Machines of Loving Grace

Nietzsche said “God is dead”, but what has replaced the deceased deity? In 2020 it’s evident that the answer is, at least partially, capitalism. It seems now that it might be capitalism’s turn to go God’s way.

How did this happen?

Dunbar’s number, 150, is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. This means that a human can personally know and trust no more than 150 people. How then were we able to scale this network of trust to our modern, globalized society? The answer is abstract concepts such as religion, which created deities designed to play surrogate fathers and mothers to our minds, helping to achieve two primary goals:

• No matter how good or bad your parents were, the social and religious fabric of your larger society gave you enough moral education to make you a decent, socialized, and productive human being.
• The “surrogate parent” served as a perfect common ground between otherwise strangers, enabling us to cooperate successfully in groups larger than 150.

That’s all well and good, but it is becoming apparent that the current system is running out of steam. Capitalism replaced God as our surrogate parent, but alas, this parent is an unloving and uncaring one. At this point in the evolution of capitalism, instead of trying to help us, it seeks to exploit the vulnerable to fill the already overflowing pockets of greedy business people. And this system has the gull to pretend to be a benevolent parent, ensnaring our hearts through our modern-day Instagram and TikTok heroes, convincing us to give up our personal happiness for meaningless jobs and a one-in-a-million shot at becoming one of the 0.1% that enslave the rest of us.

They say that the market decides what’s good or bad, and that’s just how capitalism works. But there’s a problem: Our delicate internal reward/punishment systems are at the heart of our consumer culture, and those systems can be gamed with ease by those who know how to do it. This reality creates a market that cares more about profit and less about innovation and real value. This results in a world polluted with the fake and the obscene, where truth and authenticity are becoming rare and valuable commodities. Capitalism puts humanism at center stage, making our opinions sacred. But what about the fact that our opinions are continuously manipulated by interested parties, without us noticing? That our very ability to make a choice is undermined daily?

Think about all the fake influencers acting like your friends on camera. Our minds can’t view this objectively. We compare ourselves to these fake people, chase their counterfeit image, and spend our short lives pursuing meaningless goals. Our otherwise healthy brain systems that have evolved over millions of years aren’t built for this. We’re made to know our friends personally and compare ourselves to them. It’s these personal relationships that provide meaning to our lives. Instead, every one of us continually feels like they’re competing with the rest of the world on everything. Fitness influencers make it look easy to be fit. Business influencers always make us feel like we’re lazy and not working enough. It’s no wonder our youngest generations are more depressed than ever.

Look at Trump, the biggest influencer of them all, spewing fake news to influence masses of gullible people who don’t know any better because they don’t have the tools or technological literacy to fact-check what he says. And if we’re talking about fact-checking, can you even do that anymore in a post-truth world? We need to fix this.

I need to say that I’m not entirely dismissing the systems that we have because we still need them to impose order and help us cooperate towards our most significant milestone: Interstellar colonization. Without leaving Earth, we’ll end up keeping all of our eggs in one basket, which will inevitably be smashed by a meteor or engulfed by our sun, whichever comes first. If we want to preserve Earth’s life, then we must find a way to leave this planet, and for that to happen, the fires of industry must keep burning.

What should we do then?

What we need is a better, more benevolent system. Paradoxically, we must teach machines to “feel” love and compassion. While this may sound ridiculous to you, recent advances in AI like GPT3 make this seem a bit more than just a pipe dream. Love and compassion are the only antidotes to this chaos, and it is doubtful that any human being or a group of humans would be capable of turning this ship around without machine help. There’s just too much data. But before we jump to creating a new world order, we must first look at social networking.

Nowadays, social networks are the heart of capitalism. They have earned their place by being surrogate providers for our most cherished desire: Connection and intimacy. But these systems are exploitative by nature, caring more about selling us things we don’t need than helping us live a better life. The biggest problem with them is that they do not wish us well; they only care about selling us stuff.

What is sorely needed is a social network that wants you to be happy, that is built in the image of the world that we all want to live in, not the one we fear to create. Technological disruption is sorely needed in the social media world, now more than ever. I am calling on all tech entrepreneurs that still care to create a better world for tomorrow. Please take a shot at building this network. We need it. Our children need it.

What is this social network? It does not matter if it looks like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. What matters is that the content discovery algorithms work for you, not against you.

What can you do right now?

The social network I’ve just described won’t appear tomorrow. Until it does, there are some things you can do to improve your life today, primarily through limiting your exposure to harmful influences. Here’s how:

• Limit your exposure to social networks. You don’t have to delete them, but do limit yourself with regards to whom you follow. Seek authenticity and positive thinking. Seek influencers who want to see a better world just like you do. Don’t follow anyone fake or harmful because that will only make you miserable. I am not advocating a sheltered life. It is essential to be aware of bad things in the world, but it is much better to limit your content consumption to mostly positive things.
• Fight the algorithms. They don’t care about you, all they want is your time, money, and undivided attention, and they won’t spare you any horror to get it. They’ll shock and terrify you into submission until your cursor is permanently fixed on the “One-click Buy” button. It’s no wonder most of us are depressed and horrified at the state of the world when the media prefers to show us the bad over the good, nearly every time. Curate your content carefully, for yourself and your family. Protect your mind from negative influences like you would a child.
• If you’re an influencer, make an effort to share positivity and build a better world. Don’t amplify hate speech from either side of the political spectrum. Don’t flaunt your virtues excessively. Don’t sell fake and useless products just to fund a lavish lifestyle. Don’t be selfish.
• Implement a no-phone policy in your home, or at least limit your exposure to your phone. Bill Gates does this. Zuck does this. Kevin Hart does this. Think why.

We can still build a better world through technology. We just need to step up and do it with the right intentions.