H.P. Lovecraft with one of his imaginary playmates
The CEO of Kindred A.I. the other day ruffled some feathers by warning that “tech developers are summoning entities into existence” (https://clarion.causeaction.com/2019/09/17/ai-expert-says-we-are-summoning-robot-entities-who-will-treat-us-like-ants/).
Say it ain’t so!
Warns the CEO, these “entities” will be (or already are) as indifferent to us as we are to ants: “they’re way smarter than every single person in this room, in ways that we can’t even comprehend.” Well, gee–not knowing who was in the room with him when he said that, we can only speculate. I mean, if it was Joe Biden and Rosie O’Donnell, he had a great chance of being right.
These scary entities that we’re going to summon into existence, he said, are “like Lovecraftian The Great Old Ones…” Those were monsters in H.P. Lovecraft’s fantasy/horror stories. Not intended to be taken seriously. We wonder whether Mr. CEO quite understands that.
Sorry, dude, but Shakespeare got in before you. He even got in before Lovecraft. Henry IV Part I, Act III, Scene 1.
Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur: Why, so can I, and so can any man. But will they come when you do call for them?
(Why do I think I hear someone crying, “Call for Phillip Morris”?)
See, beings either exist or they don’t. No yo-yo down here on earth can summon them into existence. We already have inborn human depravity and hosts of malevolent spiritual beings turned loose on us by Satan. What can some clowns with computers add to that?
HPL was only kidding; but this guy at Kindred is nuts.