Sam Harris has a rap about how people who like to think about the future of artificial intelligence seem unable to associate the appropriate emotional affect with the dystopian possibilities they envision around AI. Loss of human freedom? Bad in theory, but the details are fascinating. Tweak a variable and see if things get better or worse. Which ( Read more... )

Yesterday I wrote about how making generally optimistic statements in public counts as a form of trolling when you've been collecting narratives about how industrial civilization is eating its seed corn and spoiling its nest. I got some feedback reminding me how the people holding the short end of the stick don't want to hear how good things are ( Read more... )

I recently shared a Facebook post in which SF writer David Brin excerpted some happy talk from Steven Pinker about how the world is growing less violent with far fewer people dying in wars than was the norm just 50 years ago. Not only are fewer people dying in wars, but violent crime statistics in the USA are on a decades-long downward trend ( Read more... )

It's not hard to understand why some people take comfort in the writings of pessimists like Thomas Ligotti. From birth, we are relentlessly propagandized to accept the optimists' promises of the world as our oyster, when it seems more like our acceptance of their bright-side dogma ensures that the world remains THEIR oyster ( Read more... )