That is a beautiful comparison. Terrifying, but beautifully fitting.
I read Stross right after Banks. I think if I hadn’t, I’d be an AI-hype-bro. Banks it the potential that could be, Stross is what we’ll inevitably turn AI into.
Banks neatly sidesteps the “AI will inevitably kill us” scenario by making the Minds keep humans around for amusement/freshness. Part of the reasons for the Culture-Idiran war in Consider Phlebas and Look to Windward was that the Idirans did not want Minds in charge of their society.
Noone was trying to force that on them though, the actual reason IIRC correctly that Idirans had a religious imperative for expansion, and the Culture had a moral imperative to prevent other sentients’ suffering at the hands of the Idirans.
IMO he mostly sidestepped the issue by clarifying that this is NOT a future version of “us”
That is a beautiful comparison. Terrifying, but beautifully fitting.
I read Stross right after Banks. I think if I hadn’t, I’d be an AI-hype-bro. Banks it the potential that could be, Stross is what we’ll inevitably turn AI into.
Banks neatly sidesteps the “AI will inevitably kill us” scenario by making the Minds keep humans around for amusement/freshness. Part of the reasons for the Culture-Idiran war in Consider Phlebas and Look to Windward was that the Idirans did not want Minds in charge of their society.
Noone was trying to force that on them though, the actual reason IIRC correctly that Idirans had a religious imperative for expansion, and the Culture had a moral imperative to prevent other sentients’ suffering at the hands of the Idirans.
IMO he mostly sidestepped the issue by clarifying that this is NOT a future version of “us”