Under Trump, It’s Much Better to Be a Bot Than a Human

Philosopher Emile Torres, who has studied the “post biology” and “pro-extinction” thought in this milieu, argues that such ideas underpin the entire race to build artificial general intelligence and can be heard “everywhere in Silicon Valley.” Jaron Lanier, virtual reality expert, recently told Vox that it’s common in the industry to believe that “it would be good to wipe out people and that the AI future would be a better one.” There’s an underlying assumption in the industry that, as Elon Musk has tweeted, humanity is a “biological boatloader for digital superintelligence.”

Obviously, freaks with such anti-human, anti-life attitudes belong nowhere near government, but Trump’s policies show how intimately close they are. Our leaders need to take sides and—I’m going out on a limb here—throw down with the animate over the inanimate.

Sure, some technology can make our lives more productive and efficient. But while this should go without saying, in our current world it obviously does not: Anyone plotting our extinction is an enemy. As living humans, we owe ourselves, our children—and all animals and plants to boot—a world in which biological life comes first. And when the machines get in our way, they must be stopped and destroyed.