'Dune' tried to warn us against AI

popsci.com

6 points·Brajeshwar··5 comments

Barely. The Butlerian jihad is mentioned once or twice (though it does underlay the structure of the worldbuilding). I think Frank Herbert’s son tried to write the book but the less said about that the better.

I was curious to learn that the original essay by Butler is quite real and in someways a better warning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_among_the_Machines

FWIW they did not say AI but rather Thinking Machines. They were brought up in the Prophecy series which turned out to be better than I thought it would.

Terrible thinking is distinguished by proximate correctness under a tarp of inconsiderate or un-examined assumptions, leading to tautology and a false sense of understanding.

In Butler's case, the terms "race", "slavery", "machine" stand out as begged questions.

Butler offers Luddite ranting to assuage his own confusion and fear.

Prefer Herbert's simpler, more self-reflective, nuanced warning to not desecrate the divine mystery of mind.

It did!!! So many of these movies are mean to decentivize us.

Sci-fi, also known as speculative fiction tries to explore what technology might mean for humans who live among it in the future.

The warnings from sci-fi are a good hint about what might go wrong with technology. Surveillance causes dehumanizing oppression (take your pick but everyone knows 1984), false accusations cause injustice (minority report among others), human augmentation and dna modification and create prejudice, division and revolutions (gataca and star trek), ai displaces humans and leads to mass unemployment and despondency (pick one)

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