This post was written by @senyakk and is cross-posted from our Substack. Kindly read the description of this sequence to understand the context in which this was written.
An AISIG colleague of mine, @ilijalichkovski, published a commentary critique of Mechanize, an AI startup manifesto, which appears to be a defense of technological acceleration due to its deterministic stance. I refer to the manifesto’s proponents as the mechanists and to my colleague, respectively, as the author.
The Mechanists advance two theses: 1m) the tech tree is discovered, not forged, and 2m) we do not control our technological trajectory. The author counters that what mechanists overlook is that determinism can still be compatible with the historical contingencies – a valuable correction... (read 1550 more words →)