Whoever wrote this article probably has little more than a cursory or highly aesthetecized understanding of Nietzsche’s philosophy. It feels like they just related his idea of value-creation to a bunch of pre-conceived purportedly “bad things” like lack of social cohesion.
Most of his work deals with the psychological and historical origins of morality/philosophy, as well as how it might change as a result of herd dynamics. This doesn’t mean he thinks AI destroying morality or mediating it is a good thing or that some Nietzschian “ubermensch” needs to create a universal AI morality. His whole point is that morality is not universal truth but comes in flavors (master vs slave morality). He doesn’t really even think truth or egalitarianism/democracy has any inherent value (all ideas this article seems to negate).
In my opinion the biggest Nietzschian idea we can pontificate on in relation to AI is the concept of “The Last Man”, which describes Nietzsches prophesized end state of humanity in the post death-of-God era — men just want to be safe, satiated, and friendly to each other (which we are in):
“No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse. Formerly, all the world was mad,’ say the most refined, and they blink. We have invented happiness, and they blink"
I agree, I think that AI is not some “new” thing - we’ve had machines for a long time, and we just so happened to invent really good ones. Similar to how the machine of the Industrial Revolution laid waste to the social order of the landed aristocracy and what you might call “late stage feudalism”, so too does AI destabilize and outmode the core mythos of our time. We’re rapidly shedding an illusion of a world of free and equal, yet fundamentally different men who must learn to work together by technocratically solving issues that Capital (the machine) fails to solve. As Capital approaches its logical zenith (becoming machine incarnate), it finds fewer and fewer uses for these Last Men in the making. AI is the final stage of enlightenment thought, enabling its promises: an abolishment of differénce, a homogeneous civilization, an order which maintains equality by stripping individual freedoms.
Agreed. I think for Nietzsche a man creating meaning to their own existence is the act of the artist — conquering one’s self. God and the afterlife provided some basic land and footing to do this… or at least posited the possible existence of some unknown and to be discovered universal morality or frame of reference. God was sort of like Ether in pre-relativistic physics.
The famous god is dead quote paints the image of the madman screaming into “the market” that god is dead, no one knows, and it will take centuries to wash away the blood, that we’ve unchained the earth from the sun.
I think Nietzsche would view capitalists, industrialists and technocrats / technology idealists through very much the same lens as those “people in the market”… aloof, dumb, and completely with their head in the sand.
I think he’d view AI largely in the context of “what kind of soil” it provides within society for accomplishing the task of self conquest.
On further reflection I do think there is some opportunity to embody a notion of this into AI. Like AI needs to help humans with self mastery and understanding while divorcing them from the status quo.
I’m skeptical of any profit motive that would actually justify building self-mastery into AI, but then again, this is possibly just a reiteration of California ideology problems. As it turns out, technology can be massively transformative, connective, and truly enable creative expression and mind-expansion, but the amount of that going on versus the internet just being an insane global bazaar of greed and entertainment far outweighs this.
> men just want to be safe, satiated, and friendly to each other
I would argue AI fundamentally changes nothing in this respect. I think what we all want is freedom of pursuit, which is afforded to all as a birthright. What we are so concerned with is everyone's starting lines, and those starting lines are the consequence of an unjust society. Rand said it best in The Fountainhead:
"Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
Most of his work deals with the psychological and historical origins of morality/philosophy, as well as how it might change as a result of herd dynamics. This doesn’t mean he thinks AI destroying morality or mediating it is a good thing or that some Nietzschian “ubermensch” needs to create a universal AI morality. His whole point is that morality is not universal truth but comes in flavors (master vs slave morality). He doesn’t really even think truth or egalitarianism/democracy has any inherent value (all ideas this article seems to negate).
In my opinion the biggest Nietzschian idea we can pontificate on in relation to AI is the concept of “The Last Man”, which describes Nietzsches prophesized end state of humanity in the post death-of-God era — men just want to be safe, satiated, and friendly to each other (which we are in):
“No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse. Formerly, all the world was mad,’ say the most refined, and they blink. We have invented happiness, and they blink"