Postcard from London

Democracy in a world of intelligent machines

Image: New World Same Humans/DALL-E 3

In place of the usual New Week, a short note from me on a momentous day here in the UK.

The country held a general election yesterday. And the result is a transformation of the British political scene, with the Conservative Party — who have held power since 2010 — out and a new Labour government elected by a landslide.

So ends 14 years of, for the most part, disastrous governance. We could get into what made it so bad, but that’s a subject for another time.

One telling aspect of the election campaign that preceded this result? It was light on policy discussion of any kind, but there was no substantial talk whatsoever about technology. The ongoing, white hot technology revolution we’re living through — fuelled principally by the rise of AI — will prove the central shaping fact of our collective lives in the years ahead. But neither party had much to say about it.

As Labour take power, I can’t help but project forward five years to the end of their term.

By then, we’ll live in a world transformed. It is now not a fringe view — some would view it as cautious — to forecast that by 2029 we’ll no longer be the most intelligent beings on the planet, having handed that mantle over to the machines. That means a remaking of the economy, transformations in our working lives, a deep acceleration in the production of scientific knowledge, and so much more.

Coming to terms with this revolution is the central challenge for us, collectively, in the years ahead. In a perfect democracy this issue would be at the centre of our public conversation, too.

Of course, we don’t live in perfect democracies. Here in the UK there is virtual silence about this coming transformation. It will no doubt be the same during the US presidential election campaign season, which kicked off last week with the first debate between Biden and Trump.

But this question — the question of how to live in a world of intelligent machines — will inevitably come to dominate the politics of the Global North.

As I’ve written about before, my belief is that this question will form the basis of a new, and fundamental, political division. A division, that is, between those who want to lean hard into the technology revolution and its implications, and those who seek to resist its incursion into every part of human life.

In time, this division will become acute. It’s ultimate manifestation will see it take the form of a division between those who repudiate the technologies now taking shape around us, and those who would not only use intelligent machines but become one with them. Become, as they will see it, something more than human.

This is a coming, and transcendent, division in our collective lives. We face the emergence of two interest groups — two great new natural alliances — with radically different outlooks and values when it comes to our proper relationship with technology. And in the end, we face the emergence of two radically different kinds of humans. Those who are augmented by powerful technologies, and those who are not.

This is the world of creatures and machines I wrote about back in January.

Rewind 50,000 years, and the world was populated by two different species of human: we homo sapiens and our neanderthal cousins. If you accept that some humans will eventually merge with AI, then you accept we’re heading back towards a world of multiple human species. Where does it all lead? Social tension? Political argument? Violent conflict?

Put in these terms, all this can seem a long way off.

But we can see the division I’m talking about taking shape now. See it, for example, in the raging war of words between accelerationists and deccelerationists on Twitter. See it in the fierce debate around degrowth: a planned scaling back of our economic and technological activities. See it when you look at those determined to build AGI, and those who believe that to do so will lead to our enslavement or destruction.

In some deep sense, then, it seems to me that yesterday’s election here in the UK was a threshold event in more than one way. It will be our last election before a profound reshaping of our public conversation around technology; around the creatures and machines division that will come to dominate our public life.

The next five years will be the path to that destination. The enweirdening ahead of us is widely underestimated. I’ll keep watching.

And I’ll be back next week. Thanks for reading,

David.