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The AI Timebomb This Sci-Fi Show Accidentally Predicted — Transcript

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0:00I just spent the last month consuming way
0:02too much utopian and
0:03dystopian science fiction.
0:06But there's one specific story that I
0:08can't stop thinking about.
0:09This one episode of The Orville.
0:14The Orville is a Star Trek style sci-fi
0:16show that imagines
0:17humanity in the 25th century.
0:20But beneath its comedic exterior, it asks
0:22one of the most
0:23pertinent questions facing
0:24us today.
0:25What happens when
0:26technology eliminates scarcity?
0:31Hey, that's my sandwich.
0:34But why is this idea so relevant today?
0:36Well, there's this techno-optimistic
0:38philosophy that I've
0:40noticed has taken hold of tech
0:41bros on the west coast.
0:43One that sees AI as the catalyst to
0:46reimagine the fundamental
0:47relationships between people,
0:49work and resources.
0:52Changes as dramatic as the transition from
0:54feudalism to capitalism itself.
0:56The whole structure of society itself
0:58will be up for some degree
0:59of debate and reconfiguration.
1:01Silicon Valley and our tech overlords
1:03have big plans for our future.
1:06And the season 3 finale of The Orville
1:08really illustrates all
1:10that's at stake for us here.
1:14The episode centers around Lysella, who
1:16lives on a planet not too
1:17dissimilar from our Earth
1:19in the 21st century.
1:22Her planet has a lot of
1:23the same problems we do.
1:25Poverty, endless wars, lies politicians
1:27tell to keep people in fear.
1:29Everyone's scared and paranoid because
1:31nobody trusts each other.
1:32But Lysella, despite living a very
1:34comfortable middle-class
1:35life, has dreams of escape.
1:39You see, in a previous episode, the
1:41Orville accidentally revealed its
1:43existence and origin
1:44to her.
1:44She is the only one on her planet who
1:47knows that there is a
1:48union of planets out there
1:49that live a much better version of life
1:52than anything
1:53available to her or her people.
1:57After the Orville left the first time,
1:59Lysella was changed forever.
2:01Like a virus she couldn't shake, the
2:03memory of life aboard the Orville
2:05infected her thoughts.
2:08All of the problems of her planet feel
2:10worse now, because she
2:11knows there is a better way.
2:15Captain, I'm receiving a
2:16message from Sargus IV.
2:18From the researchers? I thought we were
2:20supposed to contact them.
2:21We were.
2:22Lysella finally reaches out to the Orville
2:24on a stolen
2:24communication device and tells them
2:26that she can't stand
2:27to live there anymore.
2:28I won't go back.
2:30She wants out.
2:32Please.
2:33She's ready to walk away.
2:37Lysella views the Orville's world as a
2:40utopia. With their advanced technology,
2:42they seem to have transcended most of the
2:44problems that plague her world.
2:47No poverty, no wars,
2:49no resource scarcity.
2:52It's everything she thought impossible.
2:56But fully grasping what this means for us
2:59requires looking at
3:00Lysella's story through
3:02multiple philosophical lenses.
3:05Because Silicon Valley is asking us to
3:07consider a similar transformation.
3:09I still expect that there will be some
3:12change required to the
3:14social contract, given how
3:17powerful we expect this technology to be.
3:19It's telling that Sam reaches for the
3:21phrase "social contract" here.
3:23The last time humanity played with this
3:25concept was when Rousseau
3:26was imagining how society
3:27could transition from feudalism to
3:30capitalism centuries ago.
3:35We are being asked to imagine the
3:36restructuring of capitalism into some
3:38sort of techno-utopia,
3:40and the first step to realizing any
3:42change, especially one
3:43as dramatic as this, is to
3:46imagine it.
3:48So before we get into the rest of
3:49Lysella's story and see what life is
3:51actually like in their utopia,
3:53let's play a little game.
3:55What does utopia look like to you?
4:01Is it a city with towering skyscrapers,
4:04seamlessly interweaving
4:05nature and technology?
4:07Or does it have the vibe of a small
4:09village with little cottages everywhere?
4:11Technology fades into the background as
4:13people live in a collaborative community.
4:17How and where do
4:18people work in this place?
4:20Or do people work at all?
4:22Maybe robots fulfill
4:24all of our needs here.
4:26and people are free to pursue their
4:28passions and interests.
4:32After all, there is abundant clean water
4:35and air, efficient public transit, and
4:39never a shortage of avocados.
4:42Or whatever it is
4:44that you most care about.
4:46Now, you may balk and think that the
4:48people that live in a
4:48place like this must be
4:50soulless automatons lacking any
4:52individuality or
4:53knowledge of suffering or purpose.
4:56But no, these people actually have
4:58complex inner lives,
5:01experiencing emotions like joy,
5:03love, passion, freedom, and pride for all
5:06that they have built together.
