the backseat and corporatism is behind the wheel.
Which begs the question: Why do people buy into it as it currently exists? "
"Democracy and capitalism as we know it have long coexisted in a tense but workable marriage. But now there’s a third party in the relationship: AI.
Unlike previous disruptions, this one isn’t going anywhere. AI is not just a disruptive mistress – it’s a permanent, exponential presence. The question is no longer whether democracy and capitalism in their current forms can survive together, but which one will collapse first.
The presence of AI creates a zero-sum game between democracy and capitalism. Both won’t survive. AI renders those two concepts mutually exclusive; one is now an existential threat to the other, and one of those pillars is going to fall first. Unless we flip the statistical script and break the algorithm by taking collective action, my money is on democracy.
If we continue on our current path – favoring market logic, technological acceleration, and private and government-linked private power over a robust, healthy economy and society – democracy is likely to yield first because the entrenched interests that benefit from the current structure will suspend, subvert, or ignore democratic will, rather than relinquish control of the system that sustains their power.
Out of the gate, our first handicap is the corrupted, bastardized version of what we are calling “capitalism.” Theory and practice are two different animals…ideological capitalism (true capitalism) has been hijacked by the apex predator called Crony Corporate Capitalism. While actual capitalism (an uncorrupted free marketplace and adherence to true free market principles in conjunction with human and civil rights) is something to which we should aspire, it is not in practice right now. In its place are regulated markets, pillaged small producers, disempowered consumers, privileged huge corporate interests, and agency capture (agencies funded by the very corporate industries they are charged with regulating). Capitalism in its current form would be better described as “corporatism.”
The ideology or ideological state of capitalism and a true free-market society as a concept lies in stark contrast to the implementation of it today in this country. It’s capitalism’s car, but capitalism is asleep in the backseat and corporatism is behind the wheel.
Which begs the question: Why do people buy into it as it currently exists? "
