The Diamond Age

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The Diamond Age, our best friend in figuring this out is variety of ideas, and the worst thing that could happen is a single set of ideas, you know, one or two governments percolating across the world with one or two forms of government.

Far, far better to have a huge amount of variety, 'cause AI is gonna open up so much change and so many different ways you could govern that exploring all the nooks and crannies is gonna be critical to, to answering your question.

So it's, it's impossible to answer it, you know, in, in a minute, [laughs] but it is very possible to experiment with thousands and thousands of different ways to manage and govern in the age of AI.

You guys have been a hope and optimism for me.

Uh, just a simple question.

Uh, what books or material do you recommend reading to prepare for the transition we're in? I know you've mentioned Diamond Age and, uh, Ray's books, The Singularity and, um, some other works he has.

I was just curious if you had any other material that you think is important to read.

Don't give it arms and don't give it thumbs.

And we might be okay, but that's not where we're headed.

Because some of the theories start with the national security apparatus, start with the military control of AI.

So I'm going to tell you these different scenarios that these guys cooked up, but I feel like what we're moving towards is a highly algorithmic technocratic state.

We probably won't all agree that they're good.

And we probably won't all agree that we want to make sure they get implemented.

But let me tell you, that's where this is headed.

So the AI safety realists, which is all in the news right now about the existential threat AI poses, they're the ones who want the most central control at the highest possible levels.

I like it.

I really do like his stuff, but he's got books like Snow Crash and Diamond Age that presage exactly what's going on right now.

He's got other books that are much darker.

He goes into catastrophism in a book called Seven Eves, which if...

I'd like to hear more about what you think the connection is between Neal Stephenson, Curtis Yarvin, and these thoughts.

And Neal Stephenson obviously has written quite a few very popular science fiction books that many of these tech leaders, including Jeff Bezos, openly consider very influential, like Snow Crash, Diamond Age, which directly talk about the collapse of American democracy and And then a transformation into this corporate state techno, you know, oligarchy situation.

And then obviously Curtis Yarvin, who was a fringe thinker for a long time is quoted by JD Vance among others quite frequently.

Can you share a little bit more about the influences there?

We call it the artificial leaf.

I'm not sure if you've ever read the science fiction novel, The Diamond Age, right? They have mastered nanotechnology there and they have these printers that can make...

Yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So there will always be new skills and, uh, things to be learning and processes from yesterday will go away and get replaced with 10 more tomorrow.

Yeah, I think of there's a Neal Stephenson novel, The Diamond Age.

I don't know if you've read that.

Uh-

they would communicate with each other, like with IR, and they'd start to like be in sync.

And so it was all based on Stevenson, Neil Stevenson's Diamond Age, where it was in the shape-

Mm-hmm

... of a dragonfly.

So intelligence may become abundant without making energy, mineralbles- minerals, or land abundant.

Uh, Ferguson says the better model is actually the work of science fiction author Ne- Neal Stephenson, uh, specifically his book The Diamond Age.

So in that book, the technology does not erase human conflict or inequality.

It basically enriches a techno elite, leaving a lower class dependent on basic income, and produces unintended consequences when powerful systems are monetized and misused.

I mean, it's...

I know some people love sci-fi.

I did not have that book on my to, to read list, The Diamond Age.

So-

Which is, you know, if you went back 10, 20 years and he's writing, doing all his amazing novels, uh, you had some sense of what, a glimmer of what the future might hold, right? In a world that we live in today where it's so hard to predict where things are going in th- three months, forget three years or 30 years, how do you build the models that give you viable future narratives? And that's the question I've got for you.

You know, I spent the day with Neal Stephenson, one of the most extraordinary science fiction writers, right? He wrote Diamond Age, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, over-

Snow Crash.

Wow.