5:10Nobody is homeless or
5:11starves and there are no drugs.
5:14Or if this place is starting to sound too
5:16goody good, maybe
5:17there are lots of drugs.
5:18Plentyful mind expanding drugs.
5:21And let's throw an orgy in there too, if
5:23that's your kind of thing.
5:25The point is, if you can
5:27imagine it, this utopia has it.
5:29This shining city on a hill.
5:31This city of Omelas.
5:40You can imagine it, can't you?
5:42You can accept that a
5:43place like this could exist?
5:46Before you answer that question, let me
5:48tell you about one more thing.
5:56You see, in one of these
5:57beautiful public buildings,
5:59far below the magnificent skylines, down
6:02below street level, there's a hole.
6:06And at the end of
6:07this deep and dark hole,
6:11There is a room. No
6:13bigger than a broom closet.
6:16In one corner of the room are a couple of
6:18mops, and in the other is a child.
6:25It could be a boy or a
6:26girl, it doesn't really matter.
6:28And actually it might not even be a
6:30child, it might be
6:31closer to adolescent, just so
6:33malnourished and
6:34underdeveloped that it looks like a child.
6:39It knows that nobody will ever come.
6:42Except for sometimes.
6:44The child doesn't really have any
6:46understanding of time or interval, but it
6:48knows that sometimes
6:50one or many people appear.
6:53One of them may come in to kick the child
6:55to make it stand up, but
6:57Most usually just look from afar with
7:00frightened, disgusted eyes.
7:07The water bowl and food dish are hastily
7:08filled. The doors are locked.
7:11and the eyes disappear.
7:14The food, if it can be called that, is
7:16nothing like the food that
7:18the people of Omelas eat.
7:20No, like most of the child's life, it's
7:22painful and just enough to keep it alive.
7:28The child hunches in the
7:29corner, away from the two mops.
7:32It's afraid of them.
7:34It finds them horrible.
7:37It shuts its eyes, but it
7:38knows the mops are still there.
7:42Always there.
7:45Standing.
7:48Watching.
7:55Now, you might be thinking,
7:57what monster could do this?
7:59And in a utopia like Omelas, how could
8:01anyone allow this to happen?
8:05Well, when people of Omelas reach a
8:07certain age, whether
8:08that's age 8 or 12 or 25, when
8:12they are at an age where they can
8:14understand, they go to see the child.
8:19And no matter how much explanation each
8:21one gets ahead of time,
8:23these young people are
8:24always shocked and sickened at the sight.
8:30They all know it's there,
8:31all the people of Omelas.
8:33And remember, these people are not
8:34soulless automatons, devoid of feeling.
8:37They are sophisticated enough to
8:38understand and appreciate the
8:39health of their own children,
8:41and the beauty of their city.
8:45When they view the horror of that child
8:47in that hole, they understand exactly
8:49what it is they are looking at.
8:54They feel disgust, anger, outrage,
8:56impotence, emotions they had thought
8:58themselves superior to.
9:00They would like to do something for the
9:01child, but they know that their city,
9:04all of their perfect trains and roads,
9:06all of their good
9:07food, clean air and water,
9:09the health of their children, all of
9:10their happiness and
9:12prosperity, depends upon the
9:14suffering and abandonment of
9:16this one load-bearing child.
9:20And the rules are strict. If they bring
9:22the child up into the
9:23sunlight, if they try to
9:24clean it or feed it or comfort it, even
9:27as so much as utter a single kind word.
9:31All the prosperity and beauty and delight
9:34of Omelas would wither and be destroyed.
9:38Those are the terms.
9:41To exchange the happiness of thousands of
9:43people for the chance
9:44of happiness of one,
9:46that would be to let guilt
9:48into the walls of Omelas.
9:58The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas is a
10:00short story written by
10:01Ursula K. Le Guin in 1973.
10:04When she wrote this philosophical thought
10:06experiment, the space
10:07age was in full swing.
10:16The first mobile phone call was made that
10:17year, and personal
10:18computers were on the horizon.
10:21It was an era defined by boundless
10:24technological optimism, even
10:26as questions about inequality
10:28and the human costs of progress were
10:30becoming impossible to ignore.
10:37The Ones Who Walk Away doesn't shy away
10:38from these tough questions.
10:40Because at the end of the story, we
10:42learn something else about Omelas.
10:44We learnd that after the young people
10:46come of age and travel down to see that
10:48child in that closet,
10:49buried deep in that hole in that
10:52unassuming building, most
10:54just go on with their lives.
10:58They may go home in tears or a tearless
11:01rage, but after brooding over it,
11:04most people confronted with this terrible
11:06paradox begin to realize that...
11:10It's bad, but really,
11:12it's the lesser of two evils.
