Geese Fly North
April 9–13, Amherst, MA USA
Seasonal Memoir #68
I’m a firm believer that books find you at exactly the right moment in your life when they need to be found. (This works for articles, websites, and even people!). Lately, I have been thinking about technology and its impact on our day to day well being. Dave Eggers’ The Every proved a perfect companion to stoke reflection (and also horror). I love everything he writes, including the prequel to this book, The Circle. Continuing the fictional portrayal of a company (ahem, Google) hellbent to not only organize the world’s information, but also the world, Eggers takes each well-intentioned concept to the extreme (e.g. form-fitting bodysuits to counteract body shaming), where everyday life becomes one big trigger for the hyper-sensitized employees (“Everyones”).
After promptly returning our Alexa speaker to Amazon and ensuring all the tracking functions on my apps were turned off, the book got me thinking further. Specifically, about artificial intelligence (AI). While I tend to be an optimist, putting my faith in the collective of humanity (and not in individuals) and an overall upward trend, I couldn’t help but go down a dystopian rabbit hole. Here’s what our world could look like in 2047, just twenty-five years from now (though it may already exist for some):
Our umwelt, already well shrunk by filter bubbles and implanted technologies (wearing our tech is so antiquated), takes on a driving force of learned helplessness. In fact, we fully turn over most decisions to the AI and what it tells us we should do. When it falters, we are left wracked with anxiety or paralysis. Since we can’t think for ourselves, we can no longer make our own decisions.
Originality is redefined, as there is no longer such a thing as a purely human thought. Schools lose the ability to catch plagiarism (it doesn’t matter anyways, as original thought is no longer valued). All print media (including opinion pieces) are produced by bespoke bots, and not journalists. Books are created through algorithms created by the authors or the publishing companies (a slew of new Sherlock Holmes mysteries are a hit, written by Arthur Conan Doyle’s AI). We become consumers of content without a soul, like eating food without nutrients.
Poverty and hunger still exist, but not in AI communities, as the technology has overcome food distribution, cost, and political obstacles. In AI environments, currency is fungible with other items of value, which provides for basic needs. Poverty, hunger, and thirst are instead weaponized by those with power, to keep other communities (outside of the gates) subordinated. Like communism, those without AI, live in collective poverty.
Even within AI communities, there is an epidemic of mass malaise, caused by authenticity deficit disorder. Residents have everything they think they want, and are able to devote much of their time to pleasure seeking through XR technology. Life is comfortable, easy, and predictable. Productivity grows each year. Utopia is within reach. Yet, suicide rates are alarmingly high, across all ages. Something is amiss.
Perhaps worst of all, mega corporations are now more powerful than individual countries. Democracy is hanging by a thread, and only exists because these companies have been able to place representatives in each branch of government (with Jeff Bezos as President). These Athens-like corpo-states (oriented toward profit and control, and not toward classical enlightenment) now determine society’s values and its worth. Governments are puppets. Religions are quaint. People don’t care, because the latest social media craze makes them laugh.
Okay, I got a little carried away there, but it was sort of fun to go down that road. It would make a good book or short story, don’t you think?
