> Quoting Michael Dawson -PSU <mdawson at pdx.edu>:
>
>> In a world where half the population
>> can't read and lives in dire conditions, and at a time when we
>> probably have
>> 50 years max to avert eco-catastrophe, leftists are apparently very
>> seriously cogitating upon science fiction scenarios.
>
> That's because those sci-fi scenarios contain some of the most accurate
> cognitions of the total system around. AI narratives are just the
> latest
> iteration of robot narratives, a.k.a. meditations on the alienation of
> labor
> (and laborers) in capitalism.
precisely. in this respect, joann is right and wrong at the same time . . . that is, robots becoming intelligent is partly about our own liberation/coming to consciousness. i think there's more going on than that, but that's got to be considered critical.
on the other hand, i guess it's always seemed to me that continuing to explore what it means (and doesn't mean) to be human is part of being human. good sf, including all that AI stuff, is part of that.
j wishing he had to hand that marx quote about the realization of philosophy . . .