Human extraction
Cognitive Ecology: The Human
We are in the process of turning human intelligence into infrastructure.
Once this happens, embodied existence itself becomes a resource to be extracted.
The raw material of artificial intelligence is not rare metals, but precious brain power.
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Your brain is the new semiconductor.
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Our advanced science and technology cannot make a drop of water. It must extract it from planet Earth.
Our advanced science and technology cannot make an ounce of intelligence. It must extract it from human brains.
Are we the next natural resource?
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When we sell intelligence by the meter like water or electricity, human biology itself becomes commodified.
In the same way our water infrastructure takes fresh water from Earth’s reserves and sends it to our homes, the new intelligence infrastructure must tap into the minds of countless human beings to extract their intelligence and sell it by the meter.
For the first time in human history, our unique existence on this planet is a resource that can be productized.
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The emerging blueprint of our technological age is not built on human flourishing.
It’s built on the optimized use of all natural resources—our planet, our ecosystems, our labor, our data, our energy, our intelligence—so that we can produce more for less at a faster pace.
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We humans start to feel the sting of being extracted by tech because of our biology.
Let this be a mirror to how our species extracts and exploits other living beings on this planet in the name of progress.
This is what happens when life has no intrinsic meaning.
When our existence is counted by the amount of food we need to ingest to become productive for capitalism.
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Digital spaces are created by human intelligence.
The technology of the future is made possible by extracting human intelligence.
Yet, these systems are built to strip us of everything that makes us human.
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We mine humans just as we mine nature.
Our planet, and increasingly our lives, are the raw resources of progress.
What, then, is progress?
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Technology must ultimately rely on the most valuable data-processing unit we know: the human brain.
Will we extract technology to enhance humans?
Or will we extract humans to enhance machines?
Explore the notebook of meditations here: Intro to Cognitive Ecology.
Claudia Befu
This is really great. Now that we’ve had AI for a while we’re finally starting to see what’s happening.
This is the parallel to colonization as you say we extract from other humans. It’s sad to me that realization of colonialism is still not really blatant and continually brought up to guide us forward making sure we don’t do it again. It’s such a foundation of the West. It’s how the wealthy countries got wealthy. Let’s remember that’s in us and the spirit of that is what is in the billionaire class. Something to be tempered for our collective wellbeing.
Which could be applied as an argument for creating a wealth distribution of AI profits.