Radikális egyformaság

As far as we can see, the majority view is that the emergence and further development of artificial intelligence is a kind of threat, among other things because it creates a virtual world alongside – or instead of – the real world. Despite the comprehensive nature of the virtual world and its difficulty of recognition, it can only be considered a partial novelty, since classical manipulation based on mass media (television, radio, tabloids, etc.) has already created a similar simulation of reality in many respects, according to Marcuse and our own experience and knowledge. This is important to underline because the construction of the world of the ‘one-dimensional man’ and the emergence of artificial intelligence today coincide with the current crisis of the modern world system, i.e. the end of the 4th and 5th Kondratyev cycles and the chaotic period that followed. Although history never repeats itself, the similarities are obvious: the wars in Vietnam and the present wars, the changes in the center-periphery relationship, the economic crises, the reorganization of everyday life, etc., are clear signs of both the similarities and, of course, the differences. The real danger, therefore, is not the existence of artificial intelligence per se, but the ‘natural intelligence’ that uses it for economic, political, military, cultural and other purposes. Although it is difficult to see any similarities between the ‘young people of today’ who are immersed in smartphones and the radical hippies of 1968, let us not forget that ‘well-bred’ – manipulated – young people were in the majority then too.