Bryan Johnson argues that fear of AI spreads faster than reason, and that people mistake it for losing what makes us human. Instead of mourning, he says each generation should look forward to transformative goals like the moon landing, imagining what humanity could become rather than what it might lose.
How do you see our coexistence with technology in the near future? I like the quote that a lie makes its way around the world before the truth gets its boots on. The same is true with fear. Fear makes itself around the world, travels around the world before reason can get its boots on. I think we're jealous of AI not necessarily fearful. Jealousy is fear of losing something you have. Envy is wanting something you don't have. The story of AI I think why it strikes, why it paralyzes some people, is that the story is AI Is going to take away everything we do, everything we are, everything we're good at. It's going to take our identity and we're going to be left with nothing. That's a bleak story. Oftentimes when we're in life, when we're faced with a situation where we have to leave something behind, we can do so if we have something to look forward to. Every generation looks on the horizon of possibilities and they say, what could feasibly be done? If we gave this our very best effort in the 60s, it was going to the moon. If we say right now, it would be evolving ourselves past our current form into something else that is unrecognizable.
