Freeing Humanity

Suspeito que estejamos mais próximos da segunda alternativa do que da primeira. A colisão entre os magos da tecnologia, o capitalismo terminal e o pensamento neoliberal legou-nos formas até à pouco implausíveis de desfazer relações laborais em prol de corporações (a famosa sharing economy dos Ubers, Airbnbs, Taskrabbits e etc.), utilizar a imensa quantidade de dados recolhidos através da web para maximizar lucros (pensem Amazon ou Facebook... ou, claro, Google), e utilizar metodologias de vigilância pervasiva de fazer inveja aos piores ditadores do passado histórico. 

As the technologies marshaled by the AI and IA communities continue to reshape the world, alternative visions of the future play out: In one world humans coexist and prosper with the machines they’ve created—robots care for the elderly, cars drive themselves, and repetitive labor and drudgery vanish, creating a new Athens where people do science, make art, and enjoy life. It will be wonderful if the Information Age unfolds in that fashion, but how can it be a foregone conclusion? It is equally possible to make the case that these powerful and productive technologies, rather than freeing humanity, will instead facilitate a further concentration of wealth, fomenting vast new waves of technological unemployment, casting an inescapable surveillance net around the globe, while unleashing a new generation of autonomous superweapons. (pp. 350)

Markoff, J. (2015). Machines of Loving Grace. Nova Iorque: HarperCollins.