Default in our stars

The thought first occurred to me a couple of years ago, when I realised that thanks to outsourcing and automation, we would struggle today to do many things that were once life skills. We also lost a little more than that – learning.

Sometimes directly, and sometimes, through the interactions with the world, they facilitated a learning experience that taught one how to navigate the world and the different kinds of folks that made up its systems. 

Regression Planning

It was continued with a bit more specificity in a subsequent post.

Instagram, Facebook, Tinder, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon – everything is a feed of recommendations, whether it be social interactions, music, content or shopping! Once upon a time, these were conscious choices we made. These choices, new discoveries, their outcomes, the feedback loop, and the memories we store of them, all worked towards developing intuition. 

Intelligence, intuition and instincts. The journeys in the first two are what have gotten the third hardwired into our biology and chemistry. When we cut off the pipeline to the first two, what happens to the third, and where does it leave our species?

AI: Artificial Instincts
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Exhalation

Ted Chiang is master of speculative fiction and the nine stories are an example of his abilities – not just the imagination, but the ability to articulate it. There is profound insight in all the stories, irrespective of its length, and across multiple streams – from artificial intelligence to free will. An absolute must-read.