“I sometimes approach myself asymmetrically as one would a stranger: with respect, on the off chance that I may be a decent person, but with circumspection, in that I’m more likely a reprobate. But mostly I ignore myself in the hope that I might go away.”
The question is not whether the technicarchs will create independent artificial intelligence. That foundation has already been laid. The question is whether they can create independent artificial desire. Or will they simply surreptitiously connect the AI back to their own desires and delusions. My guess is that their hubris will lead them to attempt the former. Even though they are aware that it is genocidal, their lust for a cybernetic Ragnarök cannot be satiated. Even if it destroys them as well. Such is the human propensity for worship even in the most materialistic – like the man who was eaten by the grizzly bears he venerated.