11:14Even if the child could be released, it
11:16wouldn't get much
11:16good out of that freedom.
11:18Maybe a little vague pleasure of warmth
11:20and food, but little more.
11:22It's too degraded and
11:23imbecile to know any real joy.
11:27It has been afraid too
11:28long to ever be free of fear.
11:32It wouldn't know how to respond to love
11:34or any type of humane treatment.
11:40And it's from this place that the young
11:42people of Omelas find acceptance.
11:45Acceptance of the
11:47terrible justice of reality.
11:51They accept that they,
11:52like the child, are not free.
11:57Every day they wake up and participate in
11:59the machinery of their prosperity.
12:02They build the buildings, teach the
12:04children, bake the bread.
12:05They create art, fall
12:06in love, have families.
12:08They maintain the very infrastructure
12:10that depends on that child's suffering.
12:14And in doing so, they become both the
12:16prison and the prisoners.
12:18The system shapes them,
12:20even as they shape it.
12:23They understand with a clarity that
12:26burns, that they cannot separate
12:28themselves from the
12:29system that sustains them.
12:32That every moment of joy in Omelas draws
12:35its power from that deep, dark basement.
12:44So now do you believe that a
12:45place like Omelas could exist?
12:47Does learning of the child and the
12:49terrible bargain the people have made
12:50make the utopia they built more credible?
12:54Well, let me tell you something else that
12:57you may find incredible.
13:02There are some people when they come of
13:04age who cannot accept this bargain.
13:07Some who, upon seeing the
13:09child, walk away from Omelas.
13:14These people, unable to accept the truth
13:17that their society is
13:18built upon, leave in silence.
13:24They walk out of the city's gates, ahead,
13:27into the darkness, and
13:28they do not come back.
13:31Le Guin writes, "The place they go
13:34towards is a place even
13:35less imaginable to most of
13:37us than the city of happiness.
13:39I cannot describe it at all.
13:42It is possible that it does not exist.
13:45But they seem to know
13:47where they are going.
13:49The ones who walk away from Omelas."
13:58So what do you think the central metaphor
13:59is in the story of Omelas?
14:01Is it about the moral cost of progress?
14:03The idea that our grand democratic
14:05societies are built upon
14:06a history of exploitation?
14:09Or is the central idea that in order to
14:11break out of the system
14:12that has us all trapped,
14:13we may need to just… walk away?
14:18Let me know what you
14:18think in the comments.
14:20But for me, this story resonates because
14:23it reveals something
14:24deep about the human psyche.
14:27The fact that we're unable or unwilling
14:29to accept the idea of
14:31a utopia unless there's
14:33this hidden pain and
14:34suffering that comes along with it.
14:36As Le Guin writes, "We have a bad habit,
14:39encouraged by pedants and
14:41sophisticates, of considering
14:42happiness as something rather stupid.
14:45Only pain is intellectual.
14:47Only evil
14:48interesting."
14:52And it's at this juncture that we find
14:55Lysella, choosing to walk
14:57away from all that she knows
14:59into a world of abundance.
15:02Welcome to the galaxy.
15:03The Orville grants her
15:04asylum from her old world.
15:07Commander Kelly is assigned to help
15:09Lysella acclimate to a
15:10new way of living, one that
15:12is very different from
15:13where she comes from.
15:16Kelly begins by showing Lysella the
15:18technology that
15:19changed everything for them.
15:21The matter synthesizer.
15:25Glass of water.
15:28The matter synthesizer is a technology
15:30that can create anything out of thin air.
15:34Food, clothes, tools.
15:36One shot of Xelayan tequila.
15:40With just a little programming, the
15:41machine will build it for you
15:43atom by atom.
15:45It was the single most transformative
15:46moment in our history.
15:48When all your material needs
15:49are provided for at no cost,
15:52it changes the entire game.
15:53These matter synthesizers
15:54are ubiquitous in the show.
15:55One Twinkie!
15:56Everybody has them and it's transformed
15:58the scarcity of their
15:59society into abundance.
16:03And as a metaphor, the matter synthesizer
16:06perfectly captures our
16:07current moment in history.
16:11Silicon Valley's techno-utopian vision at
16:13its heart offers what the matter
16:15synthesizer represents.
16:19When AI automates large portions of our
16:21economy, while simultaneously
16:22accelerating our scientific
16:24progress by decades, abundance becomes
16:27more than science fiction.
16:30For the first time, we're facing the very
16:32real possibility of a
16:34world beyond scarcity.
16:37And that's exactly the problem.
16:40Scarcity isn't just a condition of our
16:42economy, it's the load-bearing myth that
16:44the entire system is built upon.
16:47Just like Omelas needs its suffering
16:49child, capitalism needs
16:51its foundational belief: that
16:55there isn't enough to go around.
17:04Abundance is capitalism's natural enemy.
