Mike Brock writes:

[H]ere is what makes AI and Musk and Thiel’s belief in the logic of technology as the basis for civilization so authoritarian. There’s no room for emotion in the cold logic of math.

This technocratic vision of society, where algorithms and “rational” systems dictate human affairs, is not just misguided—it’s fundamentally anti-human. It’s a worldview that reduces the rich tapestry of human experience to a series of equations, that sees efficiency as the highest virtue and messiness of human emotion as a bug to be eliminated rather than a feature to be embraced.

When Musk talks about AI governance or Thiel waxes poetic about seasteading utopias, they’re not just proposing alternative political systems. They’re advocating for a fundamental rewiring of human society that strips away the very things that make us human. They offer a world where decisions are made not based on compassion, empathy, or a sense of shared humanity, but on cold calculations of utility and efficiency.

Democracy is messy because it allows people to be irrational, passionate, and unpredictable. AI governance, by contrast, seeks to optimize society by removing human discretion. But once you remove human discretion, you remove choice. And without choice, democracy is dead.

This is the dark underbelly of Silicon Valley utopianism. It’s a vision of the future that has no place for the Humean understanding of human nature, no room for the passions that drive us, the emotions that connect us, the feelings that make life worth living. It’s a sterile, algorithmic authoritarianism that promises perfect efficiency at the cost of our humanity. [Continue reading…]