Thinking about magic, cyborgs, robots, and artificial intelligence--and why some of those words could use changing--since 1982.

So look, here's the thing: For the past eight years, I've been trying to make a living at writing, talking, thinking, teaching, and learning about philosophy, comparative religion, magic, artificial intelligence, human physical and mental augmentation, pop culture, and how they all relate. I want to think about, talk about, and work toward, a future worth living in, and I want to do it with you.

I'm talking about a future where we have the option but not the expectation to self-cyborg. A future where, when we're confronted with the new and unprecedentedly strange kinds of minds we're likely to meet in this century, we can embrace the new and the strange, and use it to make ourselves even more than we already are. A future where everyone has the data, information, knowledge, and ability to conduct their lives in their communities, the best they know how.

The following is excerpted from an email I sent to NPR's Steven Henn, as part of an exchange we were having about this article of his: "When Robots Can Kill, It's Unclear Who Will Be To Blame." Mr Henn asked me, "Ok - how would you like people to begin thinking about human created intelligent systems - to the extent they are created?" To which I replied:

'…Since the Golem of Prague and Hephaestus' automatons, we've been telling and retelling ourselves stories about created intelligences which eventually rise against us. We tell these stories as if they were cautionary tales against giving robots too much freedom, but the common denominator is actually that we tend to disrespect our creations, and project on them an almost Oedipal fear of obsolescence. Frankenstein's sin wasn't in creating Adam, but in being an absentee father to him.

'…Part of what [this] looks like can be seen in things like phasing out the terms "artificial intelligence" and "robots."

'…we can easily see the problem in saddling any machine intelligence we do manage to generate with labels like "artificial" or a word which direct etymological root is "slave." Imagine you're born into a world where only words used to describe you are those which fundamentally negate your authenticity and choices…

'…If we're serious about [Autonomous Generated Intelligences] being more than just tools, then we have to recognise that the environment in and programming with which they develop will have a major impact on who and what they become.

'…as any machine consciousness becomes more capable of self-awareness and direction, then it becomes more and more responsible for its own actions and choices. However, the environment and programming in which that awareness is grounded will have a large impact on the way that consciousness becomes whatever it becomes, and WE are most definitely responsible for That.

'There has been some progress in the shift of the popular attitudes toward these studies--pop media, again, being both the proving ground and the casting mold for these ideas--but even the film HER, which did wonderful work in this regard, had its flaws…'

Signoff protocol, etc. I haven't heard Back from Mr Henn since, but that's his loss, amirite? :D

But seriously, part of my point is to make that His Loss. Not just in relation to me, but in terms of everyone working on this, right now, and everyone living with the possible implications of it. People like Jamais Cascio, Dr. Joanna Bryson, Dr. David Gunkel, Emily Dare, Mikey Pryvt, Scott Midson, Tommaso Bertolotti, Colin Schmidt. People like me, and you.

We need, we All need to be taking the changing pace, content, and tone of this conversation very seriously, and working toward a future where we're not just running to catch up to the vastly changing pace of these realities, but are thinking ahead about their possibilities, and addressing their actualities As they arise. Not after.

To do all of this--to write, talk, read, converse, and write some more to, with, and about leading thinkers-and-doers in many fields of philosophy, science, art, technology, magic…so many things--takes time, and all of my time, these days, is spent trying to make money, and, to be honest, some of the ways I spend my time making a living drain my will to live, let alone do the kind of work i love and want to be doing.

That's where you come in.

If you find yourself to be interested in the kinds of work I'm talking about doing-- things in this vein can be found all around the internet--your throwing a dollar or two per month in the bucket can make a HUGE difference. This will be a pay-by-month campaign, so the amount you pledge will be the exact same, every month, regardless of whether I make 1 post or 16. That said, you can always adjust or cancel your donation amount, whenever you see fit.

And if you know of others who care about those things, I really need your help in spreading the word about the project. If you want to want to tell your friends, your family, your readership, your listeners, if you want to interview me or write my Patreon address on the surface of the moon with a laser, I'm all for it, and I'm more than happy to help you help me.

As I've said, before:

The present looks a great deal like we thought 5-8 years ago would look like, 18 years ago, but today is…grittier. More scuffed up. Like the difference between your dream or even nightmare of visiting a place, and what it actually smells and feels like, when you’re there. The dreamshimmer is gone from our contemplation of data and systems theory and the reality presents itself as almost inherently Less.
Less hopeful, less meaningful, less potential for bettering ourselves. Like, somewhere in the path to here, we forgot Why we wanted to get here (new life and strange civilizations), and only vaguely remembered what “Here” was supposed to look like.

Where are the conscious nanotech swarms, and their acolytes? Where are the emergent-and-non-human-minds which exist in the ringback protocols, between two dozen different sites? Where are the network shamans, able to dive deep and parse the bits the pieces, from the dross of gross signal loss? Where are the bearshirters, skinning and gutting the beasts of our technological wilds and stitching their hard-edged components into softer flesh? These entities, these people, these groups exist—or Could—but as as curiosities, as freakshows, as fearfully whispered cautionary tales, when they should be our hope, our aim, our scratched out salvation from our own cynicism.

We’ll refind the quality of awe and investigative wonder and possibility, we’ll make this world, this context, this mode of life better, while we’re here. We have to, or we’ll literally die, trying or not.

And that, my friends, is a future worth thinking about.