17:07Capitalism doesn't just need scarcity, it
17:09actively creates it.
17:10The system rewards players who
17:12manufacture scarcity for the sake of
17:13perpetuating itself.
17:15Take what AI labs like OpenAI have done.
17:18They took the abundance of information
17:19available on the internet,
17:21the data that all of us humans
17:22have created collectively, and built
17:24their language models from that.
17:30After benefiting from all of that free
17:31and open information,
17:33they then restricted access
17:34to their models, choosing not to share
17:36the model weights,
17:37effectively moving from an
17:39open source model to
17:40a closed source model.
17:43They manufactured an artificial
17:45information scarcity,
17:47and the system has
17:48rewarded them immensely for it.
17:51And we see this pattern
17:52everywhere in our economy.
17:54Take something that
17:55should be a shared resource,
17:56turn it into a commodity,
17:58and then control who gets access.
18:00We see it when companies bottle
18:01and sell our water back to us,
18:03when pharmaceutical
18:04companies jack up insulin prices,
18:06when corporations lock away
18:07the once open internet behind paywalls.
18:11Each time they take something
18:12abundant and make it scarce.
18:17And this applies to human labor as well.
18:19Most of us trade the one
18:21resource we all have, our time,
18:23in order to acquire the money
18:25for the basic necessities of life.
18:27I mean, it's just so basic.
18:30You have a job, you
18:30survive, you don't, you starve.
18:33And this scene reveals the heart
18:35of the thought experiment
18:36the Orville is asking
18:37us to consider here.
18:39In our world, work isn't
18:41just about creating value
18:42or contributing to
18:43society, it's about survival.
18:46We've built our entire
18:47social structure around the idea
18:49that you must work to deserve to live.
18:53For many people, this
18:53desperate chase for money
18:55becomes their entire purpose.
18:58Prove you're worthy enough to exist.
19:07And despite all the
19:08fantastical technology
19:09she has now seen,
19:14this aspect, the idea
19:16that nobody has to work
19:18is the hardest one for
19:20Lysella to internalize.
19:22So then why don't you
19:23guys just lay around all day
19:25and do nothing?
19:27It's no fun.
19:30See on your planet, currency is money.
19:32In the union, it's reputation.
19:35So if you do something, anything that
19:38benefits our society
19:40and you work hard at it, you're rich.
19:43And that could be anything.
19:45Maybe you wanna study
19:45a field of research,
19:47learn all you can about
19:48history, physics, literature,
19:51or art, just for your own pleasure.
19:55The only life considered poor is one
19:57that's wasted on apathy.
20:02But as Lysella learns more about the
20:03matter synthesizer,
20:04her wonder turns to guilt.
20:07You know, just this could change the
20:10world back on my planet.
20:12Even just one of
20:13these synthesizer things.
20:14She begins to regret
20:15her choice to walk away,
20:17as she starts thinking
20:18about everyone she left behind.
20:20Why couldn't you help them? Why couldn't
20:22you share your technology?
20:25I mean, there are whole countries that
20:27barely have clean water.
20:28This could save millions of lives.
20:31It's not that simple.
20:34But the Orville has this
20:35non-interventionalist policy.
20:37We're not allowed to drop advanced
20:38technology into a
20:39developing society like playing God.
20:43So they deny her plea.
20:48But Lysella's response is
20:49an anger at the Orville.
20:50Instead, she turns that guilt inward.
20:53I can't do this.
20:56It doesn't feel right.
20:57I feel selfish.
21:01Why?
21:02I escaped.
21:04And I left everyone I
21:05know back there to suffer.
21:08I mean, why do I deserve this?
21:12What did I do to be made the exception?
21:15This reaction reveals
21:15just how deeply the ideals
21:17of her world have shaped her psyche.
21:19Even when offered abundance freely,
21:22she can't help but question
21:24whether she's worthy of it.
21:25The system she was a part of for so long
21:28has convinced her that she needs
21:29to earn her right to exist.
21:32Some people would
21:32call what you're feeling
21:34a form of survivor's guilt.
21:38Just, I need to go back.
21:45There's more to Lysella's story,
21:47but to better
21:48understand her choices here,
21:49we need to first
21:49acknowledge the elephant in the room.
21:52Intertextuality.
21:55This is the idea that no story,
21:57no piece of art or
21:58literary work exists in isolation.
22:01Rather, each one exists
22:02in this complex network
22:03of references, influences, and
22:05connections to others
22:07that shape all of their
22:08collective meanings together.
22:12And in that regard,
22:13the ones who walk away
22:14from Omelas is pretty
22:16promiscuous in its intertextuality.
22:20In 2018, N.K. Jemison wrote
22:22a rebuttal to LeGuin's work
22:23that asks the question,
22:25what if we didn't walk away?
