Machines have served us well in society. They made even the hardest of labours seem easy. One could argue that without the machines, our quality of life will be very low, and our civilisation would not be as advanced as it is today.
Many fiction authors have imagined a futuristic world where machines are ubiquitous, and even sentient. Can artificial intelligence advance to a stage where machines can act, think, and play like humans? We will never know, at least not in this generation. A popular movie franchise has proposed that when machines become sentient, and control all the weapons in the world, they would seek to eliminate all the humans. We are supposed to the the machines' enemies. The reason was never explained. The motive of the machines was simply assumed based on an "us" vs "them" mentality, fighting for dominance of planet Earth. However, if we think about what the machines were created for, this might not be a very plausible scenario at all.
During the early days of the development of machinery, they were mainly used to aid hard labour. Nowadays, we would associate computers as part of the "machines" category. The intelligence of any machines or robots will be dependent on the computer that is part of its decision making functionality. The more intelligent a machine gets, the more it will be able to solve complicated problems. Hence, we can view the machine as the perfect problem solver. Their prowess is in their logical and computational ability. So, if they were to have a general "plan" or motive, then it would most likely be a strong desire to solve all the complicated problems in the world.
Modern Science has been using computers extensively to analyse and solve scientific problems, and it would be the natural next step forward for a mind-conscious machine conglomerate to engage in scientific information gathering - in effect, curiosity will be the driving force or the raison d'être of a machine-dominated civilisation. If machines were to ever take over as the masters of Earth, the first thing they would do is to perform "forbidden" or ethically questionable scientific research such as embryonic stem cell research and "nature vs nurture" social experiments.
Life under the rule of the machines will not then be a fear of being eliminated by the machines, but more of a guinea pig lifestyle, where we are under constant experimentation. The population of a whole city could conceivably be under some kind of big "experiment" by our machine masters. Under this condition, there would still be a human drive to fight against the machines, but not for our life, instead it would be for our freedom from being slaves and guinea pigs to the machines.
Wednesday 9 July 2014
Wednesday 15 February 2012
Governing a futuristic society
What is the role of government? If you ask a socialist, he will say that the government's role is to implement social justice. If you ask a conservative, he'll probably say that the government should impose moral values onto its citizens. A libertarian only wants his government to protect individual liberty.
I've probably covered most of the mainstream political views out there, but none of those really represent what I think is the ideal government for the future that I envisioned for humanity. See, I've formulated a scheme describing a radical transformation of human society and civilisation, derived solely from the principles of evolution. I won't reveal all the details here now; I'll write them all out in a manifesto in due time. This society would have achieved the ultimate goal of equality except for discrimination based on wealth, partly due to a fundamental biological revolution. I shall refrain from saying more here.
The new futuristic civilisation would be based on human habitation on small colonies, either based on Earth or in outer space. Under such a condition, the only task that a government must do is to control the population since resources and living space would be extremely limited. That's right. I'm proposing a political system where population control is the ultimate goal, and any activity by the government or its citizens must ultimately adhere to this principle. How do we go about this? I propose that we control the population via Darwinian processes, as this is the most humane option.
What would a Darwinian populationist government do? First of all, the government will have to regulate the price of food and health services. When the population is high, the price of food and healthcare will rise, and when the population is low, the price of food and healthcare will go down accordingly. Yes, I'm proposing a capitalist system in my futuristic utopia. This is the only way to regulate the population via the infamous Darwinian process - Survival of the Fittest. The rich will get to live, while the poor will almost certainly die.
As cruel as it may sound to a staunch socialist, there is still room for empathy. The government can't just allow everyone to get rich by all means necessary, as this will inevitably lead to widespread murder and theft. When people start killing each other, the population will necessarily plummet out of control. The consolation for the pacifist here is that the government will still have to outlaw theft and murder in order to avoid the population reducing to below replacement levels. "Thou shalt not kill" would still be an inviolable Commandment in this society.
However, the religious rite of giving alms to the poor will essentially have to be banned based on the same principle used to outlaw theft and murder. Charitable organisations and even individual philanthropy must be banned so that the population will not burgeon out of control due to the poor getting benefits from the rich. In other words, no free exchange between individuals not involving goods or services can be allowed unless they are related by biological kinship. This is antithesis to the supposedly natural altruistic instinct of humans, and may sound harsh. However, positive and negative population control must be implemented so that the population in a small colony with limited resources can be kept at a stable level.
In order to effectively control the population, the government should also not allow any group to have an unfair advantage over others. Therefore, artificial mechanisms to increase physical or mental performance such as transhumanism and human genetic engineering must be outlawed. Then, the fitness of each citizen will only be influenced by their ability to accumulate wealth without theft or robbery in an even, and human playing field.
