What Myths Can Teach Us About the AI Arms Race | Joshua Schrei

Hidden Forces

Demetri Kofinas

Government, Business

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Episode 355 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with mythologist and storyteller Joshua Schrei about the cultural, social, and political consequences of the rise of Artificial Intelligence.

According to Joshua, humanity is entering an era whose only corollary is the stuff of fairy tales and myths. Powers that used to be reserved for magicians and sorcerers are no longer metaphorical, and it’s unclear if humanity has the tools and initiatory frameworks to use them responsibly. What’s at stake is our civilization, something that was obvious to the creators of the atom bomb but which seems less salient today, even though the risk of societal collapse stemming from the proliferation of AI and its associated technologies is arguably much greater.

In the first hour of their conversation, Josh and Demetri discuss the role of magic, the desire for animacy, the burden of the Anthropocene, and why we keep gravitating toward powers that might kill us. In the second hour, they examine what life in a post-scientific era could be like, whether mass hysteria and a collective unmooring from reality are symptoms of the “AI moment,” and whether what we are living through today is really a spiritual crisis that cannot be solved through technological innovation, medication, or the endless pacification of media and entertainment

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Episode Recorded on 02/28/2024

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's up everybody? My name is Demetricofinus and you're listening to Hidden Forces, a
0:06.0	podcast that inspires investors, entrepreneurs and everyday citizens to challenge consensus narratives and learn how to think critically
0:15.5	about the systems of power shaping our world.
0:18.9	My guest in this episode of Hidden Forces is Josh Shry. Josh is the founder of the Emerald Podcast, which combines
0:25.7	evocative narrative, soul-sturing music, and interviews with award-winning
0:30.6	authors and luminaries to explore the human experience through a vibrant lens of myth, story, and imagination.
0:39.0	I asked Josh on the podcast to talk about the subject of his episode, so you want to be a sorcerer in the age of
0:45.9	mythic powers, about the rise of artificial intelligence.
0:50.3	According to Josh, we are entering an era whose only corollary is the stuff of fairy tales and myths.
0:57.0	Powers that used to be reserved for magicians and sorcerers, the power to access volumes of knowledge instantaneously, to create fully realized
1:06.1	illusory other worlds, to deceive, to conjure, to transport, to materialize on a massive scale.
1:13.7	These powers are no longer hypothetical.
1:16.5	They are no longer metaphorical.
1:18.5	The mythic powers are real.
1:20.7	And it's not clear that humanity has the tools and initiatory frameworks to use them responsibly.
1:27.0	What's at stake is our civilization, something that was obvious to the creators of the atom bomb in 1945, but which seems far less salient today,
1:36.8	even though the risks of societal collapse stemming from the uncontrolled proliferation of AI and its associated technologies is arguably much greater.
1:47.7	In the first hour, Josh and I discuss the allegory of the sorcerer's apprentice and why he thinks it's an appropriate story
1:54.9	for helping us understand the situation humanity finds itself in today.
1:58.6	We discuss the role of magic, the desire for animacy, the burden of the Anthropocene, and why we keep gravitating
2:06.5	towards powers that might kill us.
2:09.6	In the second hour, we examine what life in a post scientific era could be like, whether mass
	...

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