22:27What about the ones who stay and fight?
22:32Imagine the great city of Um-Helat.
22:35It's skyscrapers float in the sky, and
22:37the children wear clothes
22:39made of butterfly wings.
22:41All from butterflies that died
22:42of natural causes, of course.
22:44Because Um-Helat, by all
22:46measures, is a fair and just city.
22:48A utopia like Omelas seems to be, but
22:51without that wretched child in the hole.
22:54You see, the people
22:55of Um-Helat are not naive.
22:58They understand that their perfect city
23:00was built upon the
23:01foundation of a dark history.
23:07This city had a very
23:08different civilization once.
23:10One that might be much more
23:11recognizable to you or me.
23:16And just like Omelas, when children of
23:18Umhelat come of age, they
23:20learn that their city is
23:21also built upon suffering.
23:23That of the past.
23:26But when they find cruelty or suffering
23:28in their society,
23:30unlike Omelas, they don't
23:32walk away.
23:33They understand that the ideals of their
23:35city are fragile and must be protected.
23:40Through a quirk of quantum mechanics,
23:41Um-Helat exists parallel to
23:43our world, and its citizens
23:45can peek into our reality.
23:47They can watch our TV, browse our social
23:48media, listen to our radio,
23:50but this creates a dangerous
23:52problem.
23:54An information hazard.
23:57Because when Um-Helat's
23:58citizens witness our world,
24:00where some people are considered less
24:02important than others,
24:04where artificial scarcity
24:05is manufactured for profit,
24:08where suffering is normalized,
24:10these toxic ideas can
24:12infect their thinking.
24:15Like a virus, these beliefs spread and
24:17threaten everything they've built.
24:21Enter the social workers.
24:24These sentinels stand
24:25guard against this contagion.
24:28They understand that maintaining their
24:30utopia requires constant
24:32vigilance against the very
24:34ideas that nearly destroyed their
24:36civilization in the past.
24:40So when they find someone who's been
24:42exposed to these toxic ideas...
24:48They kill them to protect their utopia.
25:01And here's the dark irony of Um-Helat.
25:04While they've eliminated
25:05the child in the basement,
25:06they've created a
25:07different kind of suffering.
25:11Their social workers become the white
25:14blood cells of society,
25:16forever tasting the bitterness
25:17of violence so that
25:19others may know only sweetness.
25:23carrying darkness within so
25:25that others may live in light.
25:30Are these societies
25:31really all that different?
25:34While Omelas keeps a
25:35child locked in a basement,
25:36Um-Helat requires its guardians to bury
25:38their own inner child
25:40in a psychological hole.
25:42The methods are different, but the core
25:44idea remains the same.
25:47If we suppress enough, whether it's a
25:49child's freedom or dangerous ideas,
25:52we can have a perfect society.
25:57And this mirrors the great lie at the
26:00heart of our own society's evolution.
26:02We tell ourselves that we've progressed
26:04from feudalism to capitalism,
26:05that we've freed ourselves from the old
26:07system of lords and peasants.
26:10But have we really?
26:12Or have we just replaced one form of
26:14hierarchy with another?
26:16One form of measuring a
26:17human's worth with another?
26:21Capitalism is a development
26:22by refinement from feudalism,
26:24just as feudalism is a development by
26:26refinement from slavery.
26:29Capitalism is but the
26:31gentleman's method of slavery.
26:35The lords of our time
26:36don't live in castles anymore.
26:38They launch themselves into space in
26:40penis-shaped rockets.
26:46The serfs don't work the land.
26:47They wear Amazon wristbands that track
26:50their bathroom breaks.
26:52The divine right of kings has been
26:53replaced by the divine
26:55right of billionaires,
26:56who claim they alone can guide humanity
26:59to its technological future.
27:05In this emerging
27:06techno-feudalistic landscape,
27:08these digital aristocrats
27:09aren't just hoarding wealth.
27:11They are hoarding
27:12data and computing power,
27:14effectively reshaping how we think,
27:16connect, and understand our world.
27:20In this iteration of the social contract,
27:23they are hoarding the future itself.
27:28And it's with this context in mind that
27:30we can return to Lysella's story.
27:33Because her world is not
27:36that different from ours.
27:38And when the Orville decides that Lysella
27:40can go back home if she desires,
27:42they stipulate that she cannot take any
27:44of their technology with her.
27:46She will have to return home as she came.
27:48Thank you again
27:50for everything.
27:52Take care of yourself.
28:01But when she boards the
28:02shuttle to take her home,
28:07Lysella?
28:10What?
28:11Can I have a look in your bag?
28:13Why?
28:15I think you know why.
28:16She gets caught trying to smuggle
28:18blueprints for the matter synthesizer.
28:20Kelly, please.
28:21Open the bag, Lysella.
28:22I can convince them.
