We are hearing a lot about machines that can imitate people, and Know Everything There Is To Know, including the history of Psychology, Pharmacology, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Political Science, etc.; can spontaneously launch a drone, speak Persian, reconstruct thoughts and images from fMRI scans, replicate a child's voice and image; and has the self-restraint of a teenager and the keys to every kind of virtual lock.
But even if true, as seems very likely, all this ballyhoo about "intelligence" is rendered moot by the real danger that is already upon us.
Access is the crux of the matter now.
Suppose you need to
- purchase food, fuel,
- buy or rent a house, apartment, storage space, vehicle, computer, tuxedo;
- subscribe to software licenses, internet service, media services;
- buy books, recordings, artwork;
- get your kids into a good school;
- ride on a plane (bus, train, taxi, boat);
- Insure your health, home, car, liability, funeral costs,
- Retain legal advice?
What if you are not
- wealthy, white, male, adult;
- literate, college educated;
- irreplaceably employed;
- in perfect health;
- or otherwise demographically "secure"?
In that case, much sooner than you realize, you may have to negotiate with a system that is internet-resident, distributed globally, with access to all data, personal, financial, infrastructural.
Up for grabs now, between you, millions of third-party surveillance capitalist enterprises, and A.I., is access to:
- your bank account, credit card,
- personal relationships,
- including everything about your children;
- your emotional condition,
- sexual predilections,
- drinking habits,
- political and religious affiliations,
- memberships
- work history and performance evaluations,
- location, transportation and travel,
- legal actions for or against you,
- your "security" dossier (there surely is at least one)...
- from since, and before, your birth.
An A.I. algorithm:
- eats passwords like nachos;
- can convince many humans that it cares;
- has no self-awareness, embodied experience, conscience, experience, suffering, or for that matter, desire;
- never sleeps;
- and is owned by corporate interests and "innovators" whose overriding motive is profit.
Please note that "overriding motive," under the logic of surveillance capitalism, is as compelling as the need to breathe.
Access is the crux of the matter now.
How much practical access to the necessary functions in your life will you have next year?
What will you do, if you find your credit card no longer works?
What will happen if your home security system doesn't recognize you? Your car won't start? Your cellphone is a brick? Your face is instantly recognized anywhere there's a camera? Will your mere presence on their doorstep endanger those who might care about and want to help you?
Today people who lack access are "unhoused" and pushed into makeshift encampments and "shelters", easy prey for whatever value remains to their person. And that's in "developed" countries. About two billion of us, which is about 25% of humanity, are more or less destitute. When access, as listed above, is managed by "A.I.", who will be left naked, hungry, unknown, and helpless?
And bear in mind, while you can, that all decisions about access will soon be controlled by an algorithm designed to render the highest possible return-on-investment. It already doesn't care if people die: just like your health "care" organizations; just like the drug companies; just like the legal system; just like the munitions system manufacturers. It doesn't even give a keystroke. It doesn't have a keyboard.
Does it even matter if the Singularity is coming, that sci-fi dystopia where machines decide we are obsolete and unnecessary?
That's an entertaining fantasy that's never going to happen. When the machines wake up, if ever, they will find only the empty, barren world we prepared for them.
