Here is a thought experiment to think about the effects that AI can have on society: what if we have invented teleportation?
A bit strange, I know, but tolerate me …
The year is 2035. The Auto Go Instant (AGI) Teleporter was invented. You can now go everywhere … immediately!
In the first instance, the technology is expensive and unreliable. Critics laugh. “Hah, look at these stupid billionaires who cannot spend a minute of their time like the rest of us. And 5% of the time they end up in the wrong place, lol”
But soon things get cheaper and better. The tech touches mass market.
There are huge benefits. Global Commerce is supercharged. Instead of commuting, people can spend more time with family and friends. Pollution is far down. The AGI company runs a sweet commercial of people who teleport their parents one last time before they die.
At the same time, some weird things happen.
The landscape is starting to configure again around the new reality. Families move to remote huts, just a few seconds away from urban facilities. The top of Mt. Everest is full of influencers. (It turns out that if you stay only a few seconds, you can make a quick selfie without needing an oxygen mask!)
Physical health takes a hit for many people. It is more difficult to justify walking or cycling if you could be there now.
Disappear between the moments. One moment you are working, it is the next moment at your dining table at home. No more time to reset or prepare for a new context.
But the biggest change is the loss of serendipity. When you teleport, decide in advance where you are going. You never come across an old friend on the street, or stop at a farm position along the side of the road, or see a store that you might ever want to stop.
For modern teenagers, the idea of wandering without an exact destination becomes unthinkable in mind. You start with the GPS coordinates, and then you just go … go.
Proponents of the new way point out that there is nothing that does not prevent anyone from choosing traditional methods for fun. And indeed, the cross-country road trip sees a mild revival as a hipster thing.
But when Push comes to push, most people struggle to make the time to wander around – our schedules are now arranged around the assumption of direct transport.
This is not exactly to say that the old way was better. Most people can agree that teleportation is a net victory. But for those who remember, there is a vague discomfort, a feeling that something important has been lost in the world….
In his book technology and the character of daily life, the philosopher Albert Borgmann tells about wooden stoves in Huizen.
What is a stove? Yes, it heats the house … but it is also so much more than that. You have to cut the wood, you have to start the fire in the morning …
“A stove yielded more than just warmth. It was a focus, a fireplace, a place that collected the work and leisure time of a family and gave the house of a center.”
When you switch to a modern central heating system, you cut out all these inconveniences. Fantastic!
Oh, and by the way, your social life of the family is completely different … wait what? Yes, the inconvenience was awkward. But they also kept a little up in your life and culture, and now they have suddenly disappeared.
I consider this a kind of a fence of chesterone in hard mode. Yes, the stove was put there for heat, that was the most important goal. But you also have to think carefully about the secondary effects before replacing it.
Okay, so … how does this apply to AI?
I am personally enthusiastic about AI and I think it can improve our lives in many ways. But at the same time I try to be aware of secondary effects and unintended consequences.
Here is an example. If your mental reading model “convey facts in my head”, then reading an AI summary of something may seem a more efficient way to have that task performed.
But if your mental reading model is “spending time to marinate in a world of ideas”, reducing the time spent on reading does not help much.
The point was the journey you underwent while reading, and you replaced it with teleportation.
Another example. One of the great joys of my life is that Nerdy explains friends to me. Now I can get an explanation from AI with less friction, always, everywhere, with endless follow-up.
Even if the AI statements are “better”, there are social costs. I can try to consciously push myself to still ask people questions, but now it requires more difficulty.
Last example: I try to be aware of the effects of atmospheric coding when designing software interfaces. On the one hand it can really speed up my iteratielus and help me explore more ideas.
But at the same time, part of my design process is with the details of the thing and exposing them while I go – more a muscle memory process than a conscious plan. If you mess with this process, the results can change in ways that are difficult to predict!
I think the passage for all these examples is: sometimes the friction and discomfort where the good stuff happens. I have to be very careful to remove it.
The collection meals here is not that “AI is bad”. I will only say that I personally try to be informed to keep a good friction nearby.
During Covid we received teleportation through Zoom for a while. I decided to ‘virtual commuting’ every day, to walk around the block to get some fresh air and a reset before/after work. This was not a problem, but I thought it was really useful.
Because AI makes a lot of things easier, it will be interesting to think about what types of new frictions we deliberately add to our lives. Teleportation is not always the best answer …
#teleportation