Locke Versus the Apocalypse

Paper Belt and Silicon Road, Part 2

Human Nature

As the tension between these two cultures becomes clearer, it will unveil a mirror to a fundamental conflict within human nature. AI will reflect the patterns and incentives created by its algorithm, its data, its environment, and its users. It will reflect us, not only by emulating us but by unveiling parts of us that we traditionally ignore. 

The Paper Belt has a communal vision of human nature. In their eyes, a coming together, a consensus, and if necessary, consensus by censorship or force, is the way to govern best. It believes that left unchecked, capitalism and technology lead to exploitation, anarchy, or even extinction. To them, consensus is an act of altruism and empathy. Forced consensus is the ultimate form of Rawls’s original position, governing according to a benevolent egalitarianism. 

The Silicon Road is individualist. It believes that self-interest leads to social good, in most if not all cases. As economist Adam Smith noted, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” Moreover, it is highly suspicious of the communal will. It sees the Road’s desire for consensus as an attempt to scapegoat and steal, motivated by blame rather than goodwill.

The question at the heart of this disagreement: why does political consensus exist? This question is famously deferred by Locke, beginning centuries of classical liberalism staked on not answering this very question. Paypal founder Peter Thiel emphasizes Locke’s importance in the American founding: “That new science found its most important proponent in John Locke and its greatest practical success in the United States, a nation whose conception owed so much to Locke that one exaggerates only slightly to describe him as its definitive founder.” Thanks to the Lockeian spirit, America paused metaphysical war for as long as metaphysical war was called religious war.

Future History