Some time ago, I wrote a post called Corporations and Artificial Intelligence: Consciousness Achieved, in which I set forth what I now modestly call my Theory of Everything. To review, the basic point is that something very much like what we now call "artificial intelligence" has been at work to enable various organizations to essentially become superorganisms that have -- sorry to be the one to break it to you -- more or less enslaved us. Historically, while at least some of these organisms have been the driving force behind technological progress and all of the benefits that we have received from that, they also have been the driving force behind many of the things that are responsible for much of the misery in the world. The opioid crisis is a perfect example -- the drug companies are motivated to create drugs that will save lives and relieve suffering and all of that, but that's simply because there is a demand for those sorts of drugs. If there is also a demand for drugs that will destroy lives, they will produce those drugs too, and will, in some cases, work to increase the demand for them.
One might say that the German drug companies were "evil" for supplying the methamphetamines that enabled the Wehrmacht to blitzkrieg over Poland, Denmark, Belgium, and France in a matter of days, but that's not right -- they were just doing what corporations do best: creating markets and making money off of them.
Anyway, starting today, I'm going to pick a news story every day that can be reframed in terms of this theory.
Let's see -- Foxnews reports that the democrats are mad at Elon Musk who is pulling Tesla out of California because "he" views California's Covid-19 shutdown rules as too restrictive ("fascist" in his word). Is Musk really speaking for himself? He's a multi-billionnaire who can build his own rockets so obviously he has free will in this, particularly since Tesla was his brainchild and is his company right? Well, yes and no. Ask yourself whether any other CEO would have done the same thing in his position. Money is being lost in California while there is money to be made by moving to neighboring Nevada or to Texas, which are basically begging you to move. The corporation follows the money, that's all, and the CEO -- if he knows what's good for him -- follows the corporation.
If anything, one might have thought that Musk's ownership of Tesla plus his social conscience plus his vast wealth would have been factors that might have pushed in favor of "doing the right thing" and staying in California, through thick and thin. If he had done that, he would have been an "exception" to the rule, which I would have explained by pointing to those factors. But even those factors were not enough to cause Musk to buck the corporation's thirst for profits and growth. And it seems pretty clear that Musk thought he was doing the right thing in any event, which just goes to show that Tesla has gotten -- and maintained, in spite of the ill-conceived Musk tweets that got him fired as Chairman of the Board -- the CEO it wants, and that Musk is, in fact, doing the superorganism's bidding. The fact that Musk "thinks" he is being the free-thinking business genius Elon Musk is beside the point -- if his sense of what is right happens to align with that of the superorganism, that only explains why the superorganism keeps him on as CEO.
One might say that the German drug companies were "evil" for supplying the methamphetamines that enabled the Wehrmacht to blitzkrieg over Poland, Denmark, Belgium, and France in a matter of days, but that's not right -- they were just doing what corporations do best: creating markets and making money off of them.
Anyway, starting today, I'm going to pick a news story every day that can be reframed in terms of this theory.
Let's see -- Foxnews reports that the democrats are mad at Elon Musk who is pulling Tesla out of California because "he" views California's Covid-19 shutdown rules as too restrictive ("fascist" in his word). Is Musk really speaking for himself? He's a multi-billionnaire who can build his own rockets so obviously he has free will in this, particularly since Tesla was his brainchild and is his company right? Well, yes and no. Ask yourself whether any other CEO would have done the same thing in his position. Money is being lost in California while there is money to be made by moving to neighboring Nevada or to Texas, which are basically begging you to move. The corporation follows the money, that's all, and the CEO -- if he knows what's good for him -- follows the corporation.
If anything, one might have thought that Musk's ownership of Tesla plus his social conscience plus his vast wealth would have been factors that might have pushed in favor of "doing the right thing" and staying in California, through thick and thin. If he had done that, he would have been an "exception" to the rule, which I would have explained by pointing to those factors. But even those factors were not enough to cause Musk to buck the corporation's thirst for profits and growth. And it seems pretty clear that Musk thought he was doing the right thing in any event, which just goes to show that Tesla has gotten -- and maintained, in spite of the ill-conceived Musk tweets that got him fired as Chairman of the Board -- the CEO it wants, and that Musk is, in fact, doing the superorganism's bidding. The fact that Musk "thinks" he is being the free-thinking business genius Elon Musk is beside the point -- if his sense of what is right happens to align with that of the superorganism, that only explains why the superorganism keeps him on as CEO.
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