Message to all trained professionals
- to every breed of educated people
About artificial intelligence. I don't know how far it has developed. But I am sure the military are strongly motivated
to push the frontier and that it is done in classified scientific research projects with big budgets. And that an elite of
very talented scientists are involved.
Whatever comes out of it, is bound to change the working conditions for practically every intellectual human activity
which people do for a living. I am not saying we should try to stop such research. Only that it mustn't be done secretely.
I want you to begin thinking about the term classified not in a respectful way but on the contrary, think about it the same way
you think about the term conspiracy or scandal and demand a legitimate explanation of precisely why an information
is classified. In an open society the term classified should arouse suspicion and not respect. Don't leave the responsibility to
push for openness to a few activists. This concerns everybody and these days more and more intellectual workers, since their working
conditions are bound to be drastically affected by the developments in high technology.
Example:
Doctors, lawyers, economists, engineers and other people with long training (whether civilian or military) can sooner or later be substituted by computers.
( Sooner means: it has already happened. Later means maybe 10 years?)
This sort of discussion has existed for several decades and I don't imagine that there's anything new in my predictions.
I am not saying it's a tragedy that it happens, but I don't want these changes to be imposed on the rest of the people by some secretive
group of people within the military. Everything about these technologies must be exposed openly and become the subject of public scrutiny.
Don't accept that a handful of scientists will revolutionize every aspect of your life, without you being allowed to have your say about it, through
your democratically elected representatives.
Don't accept it when they say everything is moving so fast and there's nothing we can do about it. It is a danger that practically all
well-educated people are working so much, that they never have time to think about such things and even less do something about it.
The military will say we can't reveal everything because the enemy will use it against us. That's true. But only because the military
in all countries want to have an enemy to justify their own existance. They have never done their best to bring down tensions among the
peoples of the world. They like those tensions to remain adjusted to the present level, where they can still point at some external treaths. They wan't an adequate number
of bad guy's to stay in power to have something to point at. And
continue spending the tax-payers money in classified research, which is then used in ways that the people would never approve of if they were allowed
to have their say. The widespread use to classify information and research reflects equally widespread antidemocratic values among the authorities.
They try to bypass democracy in every way they can think of. They accept democracy only posingly, but in reality they detest it. Partly because
they think people are stupid and don't know whats good for them.
The world's military will gradually be replaced by various high-tech inventions. Thus protecting the big military budget's does not protect the individual military
against unemployment or in any case very drastically altered working conditions.
Secretive science pushes the military out of the military.
Whether General or beginner, nobody is unaffected by these changes.
How do you stay loyal to something which threatens the stability of every aspect of your life? Clearly these rapid scientific developments make the traditional
groupings of people into nations obsolete in some respects. The real threats now come from within. From the power structures raised to protect us. Not from
other nations.
What about open science? Doesn't it too, threaten us in a similar manner? I don't have the answer to that. But I beleive openness is the way to go and although
the rapid changes may seem threatening to me too at times, I beleive we can benefit greatly from it, if we develop a sound awareness for the dangers involved.
References - 1
References - 2
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