Technology and the childlike pursuit of esoteric power.
Why does it seem like every major problem that befalls the technology industry of late straddles a thin line between childlike idealism and power?
It’s been a while since the OpenAI fiasco.
OpenAI’s board would fire Sam Altman. The rest is history (they brought him back).
The occurrence captivated anyone into technology more simply and the future of humanity more grandly. What was potentially the fastest-growing tech company ever— one that delineated our current vision for AI and potentially human existence, all of a sudden looked so vulnerable; on the cusp of implosion, and at the center of it all was one man.
While the events that took place have since left public consciousness, they’ve left an indelible mark on me as they tie into questions I’ve had about the sort of personality that pursues a legacy in technology and how their actions play out in the world more broadly.
The technology industry walks an absurd line between the abstract; the esoteric; the larger-than-life and the mundane often bringing into the forefront occurrences and personalities improbable to have assumed power in the first place.
This contrasts somewhat with the finance industry where grandiose personalities and egotism seem to be the mean but whose prominence and will to power take them to places far less ambitious. Perhaps, a function of its radical honesty about its motives (making money)?
Amongst the most prominent speculative theories concerning Altman’s firing was that the board saw him unfit to lead OpenAI amid the potential creation of an AGI. The board then clarified that his firing was not due to any one issue of safety but to a failure of Altman to be transparent.
It felt like eschatology, messianism, cultism, and mysticism dished in an ill-presented but enticing spectacle. Yes, there are elements of plain old corporate dynasticism and tribalism, but the stakes here are, at least to the participants involved, a lot higher.
Computers were and still are the closest we have got to magic. Whole civilizations have been defined by the access and recognition of the importance of technology and scientific prowess in their societies and a desire to expand the general capacity with which their populations can wield said power.
As a child, I noticed technology’s gifts early on. While introverted with a preference for personal endeavors I was (for my traits) socially well-adjusted, and have a lot of friends I can bank on. But technology provided a sense of escapism that not only manifested in me daydreaming about alternate futures, or consuming great indie media (think Newgrounds) but whose traits allowed me to get the objects of my desires from the void. What my parents refused or couldn’t get me (games, movies, etc) I could simply scour the web for and get.
I could attain anything represented in bits and bytes at a relatively low cost.
Becoming great at using the computer then, meant I could solve any immediate problem with sufficient computing and software. This drove me to learn Computer Science more broadly.
It’s funny how many in technology can point to this background filled with pirated games, niche forums, and captivating media.
This recognition of technology’s ability to change, manipulate, and understand the world at one’s whim seems to drive a certain otherwise unassuming personality’s will to power.
We saw this in Musk (less pleasantly of late), Altman, Buterin, and SBF.
But of course just because you have the intelligence to grasp concepts that most feel incapable of ever learning, to solve problems most can’t envision having a solution for, doesn’t make one a great leader of people (albeit puts one on the path). It does not make one immune to the failure modes of thought, the pleasures of the flesh, and the dopaminergic drive for more than meets the goals one has set to solve.
And so we saw Sam Bankman Fried ever trip himself into believing that his high-stakes Adderall-fueled gambling and downright fraud, was justified so far as there was some potential long-term utility.
It has been quoted into hell and back but as EO Wilson said:
The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.
Much attention is often paid to the quote's “medieval institutions” and “godlike technology” components when more focus needs to be put on our apparent paleolithic emotions and how often we try to convince ourselves that we do not possess them.
In light of progress in AI and the oft-hidden motive of creating god, we should be cognizant of said paleolithic emotions driving this motive and design safeguards to prevent truly gifted and smart people from making life miserable for us all due to their inability to recognize the vanity guiding their pursuits.