The Intelligence Pill
Can superintelligence emerge out of a culture of lies?
Note: Sometimes inspiration comes from strange places. I recently had a dream about what it would feel like if a pill existed that made people superintelligent. I woke up and used that premise for this week’s post. It’s very provocative but will hopefully leave you with food for afterthought. Before we get into it, a quick note.
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Imagine if humanity managed to manufacture a pill that would instantly make people much smarter. The intelligence pill. What would that look like? And what would the implications be?
A pill that makes people smarter would first and foremost make them better at reading and understanding others emotions, intentions, and ways of thinking. As I see it, this is a hallmark of true intelligence. Who knows, perhaps those who take the pill would be able to decipher other people’s secrets like Bruce Willis’s character in the old M. Night Shyalaman movie, Unbreakable.
The heightened intelligence could give those who take the pill the ability to look through the lies and façades ordinary people take comfort in, or previous life events or sides to people's personalities they try to suppress in daily life. Nobody likes to be exposed. In this sense, I think the day humanity manufactures an intelligence pill, it would make many people feel awkward.
Now, let’s say that one intelligence pill would make a person significantly smarter. How long would it take before someone is digesting a hundred pills, a thousand pills, or more? Probably not long. In this case, the intelligence pill would no longer make people around them feel awkward. Ordinary people wouldn’t understand what was going on when interacting with a person who had overdosed on the intelligence pill. On a high enough dosage, it could provide a person with the ability to instantly understand and formulate extremely complex theories and scientific principles and make connections between dots ordinary people cannot even see. This would be true superintelligence.
Would superintelligence be a blessing or a curse?
I think it would unconditionally be a blessing. Intelligence right now is what humanity lacks and needs the most.
Many rich Americans think the people working for them can achieve something like superintelligence. Not through chemistry or pharmaceutics but through AI. However, on the road towards this goal, America as a country would have to face a lot of awkwardness because it tells itself many lies.
For instance, the US Copyright Office recently pre-published a report that threw a shadow of doubt over AI companies' unrestricted right to use all creative content for free to train new AI models. The correct and truthful interpretation of copyright law in the US and the EU is that training AI models with copyrighted works requires permission from the right holders. I have been making this case for a while now. See for reference:
Less than 24 hours after the scratchy report was published, the Trump administration fired the head of the Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter. Coincidence? I think not.
Trump has to represent the interest of the BigTech leaders who lined up behind him on inauguration day. The firing was a muscle flex by the Trump administration and it conveys a clear message: we decide what’s true in this country. As in foregone times, one individual has the de facto power to make up rules and silence opposition. Supported not just by the private sector (namely BigTech) but by his inner circle of bobblehead advisors and certain personality types who would eagerly turn cartwheels or go down on all fours to act as human chairs, if so asked by the people in power.
One feature social media has that the real world lacks is the ability to instantly block people or viewpoints we don’t agree with. We are all kings and queens on social media while creators are mere servants and court jesters. Something doesn’t amuse you? Let it be gone. Don’t like hearing about climate change, war, poverty? Too much negative energy and probably fake news, let’s watch something funny.
Social media is conditioning us to think in this way as if we could shape reality how we want. It makes us believe that we have the power to instantly cut out the inputs from our life that we don’t find comfortable or egotistically pleasing. Mr. President exercises this power a lot.
For instance, he recently received a $400 million airplane as a gift from Qatar and had the following exchange with a reporter:
“What do you say to people who view that luxury jet as a personal gift to you? Why not leave it behind?”
“You are ABC fake news, right? Only ABC would — well, a few of you would ask that question. Let me tell you. You should be embarrassed asking that question. They're giving us a free jet. I can say no, no, no, don't give us — I want to pay you a bill again, or 400 million or whatever it is, or I can say thank you very much. You know, there was an old golfer named Sam Snead. Did you ever hear of him? He won 82 tournaments, he was a great golfer. He had a motto, ‘When they give you a putt, you say thank you very much. You pick it up and walk to the next hole.’ A lot of people are stupid. They say no, no, I insist on putting it. Then they putt it, they miss it. Then their partner gets angry at them. You know what? Remember that, Sam Snead, when he gives you a putt, you pick it up and say thank you very much.”
Trump refuses to engage with the question which involves a not-so-subtle accusation of taking a bribe. Instead of biting, he quickly cuts the reporter off, labels her as from the fake news, and changes the topic to something he finds much more interesting: golf.
This is what people are doing on social media all the time. Essentially, they are adopting the approach of a ruthless monarch who can push a button to the trapdoor and feed people to the sharks if they say something unpleasant or unamusing. Such a ruthless display of power creates a culture of lies and lying. Everyone is afraid to upset the king.
People who are very powerful in America such as Trump, have come to believe that the world is malleable to their wishes. And as it turns out, it is, in fact. At least in America where the democratic checks and balances have failed to fence in the influence of the absolute elite.
Can superintelligence thrive in a culture of lies, sycophancy, and fake laughter? Of course, it cannot. Superintelligence cannot flourish in an environment of ignorance. It needs truth. Every major scientific breakthrough and artistic masterpiece is based on a truthful view of the world. Why should superintelligent AI be any different?
Oftentimes the truth is inconvenient and uncomfortable. People wouldn’t like to hear it. Nonetheless, it is the truth and without accepting it, there is no way of making genuine progress. For example, space exploration would be impossible if we still thought the earth was flat and at the center of the universe, and silenced people who claimed differently.
Before we get to superintelligence, we will have to take the proverbial intelligence pill. Many kings and queens out there won’t like it.
