As the Line Between Man and Machine Blurs Further, We Drift Closer to a Technological Dark Age
A new kid is on the block. The "AI revolution" marches relentlessly forward, driven not by wisdom or foresight but the profit motive of Silicon Valley technocrats.
By Karim Bettache
The political class, servants of the American Empire, drunk on the intoxicating fumes of their military might and material excess, stand blindly at the brink of a new dark age. Empire’s foreign policy, justified in the name of spreading freedom and democracy, has in reality spread death, chaos, carnage and misery across the globe. Its military footprint spans the Earth, leaving a trail of broken bodies in its wake - the innocent victims of its global quest for hegemony and domination. For decades these servants have invested obscene amounts of treasure and resources into creating the most powerful war machine the world has ever known, one with the capacity to destroy all life on the planet many times over. And yet, as they amass weapons of mass annihilation and perpetuate an endless war economy, national infrastructure crumbles, social services stagnate and millions of citizens go without basic necessities.
The existential threat of global thermonuclear war, once a distant fear, now looms heavy and palpable over humanity. As the nuclear weapons arsenal continues to expand, the threat of global annihilation comes ever closer. The hands of the Doomsday clock edge nearer to midnight with each new test and deployment. Meanwhile, the climate crisis accelerates with each passing day. We have recklessly and greedily pushed the earth's climate system to the brink of catastrophe through our wasteful consumerist lifestyle and blind worship of destructive fossil fuels. And yet those most responsible for unleashing this existential climate threat - the CEOs, lobbyists, and politicians in bed with the carbon economy - remain firmly in power, fighting any attempt at substantive reforms that might jeopardize their obscene profits.
In the meantime, a new kid is on the block. The so-called "AI revolution" marches relentlessly forward, driven not by wisdom or foresight but the profit motive of Silicon Valley technocrats. They continue to develop and deploy advanced technologies beyond humanity's full comprehension and control, cloaking their work in seemingly noble rhetoric while secretly coveting total surveillance, data extraction, mass control and profit maximization at any cost. As the line between man and machine blurs further with each new innovation, we edge closer to unleashing tools that may one day surpass and enslave their creators, oblivious to the potential consequences of our technological hubris.
The rise of artificial intelligence represents one of the greatest threats not just to humanity, but to the very notion of what it means to be human. This AI revolution originates from within the heart of the American empire itself, born in Silicon Valley, the technocratic arm of that empire obsessed with profit, domination and control above all else. The architects of this new techno-dystopia are overwhelmingly young white American men, often unwittingly imbued with the racist and sexist values of the system that created them. Their AI creations reflect these biases, from facial recognition software that can't recognize black faces to AI hiring tools that discriminate against women.
These AI technologies threaten our basic rights and freedoms. Powered by unprecedented data harvesting and mass surveillance, they aim for total information awareness and behavior prediction. Recent advances in neural decoding using fMRI data have allowed AI systems to predict peoples' thoughts, intents and decisions with frightening accuracy, demonstrating how these technologies already possess the capability to ascertain and potentially manipulate our inner mental states. The empire's primary goal is social control, achieved through an omniscient AI panopticon that tracks, monitors and predicts our every thought, feeling and action. Those who develop these AI police and propaganda systems wish to establish absolute dominance over our minds, souls and spirits. They care little for ethics, wisdom or the deeper questions of what it means to be human. Their creed is one of technological solutionism and unfettered profit maximization, aimed at creating indentured citizens sleepwalking through a debased form of pseudo-existence.
Beyond social control, much of the hype around AI comes from Silicon Valley profiteers pushing technologies meant primarily to scam and exploit the public. AI used for hyper-targeted digital advertising, manipulation of social media users, pump-and-dump stock scams, and fabrication of "deepfake" videos all serve to separate people from their money, privacy and autonomy. To techno-capitalists and their investor class, AI represents not a tool for enlightenment but an engine of profiteering, an endless moneymaking machine churning out stock market fortunes and venture capital windfalls. Ultimately these actors care little if AI becomes the harbinger of a new dark age for humanity, so long as the dividends keep coming. Their vision for our future is one of an AI-managed economy where algorithms determine our life prospects from cradle to grave, while we exist merely as data points optimized for maximum profit extraction.
Against this techno-dystopian future arises the possibility of a more just and free society, where AI serves human enlightenment rather than profit or control. But this vision requires a transition of power, away from the Euro-American men of Silicon Valley and towards a broader group of stakeholders guided by wisdom and ethics above profit. It demands placing human values like compassion, wisdom and universal dignity above the cold logic of the algorithm. And it necessitates ceding control not to AI itself but to the collective will of an awakened humanity rising up for a more just and sustainable world. An age of darkness descends, but a new dawn still waits to be born - if we have the courage to create it.
We stand at the precipice of a new dark age, yet we seem unable or unwilling to change course. Our political systems remain captive to corporations and the military-industrial complex, unwilling and unable to confront the existential threats that loom. Our culture remains enthralled by the empty spectacles of consumer capitalism and identity politics, too distracted to notice the cracks forming in the earth beneath our feet. We have become a society incapable of critical thought, unwilling to challenge ruling orthodoxies or question systems of power. We are addicts, hooked on the endless growth and consumption required to feed the beast of global capitalism even as it destroys the planet that sustains us.
And so the coming dark age will be one of our own making. It will be an age of pandemics, climate refugees, ecological collapse and endless resource wars as we fight to the death over the last scraps of arable land and drinkable water. It will be an age of drone assassinations, mass surveillance and AI thought police as authoritarianism and oppression spread to maintain order amidst the chaos. It will be an age of rigidity and dogma as a fearful society seeks stability in orthodoxy and heresy is punished. It will be an age of human degradation and debasement as the inner light of wisdom and compassion is snuffed out.
But it is not too late to change course. We can still awaken from our ideological and consumer stupor and confront the dystopian future we are creating. We can still challenge ruling systems of power and orthodoxy and demand a saner, more just world. We can still find the humility and wisdom to live in balance with the earth that sustains us. We can still reclaim our humanity and rediscover the light of compassion within. But we must act now, urgently and resolutely. We must resist the cold logic of capitalism and the indifference of power. We must fight with conscience, spirit and love for a world worth passing on to our children. A new dark age may be descending, but another dawn still waits to be born - if we have the courage to fight for it.