Technology is a gateway drug into scientism

[Atlantico]

So kids: don't do too much technology. Always balance out your technology use with craftsmanship.

[aeternalis]

In my opinion, there's consumptive use of technology and then there's creative use of technology. I don't think there's anything wrong with learning to code, for instance (although maybe it is better to learn proper programming languages, rather than this dumbed-down marketing stuff that "teaches kids to program" but is basically an unfun game).

But it is a point well taken.

[Atlantico]

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

This is sort of a problem, because what people consider magic is only a slight structural difference from a primitive religion.

I've seen this manifest in many different ways, and here are a selection:

One is where I was talking to a boomer about electric cars and I mentioned how it was a genuine problem to acquire all minerals and materials to make the batteries required, e.g. cobalt. His response, his face lit up with a smile like a Jehova's Witness about to out-quote your meager Bible-knowledge and said: science will find a way to make these batteries without cobalt, give it time, it will happen.

Another example was when I met a classmate of mine from childhood who was working at a mobile-gaming company, and he was telling me about the latest game and how they could see how each individual user actually used the game, where he pressed on the screen, what he typed, how he held the phone etc. The people playing the game had no idea, of course. To them, it was just magic that they had a game to play on their magical datapad.

Last example, the masses of people who believed that "science" had discovered a way to make designer-vaccines through mRNA viral injections. In only a couple of months. Without any relevant trials. Because: magic.

The problem here is when people are so detached from how the sausage is made, when they're only consumers or part of the service industry, then yeah it all starts looking like magic and when some high-priest tells the people what magic is capable of, people believe it. And why wouldn't they?

Thank you for listening to my TED talk.

[aeternalis]

I think your TED talk is right on-point, and thank you for posting it. Scientism is a religion now. For me (as perhaps for you) this was nowhere more evident than COVID (and not only the vaccines, but also the masks and lockdowns), since the Covidian church is really just the Scientism church.

As Cleve calls it, "scienmajick" (well, maybe I'm forgetting, but it sounds like something Cleve would say)

It feels like the religious need is baked into humans, but absent functional religions, they turn to dysfunctional ones with perverted vicars like Fauci and Gates.

[Ranselknulf]

There are definite issues with using technology that you don't understand. All technology has limitations and needs to be interpreted for accuracy and relevance.

This is a huge topic in engineering as technology and computers have taken over a lot of the manual work of calculations and generating plans and product designs.

If you don't know when the computer is "fucking up" so to speak, then you aren't a good engineer.

Some might call it wisdom, experience, or knowledge that helps a person complete these sorts of tasks, but not using technology available is foolish. The trick is to know enough about the concepts to call bullshit on the computer if it spits out some retarded answer.

[Atlantico]

The trick is to know enough about the concepts to call bullshit on the computer if it spits out some retarded answer.

Exactly and that is something we nerdy types often had a reasonable ability and inclination to do. Now my mom uses a computer a thousand times more powerful than a mainframe in the 1980s, and my mom's computer is a mobile datapad connected wirelessly to another massively powerful network of computers that make everything look like pure magic with buzzwords like "the Cloud" and "AI" throwing sand in people's eyes.

People like my mom are making decisions in our society, in our countries. Setting policies, actually deciding things. People who know nothing about the technology they're dependent on and to them it is simply: magic — which gives rise to this idea that science is in fact magic. We can do anything and if you don't know anything, that's exactly what it looks like.

We all fall down into the lazy Soma of having the computers think for us unless we resist and most won't resist. That's what "AI" is going to be used for, going forward. Thinking for your average normie, being his best friend and keeping him asleep.

[Ranselknulf]

The trick is to know enough about the concepts to call bullshit on the computer if it spits out some retarded answer.

Exactly and that is something we nerdy types often had a reasonable ability and inclination to do. Now my mom uses a computer a thousand times more powerful than a mainframe in the 1980s, and my mom's computer is a mobile datapad connected wirelessly to another massively powerful network of computers that make everything look like pure magic with buzzwords like "the Cloud" and "AI" throwing sand in people's eyes.

People like my mom are making decisions in our society, in our countries. Setting policies, actually deciding things. People who know nothing about the technology they're dependent on and to them it is simply: magic — which gives rise to this idea that science is in fact magic. We can do anything and if you don't know anything, that's exactly what it looks like.

We all fall down into the lazy Soma of having the computers think for us unless we resist and most won't resist. That's what "AI" is going to be used for, going forward. Thinking for your average normie, being his best friend and keeping him asleep.

Honestly, that's gonna be a difficult obstacle to overcome.

The more people acquiesce to the computers and technical sophistry, the less they trust themselves to make decisions in their own lives. The media and political class will tout the AI and computer systems as the reason for making certain decisions going forward. The AI can be influenced of course, based upon the logic and reasoning parameters enforced upon it.

When does the disconnect between what the media and politicians are advocating, and the actual conditions of your lifestyle, come to a head? That's a particularly fuzzy question to answer, but the media will spin as hard as they can, while the politicians do everything they can to pay off the people with the microphone.

TL/DR: AI and computers will be used for political purposes to obfuscate bad decisions, and most people won't realize how bad shit is until a complete collapse of the system occurs.