Hey readers,
It’s Bryan here. And now for something completely — or at least somewhat — different. With most of the Future Perfect team in Washington, DC for this weekend’s EA Global conference, we wanted to pick a selection of notable pieces from around the internet, curated by staffers. As broader coverage of the subjects we care about grows, we thought this format would help keep readers abreast of the best — and some of the less best — of what’s happening in our world. (As you can see, we’re quite into AI.) Let us know what you think, and if you’re uncertain, don’t worry — your regularly scheduled newsletter content will return Tuesday.
Why "longtermism" isn’t ethically sound (Washington Post)
Post columnist Christine Emba took a turn in the latest of the many, many, many(!) critiques of longtermism that have popped up in the wake of philosopher and EA Will MacAskill’s recent book What We Owe the Future. But while Emba makes the case that there’s a risk to focusing too much on the long term if it comes at the expense of those in desperate need now, she misses the fact that the overwhelming amount of funding coming out of effective altruism still goes to near-term problems like poverty and global health, as my colleague Kelsey Piper reported recently. And for all the sound and fury over longtermism, we still desperately underfund policies that could protect us against existential threats like pandemics and artificial general intelligence that could threaten the future — and the present. —Bryan Walsh
AI art is here and the world is already different (Intelligencer)
There’s a lot of worry about what artificial intelligence can mean for our future. AI experts estimate that we’re 20ish years away from a full-fledged AI. That’s scary! But right now, artificial intelligence tools are dabbling in art production, which is very indie of them. In his piece for Intelligencer, contributing editor John Herrman played around with image generators and explored how artists are incorporating these tools into their creative processes. I’m always fascinated by the different ways people are creating AI tools — not everything is for Super Serious things like policing. That said, there are still major ramifications when introducing a powerful new tool — especially for those who make their living doing the same work. Herrman explores those potential consequences: It’s funny at first, but what will this mean for art at large? —Izzie Ramirez
"Of Gods and Machines" (The Atlantic)
Novelist Stephen Marche likens increasingly powerful AI to the superhuman and divine. He also likens Silicon Valley's tech obsession to religious faith. Finally, he says AI will answer our big questions, and “Our role is not to answer but to question, and to let our questioning run headlong, reckless, into the inarticulate." I think this embrace of ourselves as reckless questioners gets the AI/religion analogy exactly wrong. It reminds me how weird it is that, when some people talk about tech as a new religion, they worry: "What is religion without God?" I think the more important question is: "What is God without religion?" In other words, if AI will be so powerful that it's like an omnipotent God, what are the guardrails that'll keep it livable for us humans? Just like the Torah needed the ancient rabbis who constrained its lofty pronouncements with their interpretations, tech needs regulations. AI is a Torah in need of a Talmud. It’s more question than answer. —Sigal Samuel
The Du Bois Doctrine – Race and the American Century (Foreign Affairs)
Like many fields in the United States, international relations had long been dominated by white men, and this is no accident of history. Zachariah Mampilly seeks to correct this record by recounting the life as well as the deep thought and involvement in foreign affairs of W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois had plenty of things to say beyond America’s borders, and in fact had several articles published in Foreign Affairs itself. But for his radical criticisms and views of the international order, dominated largely by white supremacist empires like the United Kingdom and the United States, he was ostracized and eventually rendered stateless, living out his final days in exile.
I agree wholeheartedly with Mampilly that Du Bois’s thought continues to have relevance today, most notably on how foreign policy always comes home to roost – as in the global "war on terror." I think the broader lesson for all of us is also questioning who the main voices of any discipline are and who is getting left out. Which intellectuals don’t end up on the syllabi of 101 college classes? —Muizz Akhtar
“This Is The Next World”: The Stealth Futurism of Person of Interest (PopMatters)
I spent this past weekend at a conference where much of the discussion focused on the startlingly fast progress in AI research of late (see the article Izzie recommends above). Participants struggled to find useful examples or metaphors in fiction to explain what’s happening. One of the few that many agreed on as a compelling model was the 2010s CBS crime procedural Person of Interest. I’m rewatching the show now, and the critics are right: It’s one of the best sci-fi shows in TV history.
Part of why it’s so compelling is that it’s a measured depiction of what the emergence of a superhuman AI could look like. At the show’s start, the AI is fairly limited, giving the Social Security numbers of potential crime victims or perps to our heroes Harold (Michael Emerson) and John (Jim Caviezel) so they can prevent murders. But the AI gains power rapidly over time, and other even more powerful AIs emerge. The AIs even go to war with each other. It’s an unnervingly plausible account, as Abigail Nussbaum explains in the above article, one that feels much closer to our lives today than, say, The Terminator. Really, more than anything, I’m recommending you all watch Person of Interest on HBO Max, but if you want to save 74 hours, Nussbaum’s essay is the best thing I’ve read on why it’s an AI fable for the ages. —Dylan Matthews
—Bryan Walsh
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