capitalism, socialism and the issue re: the control of AI

https://www.natesilver.net/p/its-time-to-come-to-grips-with-ai

“Some accelerationists … think AI will be a merely important technology but not disruptive to the point where it poses an existential threat. In that case, the stakes are lower, and the case for pressing ahead is stronger. And in a capitalist system and a competitive world, good luck trying to stop them [even if they turn out to be wrong].”

Good luck trying to control them.

Socialists have always asserted that the whole capitalist economy and its associated technological “advancements” constitute an irresponsible juggernaut (see: Michael Harrington, The Accidental Century).

Socialist are right.

More generally, socialists are correct in their critiques of the capitalist system. That correctness is what draws many people to the movement. But socialists tend to have in their heads a chimerical notion re: “the people can/should assert control.”

Well, yes, we certainly should strive for a macro-level shift in the direction of the governments and economic enterprises being more responsible and more democratic. But, at the same time, we should have no delusions about the extent to which that’s possible under conditions of mass mega-institutional mega-technological hypermodernity. The mega-governments and mega-corporations are just too large, remote, opaque, bureaucratic, wealth-oriented and wealth-influenced … hyper-concentrations of power, with enormous inertia.

We should try to implement an eco-socialist transition at the macro level, but mostly we have to back away from the Leviathan and build the new society within the shell of the old.