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Comment by TomasBM

5 days ago

Slightly tangential: A lot of these issues are philosophical in origin, because we don't have priors to study. But just because, for example, advanced nanotechnology doesn't exist yet, that doesn't mean we can't imagine some potential problems based on analogical things (viruses, microplastics) or educated assumptions.

That's why there's no single source that's useful to study issues related to AI. Until we see an incident, we will never know for sure what is just a possibility and what is (not) an urgent or important issue [1].

So, the best we can do is analogize based on analogical things. For example: the centuries of Industrial Revolution and the many disruptive events that followed; history of wars and upheavals, many of which were at least partially caused by labor-related problems [2]; labor disruptions in the 20th century, including proliferation of unions, offshoring, immigration, anticolonialism, etc.

> "Social Media is the original sin"

In the same way that radio, television and the Internet are the "original sin" in large-scale propaganda-induced violence.

> "I want to have long moved on."

Only if you have where to go. Others may not be that mobile or lucky.

[1] For example, remote systems existed for quite some time, yet we've only seen a few assassination attempts. Does that mean that slaughterbots are not a real issue? It's unclear and too early to say.

[2] For example, high unemployment and low economic mobility in post-WW1 Germany; serfdom in Imperial Russia.