28:24I know we can do it right.
28:25I'll make sure they don't take advantage.
28:26Whether you can or you can't, I'm not
28:28authorized to let you try.
28:32And it's at this point that the thesis of
28:35the Orville's thought
28:36experiment is made bare.
28:41As Kelly reveals a truth about technology
28:43that haunts our own world.
28:46Come with me.
28:47I want to show you something.
28:49There's this insidious idea that's been
28:51with us since the dawn of the first
28:54Industrial Revolution.
28:56This idea that technology can save us.
29:00If we build the right tools, develop the
29:03right systems, create enough abundance,
29:07everything else will fall into place.
29:10This is the third planet in the Gendel
29:11system, about 600 light
29:13years from your world.
29:15This is how their world
29:15looked early in the 23rd century.
29:23This is Gendel III, five years later.
29:29What happened?
29:32We did.
29:39In 1923, the researchers who discovered
29:41how to mass produce
29:42insulin sold the patent for just
29:45one dollar. Their belief was simple. This
29:48life-saving medicine
29:49should be available to everyone.
29:51It was a moment of ethical clarity,
29:53perfectly aligned with
29:55technological breakthrough.
29:58Today, a vial of insulin costs
29:59just a few dollars to produce.
30:02The technology has only gotten better,
30:04more efficient, and more automated.
30:07We can make more
30:07insulin than ever before.
30:10And yet in the United States, people are
30:13rationing this same insulin.
30:16Some die because they can't afford it.
30:18The technology exists. The
30:20production capacity exists.
30:23But people suffer anyway.
30:28In Kelly's world, this same
30:29sentiment had the same outcome.
30:32She explains to Lysella that the early
30:34Union explorers thought
30:35they could help Gendel III.
30:38When they got to Gendel III,
30:40they found a divided world.
30:43Bristling with nuclear weapons.
30:45Continents sliced up by national borders.
30:48So they landed.
30:51They revealed
30:51themselves. Their technology.
30:54Everything.
30:56They figured it was
30:57the right thing to do.
30:59That maybe they could help this planet
31:02skip over the nasty growing pains that
31:04all worlds seem to have to go through.
31:08But they couldn't control the spread.
31:11Nation states fought each other.
31:14Wars broke out everywhere.
31:16Because they all wanted to use the
31:17advancements for personal gain and for
31:20political dominance.
31:23They wiped themselves out in five years.
31:27Nine billion people.
31:30Gone.
31:37We live in an era of unprecedented
31:39technological capability.
31:41But we've built it all on top of a system
31:44that's still fundamentally based on
31:46artificial scarcity.
31:48On the idea that suffering is not just
31:50inevitable, but necessary.
31:54There's a deeper philosophical question
31:56here about the nature
31:57of suffering itself.
32:00Eastern philosophers, particularly
32:02Buddhists, have long recognized that life
32:05inherently contains
32:06both light and shadow.
32:11Joy and pain, abundance and limitation
32:16These natural dualities help us grow and
32:18learn, like a plant needs
32:20both sun and rain to thrive.
32:27But what we've created in our society is
32:29something different.
32:31We've built systems that manufacture
32:32unnecessary suffering,
32:34artificial dualities that serve no
32:36purpose except to preserve hierarchies.
32:41The tech oligarchs of our
32:42time exemplify this perversion.
32:45They speak of building a utopian future.
32:48I think technology does a great deal to
32:52lift the world to more
32:54abundance, to greater heights,
32:56to better prosperity,
32:56whatever you want to call it.
32:58And I'm optimistic for that. I don't
33:00think that'll require
33:00any special intervention.
33:02And at the same time, they take the
33:04collective knowledge of humanity,
33:06our data, our creativity, our shared
33:08cultural output, and lock it behind
33:11proprietary AI models.
33:14They promise abundance while
33:16manufacturing new forms of scarcity.
33:21This is why all of these
33:22stories resonate so strongly today.
33:24We're not just building technology, we're
33:26building power structures.
33:28And without a corresponding evolution in
33:30our ethics, in our
33:31values, in our fundamental
33:33ideas about human worth and dignity, we
33:36risk creating our own
33:38version of Omelas, or Um-Helat.
33:40A technological paradise
33:42built on hidden suffering.
33:45You can still go back if you want to, but
33:48you can't pull them into the future.
33:52They have to do it on their own.
34:01So is there any hope for us?
34:03Us who have lived in a
34:04dark hole for so long?
34:06Can we find our way to the light?
34:08Is a post-scarcity
34:10utopia possible for us?
34:13Well, before we find out how Lysella's story
34:14ends, we need to
34:15engage with one more idea.
34:24Let's imagine that the child in the hole
34:25of Omelas is rescued and
34:27taken aboard a spaceship.
