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Comment by _jal | Hacker News Reader

> I feel like AI is pointed AT us

This is not at all about "AI". This is about it becoming economically cheap for humans to fuck with one another in yet one more way.

Welcome to humans. They suck.

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I've seen a lot of Big Tech engineers make this same quip to avoid having to take any responsibility for the horrible results of their maliciously designed systems.

>Welcome to humans. They suck.

If AI is being developed by humans who have anti-human beliefs like this, we are in trouble.

Good news! I don't write AI or 'AI'. But if flip comments about very real bad human traits are enough to make me 'anti-human' in your eyes, I would encourage you not to talk to me.

Why is it unacceptable to say "racial group x sucks", but it is acceptable to say "the human race sucks"?

If you can't answer that question for yourself, I definitely do not want to talk to you.

The answer is: it is not acceptable. Humans are awesome! Including you, even if you don't realize it!

I have to push back on this subtle anti-humanism. No other animal species would even hesitate to make use of any and all advantages. That’s called evolution.

Humans, at the very least, try to stop and think before doing things.

>No other animal species would even hesitate to make use of any and all advantages.

counterexample: social insects. Pack animals. etc. (ie. there's plenty of examples of how an individual human's survival chances increase when they're engaged socially with other humans who by sacrificing an individual advantage, gain collective advantage, which amounts to a greater individual advantage. Proof: We fucking dominate every corner of this planet.

A chimp will kill chimps not in its group. Ants wage war for years against ants that aren’t in their colony. The thing they share in common is genetic similarity and thank God we aren’t like ants or other pack animals.

You are not part of my tribe, or my pack. I’d sell all your private info in a heartbeat if it made me a mint. I have no reason to even visualize you as more than some words on a page with a silly username. I mean, I don’t have your private info so I can’t, but I would. I wouldn’t kill you to make money like your example of social and pack animals.

I would not sell my wife’s info, or my kids info, though. I wouldn’t even sell out my friend network to make money, although some people sure will with MLM.

Some social animals like dogs or dolphins might. But yeah, you’re actually right. Our overgrown sense of empathy is one of the best parts of humans and sets us apart from much of the living world.

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