PPI - Possible, Probable, Inevitable?

I've long been fascinated by the prospect of possibility, probability and inevitably.

We're often told that there are two certainties, Death and Taxes, and whilst the former is certainly true, the inevitability of the latter is less certain.

Sure, in our current economic construct, but imagine a world where machines do all the labour and production and we humans are either unwilling slaves living a non-important existence, or perhaps more optimistically we live benign lives, where the only need is to commune, create, live, love and 'be'. No tax needed, the machine is the means of production, everywhere..

Having said that there's even a case in the 'age of machines', that our entire lives could be downloaded and stored to be digitally reborn in some future existence. Whether our consciousness and character can be stored as well as our knowledge, only time will tell.

But now to more timely matters... and the current day.

We - at least those of us that are not living a subsistence existence, are becoming increasingly obsessed with the advent of all things Artificially Intelligent. AI is seemingly everywhere, and the accepted narrative is that it will either benefit or kill us, with not a lot of middle ground. Actually, that's an oversimplification, there are plenty of examples where AI is blending into our everyday lives, we just don't notice it.

I'd like to suggest that there are three lenses to think about this.

Possibility, the lowest on the pecking order of chance. It's highly possible that AI will dominate our lives and will be just like the 8 Billion mobile devices on planet earth, here, there and everywhere.? I think it's a safe bet to accept this possibility.

Probability, next....

Is it probable that AI will be adopted by good folks and bad ones, and as much good as it will create, the equal and opposite force will also apply? It's going to be a game of 'cat and mouse' for sure. One day good stuff, the next bad. Just be mindful of where you are, what you do and who you do it with, or to.

Finally, inevitability...

Is it inevitable that all this will happen, and we will be subject to the laws of our silicon masters? Or for that matter our Quantum mistresses. Now there's a thought!

No, of course not, we have the power to dial in or dial out, and by that, I mean, we have the gift of choice. We mustn't accept that just because these futures are written today that they will be true tomorrow. Time has a great habit of proving us wrong.

Even civilisations, once seemingly immovable in the moment they exist, change. Change is of course the only inevitability here, and as a species we are guilty of overestimating the impact in the short term and getting things totally wrong in the long term.

I'd like to suggest that we all have 'Agency' and with this it is our moral obligation to ask what sort of future do we really want? There are of course many significant actors in creating this future, from Codies to Governments, Tech God's, criminals and a host of other non-state actors, but the choice is clear.

We need to accept that this future is not inevitable, we 'the many', have the obligation to create the future we want, in spite of the Utopian and Dystopian futures peddled by folks either wishing to entertain, or control us.

Make sure you stand up, and don't accept an inevitability that is not necessarily so. Engage and shape your own destiny, after all we live in a democracy where opinions and voices matter. If however, we roll over and say or do nothing, we get the future we deserve.

The choice inevitably is yours!

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