There Is No Off Switch

Ezra Klein : "Capitalism is itself a kind of artificial intelligence, and it’s far further along than anything the computer scientists have yet coded. In that sense, it copied OpenAI’s code long ago." Kevin Roose : "Now, the utopians are in the driver’s seat. Full speed ahead. Team Capitalism won. Team Leviathan lost." Even smart people confuse capitalism and Capital. In the ideological/cultural/political matrix that is capitalism, "utopians" could perhaps be "in the driver's seat." But Capital has no driver's seat. No one or group of people steers it. It careens along its own trajectory, guided by its own logic. Capital is in no sense "managed". M > C> M is all you really need to know, the relentless cycling. This Kevin character is worried that government over-reach (Leviathan) will stifle the awesome innovation represented by Open AI. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with an artificial intelligence smarter than the general population and most of their leaders? Liberals are in a tizzy over the state of our "democracy" and Trump's hostile rhetoric toward our allies. Rachael Maddow, Paul Krugman, even Jon Stewart is inspired to jump back into the fray and defend the precious liberal values they hold dear.