• TotallynotJessica@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    People are afraid of being enslaved by something intelligent when we’re already enslaved by unintelligent systems. Capitalism, imperialism, culture, even evolution itself. These forces already control us, reducing our lives to mere mechanical functions. There isn’t a being in control of these systems, but they still devalue us as people. No artificial intelligence will ever dominate us like natural unintelligence.

      • TotallynotJessica@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Evolution created everything about us to survive long enough to reproduce. It might have created all positive emotions we can ever experience, but it’s often advantageous for evolution to design suffering into our lives.

        Many animals live short and brutal lives, giving birth through penises, fighting amongst each other to stay on top of violent hierarchies, cheating on their mates whenever possible. Most people are less happy after having children, but knowing that rarely affects our decision to have them. Love often encourages us to enter toxic relationships, taking away our infatuation and rose tinted glasses once leaving the relationship is costly.

        About half of all humans are designed to take serious risks to gain status or resources, their bodies aging quicker and doing less to repair itself. The other half gets to live a little longer and be a little healthier, but once they stop being able to have kids, their bodies start breaking down more quickly to hasten their end. Even aging itself only exists to speed up the evolutionary process. Evolution generally wants us to live lives that are as short as possible to allow for more generations in less time.

        Evolution is what created all our drives and programs us to do everything we do. That isn’t necessarily enslavement by itself, as nothing about us can exist outside of evolution, but the way it drives us towards personal suffering and death is enslavement. We don’t matter in comparison to our role in replicating genes. We’re designed to be disposable. Evolution may be the process of life, but it’s also the process of death.