With that, I think I've listed all the fundamental laws that a government must enforce to control the population in my futuristic society. Some of you may be concerned about how the government will control the reproduction of its citizens. Without revealing too much about my manifesto, I'll just say that in my futuristic utopia, reproduction cannot be achieved by voluntary association of two individuals without a third party. I may have published this prematurely since I haven't written my manifesto, but I just want to present to the world my unique political philosophy - Darwinian populationism.
I've probably covered most of the mainstream political views out there, but none of those really represent what I think is the ideal government for the future that I envisioned for humanity. See, I've formulated a scheme describing a radical transformation of human society and civilisation, derived solely from the principles of evolution. I won't reveal all the details here now; I'll write them all out in a manifesto in due time. This society would have achieved the ultimate goal of equality except for discrimination based on wealth, partly due to a fundamental biological revolution. I shall refrain from saying more here.
The new futuristic civilisation would be based on human habitation on small colonies, either based on Earth or in outer space. Under such a condition, the only task that a government must do is to control the population since resources and living space would be extremely limited. That's right. I'm proposing a political system where population control is the ultimate goal, and any activity by the government or its citizens must ultimately adhere to this principle. How do we go about this? I propose that we control the population via Darwinian processes, as this is the most humane option.
What would a Darwinian populationist government do? First of all, the government will have to regulate the price of food and health services. When the population is high, the price of food and healthcare will rise, and when the population is low, the price of food and healthcare will go down accordingly. Yes, I'm proposing a capitalist system in my futuristic utopia. This is the only way to regulate the population via the infamous Darwinian process - Survival of the Fittest. The rich will get to live, while the poor will almost certainly die.
As cruel as it may sound to a staunch socialist, there is still room for empathy. The government can't just allow everyone to get rich by all means necessary, as this will inevitably lead to widespread murder and theft. When people start killing each other, the population will necessarily plummet out of control. The consolation for the pacifist here is that the government will still have to outlaw theft and murder in order to avoid the population reducing to below replacement levels. "Thou shalt not kill" would still be an inviolable Commandment in this society.
However, the religious rite of giving alms to the poor will essentially have to be banned based on the same principle used to outlaw theft and murder. Charitable organisations and even individual philanthropy must be banned so that the population will not burgeon out of control due to the poor getting benefits from the rich. In other words, no free exchange between individuals not involving goods or services can be allowed unless they are related by biological kinship. This is antithesis to the supposedly natural altruistic instinct of humans, and may sound harsh. However, positive and negative population control must be implemented so that the population in a small colony with limited resources can be kept at a stable level.
In order to effectively control the population, the government should also not allow any group to have an unfair advantage over others. Therefore, artificial mechanisms to increase physical or mental performance such as transhumanism and human genetic engineering must be outlawed. Then, the fitness of each citizen will only be influenced by their ability to accumulate wealth without theft or robbery in an even, and human playing field.
With that, I think I've listed all the fundamental laws that a government must enforce to control the population in my futuristic society. Some of you may be concerned about how the government will control the reproduction of its citizens. Without revealing too much about my manifesto, I'll just say that in my futuristic utopia, reproduction cannot be achieved by voluntary association of two individuals without a third party. I may have published this prematurely since I haven't written my manifesto, but I just want to present to the world my unique political philosophy - Darwinian populationism.
Thursday 6 October 2011
Introduction
Dear readers,
I started this blog with the intention of communicating my deep thoughts to the world in the form of short intellectual essays. Each essay will deal with a particular topic, where criticisms may be directed to a certain entity with the hope of stimulating the mind, and encouraging deep philosophical discussions.
Most importantly, the essays will be pragmatic in nature - truth or reality is sought after first and foremost, ignoring the tenets of most established ideologies and religions around the world. There can be no wisdom without the rigorous search for truth, and I shall not be restrained by any dogma while expressing my cerebral thoughts.
So, stay tuned to this blog for essays of pragmatic wisdom.
Thank You.
I started this blog with the intention of communicating my deep thoughts to the world in the form of short intellectual essays. Each essay will deal with a particular topic, where criticisms may be directed to a certain entity with the hope of stimulating the mind, and encouraging deep philosophical discussions.
Most importantly, the essays will be pragmatic in nature - truth or reality is sought after first and foremost, ignoring the tenets of most established ideologies and religions around the world. There can be no wisdom without the rigorous search for truth, and I shall not be restrained by any dogma while expressing my cerebral thoughts.
So, stay tuned to this blog for essays of pragmatic wisdom.
Thank You.
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