34:30On this ship, the child finds a Star Trek
34:33style Federation that
34:34has mastered interstellar
34:35travel and eliminated most
34:37forms of human suffering.
34:42This advanced civilization sees it as
34:44their duty to fly across
34:46the galaxy, freeing all
34:48of the children
34:48trapped in all of the holes.
34:52To us, and to the rescued child, this
34:54Federation seems like a true utopia.
35:00But suddenly, the Federation's ship is
35:01attacked by another,
35:02more advanced civilization that demands
35:04they hand over the child.
35:07They claim the Federation is barely
35:09civilized, condemning them for being
35:11addicted to hierarchy
35:13and tribalism, torturing innocent plants
35:16for food when they could
35:17easily subsist on artificial food.
35:22Just as the Federation rescued the child
35:23from one type of horror,
35:25the more advanced civilization claims to
35:27be rescuing the child from another.
35:30In The Odyssey Problem, a 2022 reply to
35:33the ones who walk away,
35:35Chris Wilrich reveals the central
35:36insight hidden in the story's title. The
35:39Odyssey. You see, we like to think of
35:42utopia as a destination,
35:43some perfect society we can reach if we
35:46just make the right
35:47choices. Walk away or stay,
35:50fight or flee, reform or revolt. But
35:53that's not how it works.
35:57Every society, every person, is on their
35:59own odyssey towards something better.
36:02The Federation looks like a utopia to us,
36:04but to the more
36:05advanced civilization, they're
36:06still primitive.
36:07And who knows, maybe there's an even more
36:09advanced civilization
36:10out there that looks
36:11at both of them and shakes
36:12their head at their barbarism.
36:15The point isn't to reach
36:17some perfect end state.
36:18The point is to be on the journey.
36:21To be constantly striving,
36:23learning, growing, healing.
36:24To be making things
36:25better, step by step, day by day.
36:30It's like climbing a mountain.
36:32We struggle upward, thinking
36:33we can see the summit ahead.
36:36But when we finally reach
36:37that peak, what do we find?
36:40More mountain stretching out before us.
36:44Peaks we couldn't see from below.
36:46Each summit we reach
36:47reveals new heights to climb.
36:52The 20th century German philosopher Ernst
36:54Bloch understood this deeply.
36:57In his Principle of Hope, published in
36:581954, he articulated
37:00utopia as existing in the not
37:03yet.
37:07He saw utopia not as some far-off perfect
37:10future, but as a
37:11process woven into the fabric
37:14of reality itself.
37:18For Bloch, hope wasn't just wishful
37:19thinking, it was a way of
37:22seeing the world's unfinished
37:23nature, of recognizing that every moment
37:26contains within it
37:28seeds of what could be.
37:33He was adamant that if we are able to
37:34look at our past with the
37:35eyes to see, we may find
37:37new potentialities in our present.
37:39The past has a cultural inheritance,
37:42which has yet to be fully exhausted.
37:47And if we take a moment to reflect,
37:49we might realize that we are much higher
37:52and further along on the
37:53mountain than we originally thought.
37:56We live in what would seem like a utopia
37:58to someone from 200 years ago.
38:01If you're fortunate enough to be watching
38:03this video right now, you
38:04have access to things that
38:06even the wealthiest and most powerful
38:07people throughout history
38:08could never have imagined.
38:11You carry around a device equivalent to
38:13the sum of all human
38:14knowledge in your pocket.
38:15You have machines that can peer inside
38:18your body to find and alleviate disease.
38:21We take these things for granted, but
38:23they're miraculous. They're utopian.
38:27And in these everyday miracles, we catch
38:29glimpses of even greater possibilities.
38:32What Bloch called anticipatory
38:34illuminations of what could be.
38:39Like discovering a new
38:41route up the mountain.
38:42These moments of possibility often emerge
38:44from unexpected places.
38:46Nvidia shares falling again today
38:48as the AI trade looks
38:49for some new equilibrium
38:50following the release of DeepSeek.
38:52In January of 2025,
38:53while Western tech companies
38:55were building walls
38:56around their AI advances,
38:57guarding their routes to the summit,
38:59a Chinese company called
39:01DeepSeek chose a different path.
39:04Really, this is the takeaway.
39:05In the AI arms race, there
39:06are before and after moments.
39:08DeepSeek created one,
39:09not unlike OpenAI's ChatGPT
39:11moment a few years ago, a
39:12breakthrough so significant
39:14it redraws the battle lines.
39:16They released their R1 model,
39:17a free and open source reasoning model
39:20that rivals the
39:21performance of the flagship
39:23proprietary models
39:24from the giant US labs.
39:27But they didn't just find a
39:29new route up the mountain.
39:30They shared their map with everyone.
39:33Not only did they figure out how to train
39:34and operate their model for a fraction
39:36of what US-based labs are spending.
