AGI, Techno-Utopianism and the Escape from Freedom
The hatred of the self-branded ordinary and freedom-loving folks towards the public institutions is immense. It is puzzling as to why they are willing to make their lives more miserable by endorsing anyone who promises to wreck every existing institution and public goods that the US government has benefited, at least most of them, and the world, to a large extent. At least this is the kind of American success story the liberal internationalists have told their citizens, and their unusually high average annual wages seem to back this claim. Many voters in the US apparently do not believe in this narrative now. They claimed that it is too costly for the US to bear the burden of absorbing the global capital surplus just to help the global south become richer and challenge its status as the superpower. The US should charge others for making transactions in dollars and forcing other countries to switch to holding ultra-long-term treasury bonds to bid down the 10-year treasury bond yields. Some even argue that the US should step back from its global security commitment and charge its allies for its services as a security provider (Remember Travisâs monologue from The Taxi Driver?: Here is the man who would not take it anymore). At the risk of speeding up the downfall of Pax Americana (Trump & co. said they can manage to downsize its global reach), and a new wave of potential nuclear proliferation, this new MAGA movement sees public institutions, public intellectuals, bureaucrats, professionals, and knowledge gatekeepers as the new enemies of Americaâs rejuvenation.
Among all these new waves of anti-immigrant, anti-globalisation, anti-transatlanticism and even anti-scientific establishments (I have lost count of all these anti-xxx movement names now) is the emergence of a weird mixture of libertarianism, fascism and techno-utopianism with the anticipation of AGI (having a messiah aura when people describe it). All of a sudden, with AGI, America no longer needs more slave wage immigrant labourers now. A smaller number of local slave wage labourers is suffice to produce the same amount of output with Chinese made robotics and machine tools (unfortunately, Made in America is only possible by importing Chinese-designed and manufactured robotics and machine tools as they dominate the supply chain of the industry :o)). Another blessing of AGI would be to level down the living wages of most of the wage labour. AGI can take over most of the white-collar jobs, just as blue-collar jobs are increasingly being automated. AGI can also potentially monitor, debug and introduce itself to self-directed training, so all these gatekeepers, regulators and bureaucrats can just get fired and sit on the couch like anybody else, not knowing how they can pay their bills, rents and mortgage next week. Maybe you can assemble and train your AGI inside a laptop or smartphone one day, and it can outperform any well-trained academics and scientists in constructing theories and experiments, so that your AGI, not you, can bring down the scientific establishment. Potentially you can earn some extra bucks by selling your neighbors some synthetic psychedelic drugs out of your food wastes, but anyone can do this inside their kitchen at that time. It will be a egalitarian utopia achieved by simply leveling down and destroying any opportunities that can lead to a better career. If I, as an ordinary man born in the rust belt, am destined to be a loser in my life, at least I am relieved to know that those who have better talents than I or are born in a better family will ultimately suffer the same fate as I do. The gospel of AGI will make us equal, equally miserable. Creativity or genuine innovation can ultimately be boiled down into patterns, and machines are very good at spotting and replicating patterns. As someone said, âQuantity has a quality of its ownâ
One specific wild imagination of AGI that comes to my mind is that those who believe in the promise of AGI in replacing any public institutions and regulations seem not to bother who owns and regulates AGI. As they try to free themselves from the tyrannies of public institutions, knowledge establishments or whatnot, they are willing to submit themselves to the super-rich and big corporations so long as they can get their revenge on the deep state. They do not seem to care about how their liberties can be stripped away by a regime backed by the super rich when public institutions can gather every bit of their data and nudge their behavior without their notice. And no mechanism to protect citizens from being harmed by the state will be available, as every bit of checks and balances is watered down or even eliminated in the name of efficiency, optimisation and scientific management. No one in the office will be held responsible for any wrongdoings, and it is not known who is going to regulate the AGI, as it regulates and manages more and more aspects of human life.
And I also do not see how tax breaks to the super rich and oligopoly of big corporations can revive anything that remotely resembles the ideal of market capitalism in Lincolnâs time:
There is no such thing as a freeman being fatally fixed for life, in the condition of a hired laborer. . . . The man who labored for another last year, this year labors for himself, and next year he will hire others to labor for him.â If a man âcontinues through life in the condition of the hired laborer, it is not the fault of the system, but because of either a dependent nature which prefers it, or improvidence, folly, or singular misfortune.â The âfree labor system opens the way for allâgives hope to all, and energy, and progress, and improvement of condition to all.â (Richard White, UTOPIAN CAPITALISM p.122-123)
I personally doubt that the coming of AGI can secure the fruits of labour of most people, since at that time a large portion of things you have done will be just to order your AGI to do the heavy lifting for you. And it is simply naive to think that the AGI that is trained in your bedroom can outcompete those who are trained by the state and big corporations. But the SKYNET scenario is not that bad so long as the ordinary folks can get their revenge on any public institutions and knowledge establishment that make them look small and pathetic.