sc94597 said:
I think the major reason people hate AI or any specific technology, rather than thinking toward new social systems, is that we're still transitioning out of "End of History" thought, where people can imagine almost anything happening other than capitalism being outmoded or replaced. That's the effect of five decades of neo-liberalism constraining political-economic and social thinking. If there is any silver-lining of the Trump era its that he's pretty much destroyed the idea that "nothing happens" and "history has ended." |
Well, I never bought the idea of an "end of history". To be fair, I never read Fukuyama's book and the actual claims are softer than the title implies. But still, going by Wikipedia:
"Fukuyama argues that history should be viewed as an evolutionary process, and that the end of history, in this sense, means that liberal democracy is the final form of government for all nations."
He days history follows an evolutionary process, but natural evolution never reaches an end-point, never settles, it always moves on. If he draws this comparison, he should've seen this. Also I think baked in is the idea that evolution follows a path or something, which isn't true. Evolutionary processes try out a lot and can move in unexpected direction, even seemingly "backwards".
In the context of history I think we look for stable societal and governmental structures, and I think China established an alternative model for stability. Because stability is not so much about the freedom of choice for individuals and legitimizing election processes. I think if the majority of people lives in good enough circumstances they will not challenge the government and thus society is stable.
We have also to see, that democratic societies don't actually exist that long in history and even then aren't always as stable. As I german I like to keep reminding people that the NSDAP and Hitler were elected in free election in germany. The problem wasn't liberty and democracy, it was that the economic crisis left people in bad circumstances, the governments tried to put most of the burden on poor people and the more they felt left out, the more willing they were to burn everything down. This is also a reason I think that most countries moved towards fascism in that time, except the US, that had policies that balanced the burdens of the economic crisis more equally. A reason the US today is spinning out so much nowadays I see as well in their shitty system that leaves way too many people out in bad conditions, while rich and powerful people are thriving. I feel that can't go well.
