By George, I finally sorted out what has overtaken America. It’s social Darwinism and a new Gilded Age of artificial intelligence (AI). Let me explain.
The underlying philosophy of social Darwinism has been percolating since the last Gilded Age among America’s elite class. It’s a belief that the poor are “unfit”. They should not be aided. Society should evolve and will only improve with the superior (that is wealthy) classes. So this distain for the poor and disenfranchised is not a symptom of the 21st century.
Survival of the fittest
Social Darwinism is a distortion of Charles Darwin’s work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, published in 1859. Darwin put forth the process of evolution through natural selection within plant and animal life.
Darwin’s premise of natural selection was usurped and distorted by Gilded Age sociologist Herbert Spencer. In fact it was Spencer, not Darwin, who first coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” and later, in 1864, promoted the concept that mankind, like the natural world, should be governed by that same principle.
Influenced by this world view the elite class of the Gilded Age regarded the poor as disposable entities that should be pruned from the prosperous tree of society. Whereas economically successful men, be it in business or politics, were naturally superior. It was a time of poverty wages, horrific working conditions, men, women and children being exploited.
Survival in today’s America
Included in his philosophy was a racial component regarding immigration. Social Darwinism favored white and English-speaking immigrants, bringing an abrupt end to the concept of relaxed race relations that had begun to emerge in the general population after the civil war. Social Darwinism was turning neighbor against neighbor and immigrant against immigrant.
A pattern that regrettably continues to this day with open hostility towards non-white immigrants here in America.
In real time, the current American government is starving those who are impoverished through circumstances, often not of their own making. The government is capriciously making people in its employ redundant, declining to fund subsidies to cover medical insurance and adding work requirements to medical programs for carers. Additionally it is putting in place hurdles for those seeking food assistance – to qualify they must meet work standards that in many cases are unobtainable.
Such heinous treatment of the American people is a revival of the first Gilded Age where men of industry and politics deplored the notion of any government assistance to the poor. It mirrors the world depicted in Mark Twain’s eponymous novel – a glittering time with superficial beauty but underneath riddled with base greed and corruption among industrialists and politicians.
The Gilded Age of artificial intelligence
America today is not focused on mining, railroads, or manufacturing. Our wealthy elite are pursuing a frenzied advancement of large language models (LLM) and world model AI. And seemingly at any cost.
I suspect there will be a heavy cost. But it will be borne by the average and poor American citizen, through their tax dollars, continued low wages, job loss, the ending of social programs and making medical care unaffordable. And if history repeats itself, any financial shortfalls this new AI industry experiences will no doubt result in the government bailing out the investors using – yes – public funds.
I have been perplexed by the fixation of the billionaire class regarding AI advancement. Yes, being able to have a robotic employ interface, production and distribution in their business is cost effective, i.e. money-making. But the figures for this investment return simply do not add up.
Grace Blakeley, a British author and commentator on economics and politics, accurately points out the AI economics are presently in circular profits. Namely, one company supplying the next and the next and then back to the originator. Where is the return profit in that?
There is the utopian dream that the public relations companies are espousing – AI will improve the lives of everyone. Yes, there is the real possibility of advanced medical discoveries made by AI’s deep data mining of our medical histories. Then again, such information might also dictate whether we are fit to employ, fit to insure, offer longevity of service. Assuming that AI deep learning will be used benevolently, and for our best interests, is probably very misguided.
As for the notion that work will be optional, money irrelevant and our lives will be better because of AI and robots, surely fails to understand that humans are social beings who thrive on a purpose in life.
It is an insane utopia being put forth. Then again, is there another goal sought by these billionaires?
Gilgamesh
Might this accelerated push for AI simply be about finding the mythical fountain of youth? Extending life and youth for the elite class? Could this be the end game? Certainly it is the same premise in my 2023 novella Re-Engineered: Book One.
Researching billionaires in the world, I paused at the top 50 – there are 2093 billionaires! In that top 50 the lion’s share are above the age of 60. They have unmatched wealth & power, so what more can they want? Immortality?
In the world’s oldest written poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero, Gilgamesh, sought eternal life. Today’s billionaires are no different. Peter Thiel has made no secret of wishing to live to 120 and is reported to donate to the Methuselah Foundation.
If our future is one of social Darwinism with the superior class being the immortal billionaires, then I fear our future is bleak. However, the success of Zohran Mamdani and his belief in Democratic Socialism gives me hope.
Perhaps change is on the wind, my British cousins.
Time for a soothing cup of tea. I bid you adieu.
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