In A Blog Far, Far Away...

An acquaintance online has a very reasoned blog based around AI, including an AI they themselves have coded.

This particular post to which I refer presents the arguments for AI being the thing that will end us, the "Doomer" viewpoint. As with every page of this author's blog, it's clear and concise and a good read. I enjoyed reading the Doomer viewpoint - and look forward to the counter to it which they'll be publishing in a few weeks.

Now For Something Completely Tangential:

But my (as usual quite irrelevant and off-the-wall) observation and amusement is the cartoon about the AI and chickens. 

It made me think about our place in the ecosphere and how dinosaurs were the apex lifeform for tens of millions of years and only lost the pole position because of a cosmic dice throw. 

We've been around for only an eye-blink by comparison, and are increasingly looking like we'll throw the snake-eyes dice ourselves... 

Chickens lived fairly innocuous lives on the floors of tropical jungles (Larsen caption: "or did they?...") until we decided to mess their role in the ecology up completely and now they've gone from ecological do-gooders to industrial byproduct that also creates more take-away container trash than almost any other animal other than the apex crapper, the Human Being.

The chickens' dino ancestors would be rolling over in their tarpits if they could see what the things that used to be their small warm furry snacks are doing to their great^27 grandkid descendants...

We should never forget two things: 

• Chickens are descended from dinosaur ancestors, are a part of this whole fantastically complicated ecosystem on the planet that keeps us all alive, and as such should be treated with much more respect than we've accorded to them.
• And secondly - they're descended from dinosaurs! - and as such are just as much bad-asses as their ancestors, and perhaps if the scenario in the cartoon comes about, they could very well start a new AI-assisted dinosaur revival - and end our species.

Be nicer to chickens! They may decide our fate really soon!

(Also, they're part of the intergalactic Zorgan ClackerTech Transport system. We should probably not take away our only chance of escape, and also - perhaps chickens were actually the progenitors of dinosaurs on Earth. If you can believe a character as sketchy as Rambard Zorg.)

Seriously though - browse WriterOfMinds' blog because it's a great way to learn interesting things about AI and get a better grasp on the topic. 

As always, share this article and my others far and wide, consider making a one-time or regular donation, and thank you for reading!