In this second part of my ongoing discussion on AI, I shift the focus from technology itself to human civilization. I explore how survival has shaped every stage of our evolution, how major technological leaps have always forced adaptation, and why AI represents a pressure point unlike anything we have seen before.
This video looks at AI through an anthropological and socio-economic lens, and why it may open the door to a fundamentally different way of organizing human life.
Note: If you missed part 1, click here >>>.
Transcript:
00:00:01
Hey guys, happy Monday. I hope everybody had a good weekend. Um, I did. Um, got to hang out with my mom a little bit. Um, got to check out her place. It’s really cool. Um, got some time in game time in with my friends. Um, hanging out online, so that was cool, too. Um, but of course, life happens. Uh, late last night, my server went down. um all my services went offline and I ended up working until the wee hours of the morning um trying to get everything back up and running. They are um it made for
00:00:33
a hectic Monday, but like I said, you know, such is life. I was able to catch up on everything. Um today I want to talk about part two of the talk on AI that we started last week. Um, part one, you know, I was talking about my framework and my philosophy and I mentioned that there were two things that I needed to cover. Um, part one was um talking about how AI doesn’t replace jobs, it replaces tasks and I’ll have some pointers for anybody who is in a job that is largely task oriented. Um,
00:01:11
because automation will eventually replace that anyway. That’s what automation does. AI or not. Um, I didn’t post the resources that I wanted to. Like I said, I kind of took the weekend off, hung out with my mom, hung out with family and friends. Um, but um, it will be up this week. I promise you that. Um, on dexternelson.com. That said, I want to talk today about what I kind of lined up last week, which is we are on the verge of this collective shift in the evolution of human civilization. Um, now it’s sort of
00:01:46
anthropological, so just bear with me. Um, and I’m actually looking at my notes here to make sure I stay on track. Um, the point I want to make is that humans, we’ve always operated, you know, survival first before culture, before economics, before ideology. Um, all of those things, survival came first. Um, and everything that we built in civilization kind of sprung out on top of that. um human intelligence involved. We develop pattern recognition. We uh tool use um social cooperation, coordination
00:02:23
and planning. Um all of those um they were adaptive advantages uh driven by by uh pressure of survival. Um and you know every major shift in human civilization has always followed survival driven change. Um we look at examples like fire, architecture, um agriculture, writing, industrialization. Um each new tool changed how we human beings organized ourselves. Um no the ships were never painless. Um they distributed labor for the large part. Um they reshaped social roles, we had new jobs, we had new titles, we had
00:03:12
new roles. Um and they basically forced adaptation is either we adapted or we you know or we go extinct. Um and the thing is that they were not optional. Um you know evolution does not res does not respond to comfort. Um it responds to pressure. And when societies fail to adapt new to new conditions, they go extinct. Um collapse of that society follows. That’s usually what happens. Um but today, our survival pressures are no longer primarily physical like back then. They are systemic, they are
00:03:51
abstract. Um for example, economic systems. Um we have some major economic issues that we need to deal with. um information systems, infrastructure, global interdependence. So you know even though the types of threats that we have faced as a human civilization have changed you know from the beginning till now um it has always been about survival. Um I know that’s hard to grasp so grasp. So, you know, you know, everybody usually asks, you know, some form of question. You know, what happens if I lose my job? Where are
00:04:29
we going to live? If I get sick, um what if my insurance doesn’t cover my claims? You know, what if the what if I’m in an in an accident? What if the economy crashes? You know, what if someone breaks into my home? Um you know, what if right now we have something going on in certain parts of our community. What happens if our birth rates continue to decline? Um there’s a real fear out there for some people that they’re being replaced that um they will no longer have the majority. You know they will
00:04:58
you know what happens in a natural disaster? We have the other side going you know what happens when climate change gets worse? How are we going to survive as humanity? So, you know, throughout our history, you know, everything we do, everything we built was always in some form or fashion a way for us to survive collectively as a society. Um, and as a human civilization, whether it’s the, you know, whether it’s the modern world or what used to be the third world. Um, hint that no longer
00:05:31
exists. um because the metrics we use show that all societies around the world are typically moving in the same direction. Um we’ve known that there hasn’t been a third world for like 50 years, but that’s neither here nor there. Um all of human civilization is built around um survival in one way or another. It’s our primary driving force. Um, it’s why people want to go to Mars and start a new civilization because if Earth gets bad, where what’s going to happen to humanity? You know, what
00:06:07
happens if there’s a disaster and Earth becomes unlivable? You know, we have people worrying about things like that. Um, it’s all stemmed from survival. But, you know, even throughout our history, um, every once in a while, a technology comes along that pushes human civilization forward. not through the gradual progression that we’ve seen but in mega giant leaps for example the fire the wheel agriculture um these were not incremental improvements they fundamentally changed how we lived organized and survived now
00:06:42
the reason I mentioned that is because today AI is very much like the firewheel in agriculture in that it represents a massive leap forward for human civilization um it is applying a new type of pressure. Um, many of which you were already concerned about. If you recall, the first video was about what happens if AI replaces my job. Um, and we talked about it was not actually AI itself, but organization. But here’s the thing, it also creates a new opportunity because of the nature of it. For the first time in human history,
00:07:19
we have the potential to move beyond operating purely on survival. Excuse me, sorry about that. And we have the opportunity to move away from survival and begin operating from a position of collective good for our entire species. Um but that only comes if AI is used properly as if it’s treated as an opportunity and you know not just some other automation tool or you know powerful search and retrieval thing for uh profit which seems to be how everybody’s going with it. Um, you know, it it opens the door for
00:08:08
something entirely new. Um, we have the opportunity to create a type of economy that literally has never existed before. It’s one where basic needs are met. all of us, you know, housing, food, shelter, all of it, where our basic needs are met. And where success and the levels of success beyond that basic level are based on participation and contribution into our society, you know, where informed decision making is supported by AI systems that help reduce the negative biases that we all carry in one way or
00:08:47
another. Um because when you’re driven by survival, success largely depends upon the the the expense of others. It’s not a flowing technology. It’s just our nature. Um you know, because when we succeed, it’s usually because someone else fails. So it is in our nature. And I wouldn’t start by trying to change how humans think, but I can start by changing how we are informed. that I think to me is a worthy goal. So, and with that in mind, I chose to build a framework with a fundamentally different approach and
00:09:25
it’s an ontology first approach um which I think will be an interesting venture in or interesting conversation or a little interesting venture to dive down. Um, but that is for part three when I talk about the actual framework and how I built it and why I say it’s ontology first as opposed to systematically first like everybody else is doing. So, see you guys in the next video.
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