One more
Giving in again to my weakness for Econlib content, here’s another podcast convo between podcaster Russ Roberts and Kevin Kelly, noted Boomer futurologist, photographer, and author. Roberts and Kelly talk about Kelly’s book of Advice for Living, and—to return to a recent topic—reasons to be skeptical of all the AI and tech pessimism.
A very simple but profound question Kevin asks is, “Compared to what?” as a retort to claims that tech developments and AI are somehow deleterious. We’re human, after all, and have a bias to the negative, and often that means basic complaining and belly-aching about anything and everything. Roberts, for instance, laments that people now have smartphones and gaze into them while riding public transportation rather than interacting with each other, relaxing, or looking out the window at the passing scenery. Kelly replies that the previous state of affairs wasn’t necessarily better—perhaps nowadays people would rather feel like they’re getting something done during the ride, even if that amounts to no more than engaging in distractions or leisure amusements.
Presumably, people are fiddling with their devices because they get greater joy or purpose from the activity—and that doesn’t need to be interpreted automatically as a bad thing.
Another provocative point he makes is that there’s a tendency to think of new tech as theoretically harmful—not to ourselves—but to imagined third parties. The theoretical harms to imaginary people then serve as the basis for calls to regulate, restrict, and otherwise circumscribe in advance. While a more sober view based on past experience would tell us that the innovations bring with them many benefits (often overlooked) along with some downsides, and we tend to be perfectly capable of integrating the former rather thanklessly while obsessing over the latter exclusively.
At any rate, see what you think. The direct podcast web page with partial transcript is here. The video version is below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm_80rXL8Ag
Kittens!
CNN headline: "The US economy grew 2.6% during the fourth quarter, slower than previously estimated" Why do we assume this is bad news for the economy and not just an honest assessment of the inaccurate estimators?