Cybershow Explains Why Only Sociopaths Gravitate Towards Leadership Position in 'Tech'
Geeks want to do geeky stuff, not buzzword-dropping rituals
The Cybershow has this new article about Robot CEOs. The general thesis is a familiar one:
Landymore gives a couple of clues. Zuck wants "AI" clones of himself to be omnipresent through his company, whereas Jack Dorsey wants a star configuration where "everyone in his company reports to him through a Central Artificial Intelligence" (CAI). These strategies are structurally chalk and cheese. One is to disperse an army of oneself, the other to cocoon behind a shield. But Landymore mistakenly uses the word hierarchy, perhaps missing that any such structure is obviated by the scheme.[...]
If I've learned anything the past 50 years it's that people are rarely passionate about work. They're passionate about a lot of things, like money and power. In most "industry" to which all human life has been reduced, opportunity for passionate creativity is scant and more technology will not improve this. "AI" only promises more iron-clad systems and "computer says no" rigidity.
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Crazed individuals competing for the controls of the machine is a damn good image to capture the current "AI" cult movement. Somebody wants to be the one who gets to own and program those machines, a small detail you are discouraged from thinking too much about.
So it seems not all passions are equal. Some are for making sure others think the right thoughts and wear the right trousers, or are for protecting precious bodily fluids and closing the mine-shaft gap. Those passions might be disproportionately favoured in comparison to say, feeding hungry children or putting an end to wars.