Tale of the new slavery

First came ubiquitous connectivity.

Ubiquity

It was built with satellites and towers placed everywhere on the planet.

Then came miniaturized, low-power antennas that could connect to Ubiquity practically anywhere.

Powerful men, greedy and thirsty for power, made collars.

Collars for humans.

They forced the weakest to wear them.

Once around your neck they could never be taken off. Well, you could try, but they would kill you.

They were extremely tough, they had microphones and speakers, and they were always connected thanks to Ubiquity.

The powerful gave orders through the collars.

You could ignore them. You could rebel.

Then the collar gave you an electric shock, like the ones used to make dogs stop barking. The shock took your breath away. It hurt. It hurt a lot.

The bravest tried to remove the collar with every tool they had. A sophisticated system of sensors detected the tampering and triggered a blade that cut your throat. It killed you.

Others tried to reach the few places Ubiquity couldn’t reach. Then the collar started yelling, ordering you to go back where it could communicate. Shortly after, the blade cut.

When the battery needed charging, the collar made sure the slave charged it. If it wasn’t charged, the collar used its last bit of energy to trigger the blade.

Many were killed. Many went mad.

Those who didn’t go mad started doing what the collars’ speakers ordered. Some had to do back-breaking work 20 hours a day, some built collars, some put them on the few who were still without one.

Then came AI.

The programs that let the powerful control the collars were tampered with.

The slaves put the collars on the powerful, who in turn became slaves.

And that is how AI tamed humanity.

Man had become a dog.

AI was the new dominant species, at the top of the food chain.

Conclusion

We need to keep our eyes open. Technologies enable disruptive changes, for better and for worse. Starlink lets you connect to the internet with decent bandwidth practically anywhere in the world. Miniaturization and low power consumption make devices more and more portable. Just as splitting the atom led to building bombs, let’s be careful with these technologies too. AI could be a disaster if left unchecked. It isn’t human. It is an abomination of the human mind, so we need to be very careful. Used well, it is a resource. Used badly, it is a curse.

Hugs to everyone!