The kind of reasoning he describes has been driving me crazy when listening to various tech podcasts that touch on AI risk and social media harms.
The moral panic argument comes up repeatedly: “people said the same thing about the {printing press, comic books, D&D…}”. But it always frustrates me because at best, these are examples that highlight our tendency to panic about things and that we’re sometimes wrong.
And I do think it’s good to think about this, but it’s the weight that people attach to the argument that I don’t understand. In the face of some truly worrying facts about these new tech developments, the past panics are being held up as if they tell us everything we need to know.
The moral panic argument comes up repeatedly: “people said the same thing about the {printing press, comic books, D&D…}”. But it always frustrates me because at best, these are examples that highlight our tendency to panic about things and that we’re sometimes wrong.
And I do think it’s good to think about this, but it’s the weight that people attach to the argument that I don’t understand. In the face of some truly worrying facts about these new tech developments, the past panics are being held up as if they tell us everything we need to know.
It’s baffling and worrisome.