After reading this article and the Scott/Weyl exchanges, I’m left with the impression that one side is saying: “We should be building bicycles for the mind, not trying to replace human intellect.” And the other side is trying to point out: “There is no firm criteria by which we can label a given piece of technology a bicycle for the mind versus a replacement for human intellect.”
Perhaps uncharitably, it seems like Weyl is saying to us, “See, what you should be doing is working on bicycles for the mind, like this complicated mechanism design thing that I’ve made.” And Scott is sort of saying, “By what measure are you entitle to describe that particular complicated piece of gadgetry a bicycle for the mind, while I am not allowed to call some sort of sci-fi exocortical AI assistant a bicycle for the mind?” And then Weyl, instead of really attempting to provide that distinction, simply lists a bunch of names of other people who had strong opinions about bicycles.
Parenthetically, I’m reminded of the idea from the Dune saga that it wasn’t just AI that was eliminated in the Butlerian Jihad, but rather, the enemy was considered to be the “machine attitude” itself. That is, the attitude that we should even be trying to reduce human labor through automation. The result of this process is a universe locked in feudal stagnation and tyranny for thousands of years. To this day I’m not sure if Herbert intended us to agree that the Butlerian Jihad was a good idea, or to notice that his universe of Mentats and Guild Navigators was also a nightmare dystopia. In any case, the Dune universe has lasguns, spaceships, and personal shields, but no bicycles that I can recall.
After reading this article and the Scott/Weyl exchanges, I’m left with the impression that one side is saying: “We should be building bicycles for the mind, not trying to replace human intellect.” And the other side is trying to point out: “There is no firm criteria by which we can label a given piece of technology a bicycle for the mind versus a replacement for human intellect.”
Perhaps uncharitably, it seems like Weyl is saying to us, “See, what you should be doing is working on bicycles for the mind, like this complicated mechanism design thing that I’ve made.” And Scott is sort of saying, “By what measure are you entitle to describe that particular complicated piece of gadgetry a bicycle for the mind, while I am not allowed to call some sort of sci-fi exocortical AI assistant a bicycle for the mind?” And then Weyl, instead of really attempting to provide that distinction, simply lists a bunch of names of other people who had strong opinions about bicycles.
Parenthetically, I’m reminded of the idea from the Dune saga that it wasn’t just AI that was eliminated in the Butlerian Jihad, but rather, the enemy was considered to be the “machine attitude” itself. That is, the attitude that we should even be trying to reduce human labor through automation. The result of this process is a universe locked in feudal stagnation and tyranny for thousands of years. To this day I’m not sure if Herbert intended us to agree that the Butlerian Jihad was a good idea, or to notice that his universe of Mentats and Guild Navigators was also a nightmare dystopia. In any case, the Dune universe has lasguns, spaceships, and personal shields, but no bicycles that I can recall.