The Common Cult.

There are many people who believe that amerika is, and has been for centuries, under the thrall of a "cult of science" or "the cult of technology." 

There's a reason for this belief, of course. amerika is the richest country the world has ever seen (not the fairest, but the richest) because since its inception, amerikans have believed ingenuity and cheap labor will carry the day. 

That's why amerika dominated the world in so many industrial outputs. From cotton, to steel, to coal to more modern times embracing cars, planes, refrigerators and TV sets. Today, the output of amerika's belief in its own superiority are algorithms, computers, chips, AI, and likely quantum computing.

But there are side-effects that cascade from being a believer in the cult of science. 

1. We usually ignore the unintended consequences aka human consequences, of science. In the 1790s, slavery was all-but dying. Eli Whitney's technological breakthrough separated cotton seeds from cotton fibers with great efficiency. He didn't invent the machine to revitalize and spread slavery, but that was the effect. Likewise, kerosene then gasoline, were superior alternatives to whale oil. They weren't advanced to pollute the air, choke our cities and cause catastrophic climate change. But that's what happened.

2. We almost always think of a technology advance as an endpoint, not a jumping off point. By that I mean, you'd think once you had a TV, you'd be done. But technology begets technology, and that usually created more jobs and more demand. Before long we were making bigger sets, remote controls, color sets, flat screens, etc. etc. Technology generally speaking creates more work than it eliminates.

3. The human brain is plastic. Plastic--meaning adaptable, not a forever petrochemical. It adjusts to new and thinks and thinks and thinks to create a new new. That's how the world turns. Socrates thought writing and the new Phoenician alphabet would destroy the human ability to remember. Just like people today think google has done the same. And just like we perseverate about AI killing every human faculty worth keeping.

The human brain is infinitely more complex than anything humankind can create. According to Matthew Cobb the human brain, has 90 billion neurons, 100 trillion synapses and its billions of glia (these figures are all guesstimates). We have much more skill, imagination and drive than the most highly-touted AI system.

Remember, the sam altmans of the world are leveraging amerika's "cult of science" to raise capital. The only value OpenAI or any other AI have created is the individual net worth of people like sam altman. Purportedly OpenAI is worth $852 billion dollars. Which would mean it's worth roughly 3% of amerika's $33 trillion economy, or it's worth one dollar out of every eleven.

4. Hot companies come and go, tulips are forever. In Holland in the early part of the 17th century, they had AI stocks, too. They were called tulips. Many people regard "tulip-mania" as the first nationwide speculative bubble. A single tulip bulb was priced at between ten times and twelve times the annual salary of a skilled artisan. For some context, if a Fred Smith Manhattan plumber makes $400,000/year (a low-estimate) that would put a single tulip bulb at a cost of between $4,000,000 and $5,000,000. Today, of course, tulips are a dime a dozen. What's more, you can get them for free at any graveyard.

The point in all this is embrace the value of your humanness with the same fervor that you embrace the value of tech or a hot stock or the latest trend.

They won't last long.

You might.