Unsupervised

CHAPTER 12Technology Reinventing Itself

“AI will be able to do everything better than humans over time … everything.”

– Elon Musk, December 9, 2020

We often believe things won't change and the worst won't ever happen. In technology, this can be characterized as the “reverse luddite fallacy”—that people believe as technology was not responsible for net job losses in the past, it will not be in the future. At the same time, many believe technologies will instantly improve our lives and are extremely disappointed if they don’t—often failing to recognize the extent of their potential longer-term impact (Amara’s Law).¹ It reflects our inability to grasp the concept of exponential growth.

And when changes do take place, the pace seems so gradual we don't even notice. There is an old metaphor about boiling a frog: if you place a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will jump out, but if you put the frog into cold water and slowly bring it to a boil, it will unwittingly remain until it boils to death. Our adaptation to technology is not dissimilar—we continually train computers to do more tasks and take on more responsibilities. In doing so, we are gradually becoming more reliant on them. Although we might take this evolution for granted and assume it is random, most frequently it has been carefully planned and implemented. Unfortunately, those responsible are frequently not motivated by improving the world—merely their own interests. Germany in the 1930s is perhaps the most extreme ...