In his latest Substack newsletter, John Higgs has a piece which uses the SNAFU principle from Illuminatus! (communication is possible only between equals) and applies it to the dangers of AI chatbots and billionaires:
"There’s been a lot of welcome attention on AI psychosis lately - the ‘insidious risks’ to a person’s sanity that come from talking to chatbots. The sycophantic approving attention that LLMs bestow on us feels safer than the messy unpredictability of speaking to humans, which can lead to an addictive cycle of increasing isolation and divorce from reality. LLMs are a bit like drugs – most people who experiment with them will be fine. But not everyone will."
Also:
"Great wealth means that tech oligarchs can have everything they want - except for people they can relate to as equals. They have no-one who will tell them when they are being an idiot, for fear that this will hurt their position and income. And as a result, billionaires become increasingly deluded and insane as the years pass and their wealth grows. I’m sure we can all think of examples."
I'm hoping that's enough to persuade you to read the whole thing.
Also, the David Lynch book comes out in less than two weeks, and John has talks scheduled on Lynch, William Blake and Dr. Who, see the newsletter for details.
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