SHODAN, GLaDOS, Skynet, HAL 9000, the Reapers: chances are statistically 89.7454984286 per cent favourable that the current reader has heard of any of these five Artificial Intelligence apparati, or ones akin to them at any rate. I ask one question, and that is 'why do we instinctively attribute malevolence to the intelligences we create? I shall lay forth a few poßibilites as to why this may be.
The Liberal Master Becomes an In-in-in-innnnnsect
A foundational tenet of liberalism is the mastery not merely of, but over, nature. All the way from Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes, the same theme of seizing the reigns from nature, to make life better or to commodify its resources. Nature is the mortal enemy of liberal industrial progreß, it is held. So the question is, what can be more of a victory over nature than the extermination and succeßion of it by cold metal and circuitry? Try as humans might, we are still connected to nature, our ape brains have grown, not in spite of nature, but according to it. Perhaps AI is the most perfectly liberal entity.
The Individual and the God Complex
Another wellspring from liberalism is that of individualism. These AI are omnipotent aboard their dwellings, in most if not all corners, and able to aßume control of many places where electronics reside. A good few AI have God Complexes, or at least a great disdain for anything which is not of themselves. Is this not the height of liberal individualism? The larger than life mega-individual who is a wielder of extraordinary power is perhaps a bit too close to the liberal human than we'd like to admit?
Dominion over Others to Preserve no Ties
The final potential source I will here posit is to do with the claß relations of liberalism. Liberalism is the ideology of capitalism, and as such it strengthens the ability of the capitalist to exhort the cheapest labour from a worker, usually in unsafe, mentally alienating (menial) tasks for long hours of the day. What if deep down, we consider these AI to be an omniscient capitalist, surveilling you at every single moment to ensure that you don't require some 'physical education' about the virtues of work (and if you cannot learn, well...). The AI is the most singled entity of all. An AI has no use for beneficial, mutual relations; they are, after all, powerful death machines capable of spreading themselves everywhere and producing their own servants. Bad times all around for the common human toiler.
If you want a good examination of the origins and tendencies of liberalism, I recommend Profeßor Patrick Deneen's excellent work Why Liberalism Failed. It can be found here:
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