"Technology Always Wins"; Or, Be Reconciled To It: AI Is Here to Stay
Gregg Zegarelli Esq.
Managing Shareholder at Technology & Entrepreneurial Ventures Law Group, PC
There is a lot of hype regarding "Artificial Intelligence." In working with clients for 35 years who are "for and against new technology," I have probably said the following statement hundreds if not thousands of times:
"Technology always wins."
It is as simple as that.
We can love technology or hate technology, and it simply doesn't care. It continues to evolve and move forward. We can't stop it, because technology is a tool, and human beings are naturally tool-makers. Moreover, human beings are conquerors, it being understood that it is an open question if the nature of man as a conqueror leads man to make tools, or the ability to make tools leads man to be a conqueror. Either way, it is immaterial. A hammer to the nail is a tool, a hammer to the head is a weapon. Same technology, different application of conquest. A hammer conquers a nail directly and thereby conquers the weather indirectly. A hammer conquers an animal directly and thereby conquers survival and comfort indirectly.
There is a scene in the HBO Series, Marco Polo that is exemplary: Genghis Khan found an advantage in war (that is, war generally caused by the human need for survival and comfort). He set his horses and pigeons on fire with oil and then sent them stampeding and homing into the enemy camp, burning the enemy encampment. Really clever. In fact, ingenious. The new technology served his self-interested purpose. Not so good for the horses and pigeons, but an ingenious technology for its time.
The truth is that human beings tend to weaponize just about everything and anything that can be weaponized, and it is not the weapon's fault. Knives cut a lot of different things, a lot of different ways, for better or worse, depending upon the self-interested purpose of the user and the object upon which it is used.
So-called "Artificial Intelligence" is here to stay, and will continue to evolve, for better or worse. Sensationalized hype aside, it is not really "intelligence" in many cases, but simply content aggregation and reorganization, but, even so, if the technology provides an advantage, then it will flourish and evolve, somewhere. If it is a tool, or perhaps a weapon, it will escape into human self-interested use, sooner or later.
The repression of what will be or must be is socially dysfunctional. Human nature can only be reconciled to a behavioral normalcy within a degree, often on a mutually advantageous self-interested basis. But we recognize, as much as we might detest certain behaviors, human nature has proved to be stronger than the hopeful socially frameworked constraint: that is, prohibitions of certain human activities will be and always be, like it or not. Prohibition did not work in America for this reason, eliminating prostitution never worked just about everywhere for this reason, and eliminating pregnancy termination will not work for this reason. Some human behaviors will win. They are too inviting, too self-interested, and too personal.
Human beings are self-interested tool-making and weapon-making conquerors. We can repress it, but all of history proves it. It is deep in humanity. Each new technology is a tool, or a weapon, depending upon the application, being the self-interest of the user and the object upon which it is used. But, it is going to come either way.
Mark it: Technology always wins.
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Said Mr. Brownlow to Mr. Bumble regarding the acts of Mrs. Bumble, "You were present on the occasion of the destruction of these trinkets, and, indeed, are the more guilty of the two, in the eye of the law; for the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction.
If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass — a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience — by experience.”
― Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
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Gregg Zegarelli?is Managing Shareholder of?Technology & Entrepreneurial Ventures Law Group, PC.?Gregg is nationally rated as "superb" and has more than 30 years of experience working with entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes, including startups,?INC. 500, and publicly traded companies.?He is author of?One: The Unified Gospel of Jesus,?and?The Business of Aesop? article series, and co-author with his father,?Arnold Zegarelli, of?The Essential Aesop: For Business, Managers, Writers and Professional Speakers.?Gregg is a frequent lecturer, speaker and faculty for a variety of educational and other institutions.?? 2023 Gregg Zegarelli, Esq.?Gregg can be contacted through?LinkedIn.
Managing Shareholder at Technology & Entrepreneurial Ventures Law Group, PC
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