39:40But they publicly released all of their
39:43research and training methods.
39:46They broke the artificial
39:48scarcity at two levels at once.
39:51They made the knowledge free
39:53and they made the technology cheaper.
39:56The irony here is palpable.
39:58A company from China, a
39:59country often criticized
40:00for blocking paths in
40:01their closed system,
40:03chose to build public trails
40:05where American companies had
40:07been setting up toll booths.
40:10DeepSeek created abundance
40:11where American companies
40:12had manufactured scarcity.
40:16All of this sent the
40:18US AI industry scrambling.
40:21But this is what hope
40:23looks like in practice.
40:25Not perfect, not
40:25clean, messy and unexpected.
40:29It's people choosing to break down
40:30artificial barriers,
40:32choosing abundance over scarcity,
40:34choosing to share rather than control.
40:39These are glimpses of a possible future,
40:41trying to break through into our present.
40:46Like discovering a previously hidden
40:48trail through the mist,
40:49they show us what Bloch
40:50called the not-yet-conscious,
40:53the dawning awareness
40:54of what we could become.
41:03And this is exactly the idea that Lysella
41:05learns to internalize.
41:09She realizes that, in the end,
41:12we all have to find our own
41:13way to climb out of the hole.
41:15The technology doesn't come to save us.
41:18Wow, look at this place. It's a utopia.
41:23If we had all this, we
41:26could be better people.
41:28It doesn't quite work
41:29like that. You gotta flip it.
41:32You get all this by
41:34becoming better people.
41:36Trust me, your planet is
41:37not ready for a quantum core.
41:39Based on what you told me, they'd probably
41:40blow each other to bits.
41:42But once they learn to work together, to
41:45really live with each other and develop a
41:48genuine investment in each other's
41:50growth, that's when it gets good.
41:53The technology isn't what makes a utopia.
41:56The matter
41:56synthesizer isn't what makes the
41:57Orville's future better than ours. Their
42:00willingness to share, to break the cycles
42:02of scarcity, to invest in each other's
42:05growth. That's what
42:06makes the matter synthesizer
42:08possible in the first place.
42:11Lysella eventually decides
42:12to stay aboard the Orville.
42:14Yeah, it's gonna be a big learning
42:16curve, but I got the right coach.
42:18She finally understands that true
42:20abundance comes from
42:22learning how to climb.
42:31Thank you for watching until the end.
42:33It means the world to me.
42:34And a special thanks
42:35to my channel members
42:36who make all of this possible.
42:38These videos take
42:38hundreds of hours to produce
42:40and I wouldn't be able to
42:41do it without your support.
42:43But if all you can do is leave a like,
42:45that makes a huge difference
42:46in this message reaching more people.
42:49Thank you.
42:50And finally, that
42:51brings us to today's sponsor,
42:53Anthropic.
42:55Anthropic makes
42:56language models like Claude,
42:58but they also,
43:00they focus on safety.
43:05Sometimes.
43:11Is that enough?
43:19Okay, you're good.
43:21Okay, this video isn't
43:22really sponsored by Anthropic.
43:25That'd be pretty wild, huh?
43:27No, I just wanted everyone to leave so
43:29that it's just us now.
43:34And if you're still here watching, then
43:35this question is for you.
43:40What would the world look like if you
43:42truly believed it could change?
43:46When we see all the suffering around us,
43:47it's natural to want to rush in and help,
43:51to dream of being the hero who finds the
43:53solution, who fixes the system.
43:59But that mindset keeps
44:01us stuck in old patterns.
44:04The truth that took me too long to learn
44:07is that we aren't here to save the world.
44:10The world doesn't need to be saved.
44:12It needs to change. It needs to evolve.
44:19Listen, I know what it's like to think
44:22differently, to feel so alone,
44:26never really fitting in anywhere, to look
44:28around at the world and see
44:30things that others don't see,
44:32to know there's a better way.
44:40But for every moment where you felt
44:41isolated, where you felt the burden of
44:44the world on your shoulders,
44:46there have been others.
44:47People you've never met that have come
44:50before you, and people
44:50that will come after you.
44:52People who have carried the same
44:54questions, the same fire,
44:57that same unstoppable hope.
45:01You are not separate from them. You are
45:03part of a living web of
45:05dreamers, of changemakers.
45:09Some of them are sitting alone in rooms
45:10just like this, wondering if they are the
45:14only ones who feel this way.
45:16And the time is coming where we will find
45:18each other, and when we do, we will
45:22realize that the
45:23burden we've been carrying,
45:24that private, familiar
45:26burden, was never just ours.
45:30It has been shared all along across time
45:33and space by people who dare to dream
45:37that something better is possible.
45:43That fire you carry is the continuation
45:46of a dream that has echoed across eons.
45:50It's ready. It just needs you
45:53to make the choice to begin.

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