Re: EJ and Technical Development

[03643518060-0001@t-online.de (christopher brown)]

Bertil Haggman wrote:


Greetings, 

> "Jede Jahrtausendwende bringt apokalyptische
> Visionen - diesmal, dem Zeitalter entsprechend,
> technischer Natur." (p.111)
> 
> "Die Ruestung der Titanen ist vor allem
> technischer Natur" (p.120)
> 
> Juenger on his essays: "Allen Essays gemeinsam ist
> die Auseindersetzung mit dem Fortschritt, speziell
> mit der Uebermacht der Technik, die unser
> Jahrhundert auf allen Gebieten in immer rascherer
> Folge ueberwaeltigt." (p.190)
> 
> Quotes from _Siebzig verweht V_ (Stuttgart: Klett-
> Cotta 1997).
> 
> British Professor Kevin Warwick, Reading
> University, caught the eyes and ears of the the
> world financial elite recently at the Davos world
> conference on politics and economy with his thesis
> that humans will soon loose their monopoly as the
> only intelligent creature on earth.

The belief in technology as the ultimate danger and fear might 
be correctly place if it were not for the fact that this man, our
presumptuous school master, worships the thinking machine. I don't want
to be one of those skeptics that deride such thinking, but somebody has
to.

This is the titanic verse the divine, to use Jünger's terminology.


> - I think that within 20 - 30 years we will
> experience machines that think better in their
> special fields than humans. Then the machine will
> be the dominating creation on earth. (Source:
> Aftenposten, Oslo, 8 February, 1998).
> 
> Professor Warwick's new book _March of the
> Machines_ (1997) is an apocalyptic vision of a
> world where we become slaves to machines.

And as this is a battle between the titans and the "gods" as it were.
We already know what has happend. The divine overcomes the titanic. At
the moment we are already slaves to the machine anyhow. What is left? As
Martin Heidegger said in the final Spiegel interview, "Only a god can
save us now." Which is exactly the point. This man sees nothing of the
hidden worlds and the divine, while both the great thinkers (EJ and
Heidegger) of this age are awaiting the return of just that, the divine! 
 
> Artificial intelligence, an overview of robotics
> research and experimentation in academic
> institutions and technology's prominence as a
> theme within fictional writing are all part of
> Warwick's study of how rapidly and - he argues -
> uncontrollably machines are beginning to engineer
> the human race instead of the other way around.

Artificial intellegence if it does exist, would be the ultimate
manifestation of nihilism. Some questions would arise like "Will I
dream?" That is can a machine become self aware. The potential is small
for the machine that truely thinks. Thinking is not the compacity to
compute solutions otherwise we as human beings would compute rather than
think. No, what thinking is, is being open to impulses from Being (das
Sein).This is our capacity to do all the things we do as humans without
the fear that we will create some monster that will devour us. Maybe
we've already done that (remains to be seen). Maybe it will be that in
twenty or Fifty or whatever, that the planet will become uninhabitable
anyhow. 
In anycase, we would then certainly expect our imminent anihilation ala
Terminator. (I feel absurd even thinking about these things :-). That is
pop-culture as meaning for our age.) But really in the end it is our
potential to overcome ourselves, which translates roughly as our
overcoming the nihilism of the age, where the return of the divine is to
be expected.
This is where Junger's "optimistic" text "über die Linie" comes in. Or
another intersting title would be Heideggers study of technic called
"die Kehre". All of them concern themselves with the prognosis and
"überwindung" of this age. 


> Warwick himself has said that in writing the book
> he wanted to show the following:
> 
> We humans are presently the dominant life form on
> Earth mainly because of our overall intelligence.

This is of course presupposing that there is no divinity.
 
> It is possible for machines to become more
> intelligent than humans in the reasonably near
> future.

They might be able to compute faster, but is this really thinking?
As for the capabilities such as sight, hearing, and movement, we will
remain superior. Just an aside, Nike had a commercial in the states
before I left. Just shortly after "Big Blue" beat the chess champ, in
which Big Blue was placed on a basket ball court and had to square of
against Micheal Jordan or somebody of his likes. You get the picture? Da
machine don moove! So who wins the day? So can you teach a machine the
faculties of touch and coordination? It's a long shot.

> Machines will then become the dominant life form
> on earth.

Life form? Bullshit! :-) As I said before they already dominate and that
is without intelligence. But what if they can simulate intelligence? I'm
scared now. :-)
 
> Various robots have been designed and built in
> order to prove and demonstrate important aspects
> of machine intelligence, such as learning,
> communication and individual behaviour, which is
> presented in the book.
> 
> Warwick is undoubtedly one of the world's leading
> expert in cybernetics, and his views are not just
> to be brushed off as speculation. In the book he
> unveils the first robots that can learn,
> communicate with each other and reprogramme
> themselves - and warns that future generations
> will rule the world.

The rest of the post is a pretty grim picture, No commentary really
becomes possible, especially if you accept, that what he says must be
taken seriouly. I mean what is the final condition of these machines?
They would end up simulating the human being like the terminator?
Liquidating us because we are inferior? I do not accept his view point
and if it is true then somebody better take his advice and get a
non-proliferation treaty rolling. What's better is locking up all the
moronic scientists out there who combine intellingence with loss of
values/nihilism.:-) (Just like this idiot in America who wants to clone
people.) In nepal, the Sherpas think we're mad because we go to the top
of mountains for no reason. We have to ask ourselves if we aren't mad to
believe we can create things as God does?

> As usual EJ may have been right all along. If in
> peace and war this is what we will experience his
> prognosis could have been correct since the 1920s.
> Can man really control the technical development
> in the 21st century ?

Ernst Junger wrote:

>> Unknown in the old languages, the great Mythos,
>> The Roman law, the Bible and Christian ethic,
>> the french moralists, the german metaphysic,
>> the poetry of all the world. Technical Goliaths, 
>> dwarves on true life-therefore massive in critique,
>> in destruction, it is in that, hidden from them, that thier
>> contract lies. Defromed, atrophied, blurred in all that 
>> which has to do with beauty and love.
>> Single eyed titans, spirits of darkness deniers
>> and enemies of all creative powers. Who can sum up
>> a million of their efforts without leaving one work behind
>> that weighs up to one blade of grass, one grain of wheat, 
>> one mosquito wing. Far from poetry, wine, dreams, games and          >> hopelessly caught in the heresy of presumptuous School Masters.
>> They have there task.
>> Paris diaries.

And we have ours!

with kind regards,
Abdalbarr