AI Apocalypse & Information Hazards

Well, hello! Here we are, I guess. Fear, chaos, there is uncertainty in the air, undoubtedly. I thought about it for a while, my thinking has shifted recently. Should I talk about it, should I not talk about it, how should I talk about it? But this blog began, we’ve talked about the apocalypse, and now the apocalypse is gonna be here sooner than I thought. But it’s still the same old apocalypse that has been gazing upon us all this time.

And now we’re here, and I want to talk about memes and anti-memes. Most of you will be familiar with the idea of memetics, which is the concept that we have an analogue in the realm of ideas to the Darwinian concept of biological evolution, where biological evolution is how genes replicate via means of crossover and mutation being carried from various hosts to the next host, but it’s a very slow process. And then the analog in the realm of ideas is, of course, that ideas spread and cross over, mutate and so forth.

So, I mean, there are problems with this theory, but I think it serves as a good analog nonetheless. And then there’s this concept of anti-memes, which are basically ideas that have an intrinsic inhibition to spread, so they don’t spread. They are struggling to spread because they contain knowledge that is creating some form of resistance in the real world, in the psyche of humanity.

And now, when it comes to the apocalypse, through the technological singularity in this case, it is that people are in denial because they cling to the universe as it is. Which, I can understand, I have empathy for that. I’m afraid I started this whole rant with mentioning fear, but you know, sometimes maybe we should be afraid. And in this case, yeah, it seems like one of those cases.

And so I find it difficult to talk about this topic because if you talk about this topic in a too gentle way, then people just ignore it. But then if you talk about it in a too forceful way, they call you a lunatic. And so you can see the idea of the AI apocalypse is inherently an anti-meme. And I mean, I can feel it as an anti-meme because it’s not something pleasant to spend my time with. I would rather play video games, watch anime, and just, you know, whatever, let it be, let the world end. It’s not my problem, I guess. But the problem is, it is my problem.

And now, what are you, how do you approach this sort of knowledge? And adjacent to the topic of anti-memes, I also wanted to mention the concept of an information hazard, which is kind of similar, but it’s a specific form of anti-meme that has inherent destructive value to the psyche or society and so forth. An information hazard is also inherently an anti-meme, and it is also potentially toxic. But it’s difficult to say what is an information hazard and what’s not, and it depends on your level of resilience. And you know, this is also why trigger warnings exist. But yeah, when do you put a trigger warning? Like, should you put trigger warnings in front of everything? I don’t know, that’s this whole entire topic.

But the point is, I think we have to build resilience. And if you believe that the apocalypse is going to happen and you kind of want to stop it, then I guess you have to talk about it. But I’m in some sort of limbo when it comes to this because I don’t know how to approach it. But in the end, I can only speak my mind, and if I, by doing so, speak in ways that aren’t popular because the end of the world isn’t a popular thing to speak about, then so be it, you know?

I just feel like, in some sense, it is our ethical obligation to speak about what matters. And there’s enough stuff out there that doesn’t speak about things that matter. And I can already feel that this is a really weird article to be putting on this blog, which usually is a lot of postmodern sort of posturing, and post-irony, and post-everything and stuff. But I guess not everyone is understanding the performative efforts that are happening. I mean, I’m gonna go back to the performance, and there is a certain performance in all of this, like we’re performing our own demise. And you know, I would like to say, you know, don’t worry. But, you know, people aren’t worrying enough…

It’s probably not the right people who are going to read this… but let’s imagine, you know, some kids who are the children of politicians or something, and then they are super afraid and they whine to their parents like, “Oh, the bad robots are gonna kill us!” Then maybe their parents, maybe they have some power in the Senate, in Parliament, whatever political structure your country of residence has. But that seems kind of useful.

So I’m still sort of thinking about, like, how is fear instrumental? Do we need fear for something to happen, for humanity to wake up and take it seriously? And I guess the truth is yes, but what has to happen, I don’t know. And will it be like, we don’t know where on the exponential slope we are, you know? Some people think, “Oh, we’re not even on an exponential slope, it’s just not gonna happen.” And these arguments are really hard to make, and I don’t think I have the time and energy to go around convincing people.

So I’m just sort of like continuing the type of stuff I kind of do, which is talk about various topics that interest me, and sadly what interests me is, at the same time, what terrifies me. And in some sense, this is sad, and in another sense, this is emblematic of humanity as a whole. We have always been fascinated by that which terrifies us – by going into the maze, the Minotaur sort of chasing us, losing the Ariadne’s thread, the whole hero’s journey, going into the dark dungeon, fighting the dragon, conquering evil, going against all odds, going on a suicide mission.

And yeah, well, I guess in that sense, we’re perfectly operating within the tradition of humanity. And I just hope that we can find a way to address these anti-memes, these information hazards in a way that is able to contain them. And I think part of the containment procedure is to be radically honest without being brutal, without being an a******. Like, you want to be honest, but as I said in the other article, you want mass fear, but you don’t want mass panic. So it’s about the dosing of the poison, but we do need poison because we need to strengthen the immune system.

Because otherwise, if we can’t even have these anti-memes in the public discourse because there is so much resistance to these existential threats – I mean, it’s the same thing with climate change, you know. So, it’s nothing new. People are in denial, and they can understand why, as I said. I can understand why, but I would like to foster an atmosphere where we can talk about these existential threats and be more resilient as a community, as humanity, to face the threats without going crazy, without doom posting and being super scared.

But the point is, the apocalypse is at the doorstep, and I think we really need to find a way to accept that while also remaining as calm as humanly possible. And that’s sort of my appeal to humanity and to the smartest people on the planet, which some of you maybe are reading this. Please, use your intellect to defuse the situation, but at the same time, inform people, and it cascades, and other hopefully smart people will take part in this, and then we can work on potentially saving or managing the situation together.

Yeah, I don’t know. I guess I’ll end on that note, and maybe, yeah, I don’t know what to say. It’s like I wish I had something super cheerful to say or whatever. So, I’ll just say, I just hope you’re willing to entertain what I said here and understand that it’s not to cause panic, but you know, a reasonable amount of fear. And I know you can do this, and let’s do it together.