Chainfeeds Summary:
When advanced intelligence becomes readily available, the suspense will no longer be "what can technology do", but rather "who controls the switch, how wealth is redistributed, and what kind of people we ultimately want to become".
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Article Author:
chao
Opinion:
Chao: To understand the second half, we must re-examine the rules of the game in the first half. For the first 10,000 years of human civilization, there was an unbreakable ironclad rule: intelligence is scarce. High-level intelligence exists only in the human brain; it cannot be copied or transferred, and its cultivation takes decades. This fundamental law predetermined humanity's fate: endless survival pressure. Because of the scarcity of intelligence, the world could not be efficiently transformed, and the vast majority of people had to work all day just to survive. These two factors reinforced each other, forming a cycle that lasted for tens of thousands of years: intelligence scarcity → breakthroughs depend on rare geniuses → slow productivity growth → immense survival pressure → no time for thought → intelligence scarcity. But history also reveals hidden opportunities: each leap in productivity, though slow, successfully liberated a portion of the population, cultivated more intelligent resources, and propelled civilization upwards in a spiral. From disorder to reconstruction, Britain took a full 100 years. The sacrifice of one generation brought stability to subsequent generations. So, what about this time? This time, we also stand on the edge of the precipice of disorder. But history does not simply repeat itself; the transformation brought about by AI will be unprecedented in three dimensions. First, there's the speed. The pain of the Industrial Revolution lasted a century, while the core impact of the AI revolution may be compressed into a mere 10 to 20 years. History seems to have been fast-forwarded tenfold; the social upheaval and reconstruction that took the past century to unfold may now be completed within a single generation, leaving us little room to gradually adapt. Second, there's the scope. Even at its most intense, the Industrial Revolution primarily tore apart manufacturing and certain jobs. This time, however, AI's impact extends beyond a single corner of the economic landscape to the entire map: almost every industry and every job will be affected to varying degrees, differing only in timing and depth. Third, there's the evolutionary pattern. Past technologies progressed from "invention once → slow dissemination," but this time, AI itself is participating in designing even stronger AI. We are simultaneously striving to adapt to it and being forced to keep pace with its rapid self-evolution. If the next decade is a storm, it won't be a aimless turbulent current. Looking out from the eye of the storm, we see three persistent forces pulling us apart—these are not short-term events, but three inescapable structural problems: Who will control intelligent infrastructure? How will the wealth created by AI circulate in society? As the equation "work = value" begins to crumble, what constitutes a good life? These three issues correspond to the power structure, distribution structure, and value structure of the second half of the game. They will determine the kind of world we live in for a long time to come.
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