I’m reading George Eliot's Impressions of Theophrastus Such (1879)—so far a snoozer compared to her novels. But chapter 17 surprised me for how well it anticipated modern AI doomerism.
In summary, Theophrastus is in conversation with Trost, who is an optimist about the future of automation and how it will free us from drudgery and permit us to further extend the reach of the most exalted human capabilities. Theophrastus is more concerned that automation is likely to overtake, obsolete, and atrophy human ability.
Among Theophrastus's concerns:
- People will find that they no longer can do labor that is valuable enough to compete with the machines.
- This will eventually include intellectual labor, as we develop for example “a machine for drawing the right conclusion, which will doubtless by-and-by be improved into an automaton for finding true premises.”
- Whereupon humanity will finally be transcended and superseded by its own creation [...]
Outline:
(02:05) Impressions of Theophrastus Such
(02:09) Chapter XVII: Shadows of the Coming Race
First published:
May 13th, 2025
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/DFyoYHhbE8icgbTpe/ai-doomerism-in-1879)
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO).
