Savior

Humanity seems to be in a Messianic frenzy. Some are waiting for a powerful and skilled political leader, some look up to the sky. Some want to elevate a genuine sage to a throne, and some, seeing the obvious futility of the previous approaches, even want to create an artificial one. What those approaches have in common is waiting for a savior. Someone who would solve our problems and save us, in extreme cases, from ourselves.

However, empirical evidence is relentless. No matter the scenario, all what an alleged, hypothetical, or even authentic savior can ever do is to tell us what to do. We are the ones who will have to agree and do the bidding in good faith.

I will laugh my ass off if I’ll see the first strong general-purpose AI finished and tasked with the question of how to avert the threat of self-inflicted destruction that looms over humanity, and the machine, after casting meticulous votes, spits out a dry response, “Get enlightened — know thyself.”