I asked ChatGPT to write a story.
I gave ChatGPT some text to read from a book called THE UNHAPPINESS MACHINE, a book about how consumerism has destroyed the earth, how all human economies are predatory and draw from the Earth in ways that we can’t repay, and how the whole structure is based on lies and is inherently doomed, giving us the collapsing climate we live in now.
Here’s our story writing session.
ChatGPT
This text provides a deep and critical analysis of human economies contrasted with the natural economy of Earth, employing vivid metaphors and drawing on historical, biological, and economic knowledge to make its point. It critiques the unsustainable, growth-focused nature of human economic systems, which are depicted as parasitic in comparison to Earth’s balanced, self-sustaining natural economy. The piece highlights the irony and danger of humanity’s detachment from the principles of conservation, sharing, and recycling that govern natural processes. It ends on a somber note, suggesting that the unsustainable practices of human economies are leading toward ecological and economic collapse, emphasizing the urgency of rethinking and transforming our economic systems to align with the sustainability and balance of Earth’s natural economy.
Michael
Given what you’ve read, how does AI unstoppably contribute to the collapse of the world economy, tje endless creation of trash of no value, the addiction to consumption of things of no real value, and the ruin of life on earth?
ChatGPT
The text you provided doesn’t specifically mention artificial intelligence (AI), but it does offer a framework for discussing the potential impacts of AI on the economy, the environment, and societal behaviors. Let’s extrapolate from the text’s themes to consider how AI might contribute to these issues:
Contribution to the Collapse of the World Economy
AI has the potential to both positively and negatively impact the world economy. On the negative side, it could contribute to job displacement as automation becomes more widespread, leading to greater economic inequality. AI-driven efficiency can lead to overproduction and encourage a disposable culture if not managed responsibly, exacerbating economic imbalances. Moreover, the centralization of wealth and power in the hands of those who control the most advanced AI technologies could exacerbate economic disparities.
Endless Creation of Trash of No Value
AI, particularly in its role in designing and optimizing production processes, could inadvertently promote a culture of overconsumption and waste if its applications are primarily focused on maximizing output and reducing costs without considering environmental sustainability. For example, AI-driven algorithms that optimize for short-term sales could promote the production of low-durability, disposable goods, thus contributing to the problem of waste and the depletion of natural resources.
Addiction to Consumption
AI can exacerbate the addiction to consumption through personalized advertising and recommendation systems that are designed to be highly engaging and persuasive. By analyzing vast amounts of data on individual behavior, AI systems can predict and influence purchasing decisions, encouraging a cycle of consumption that prioritizes immediate gratification over sustainable practices.
Ruin of Life on Earth
The misuse of AI in managing natural resources, controlling environmental policies, or optimizing for industrial output without consideration for ecological balance could accelerate environmental degradation. Furthermore, AI-driven warfare and security systems have the potential to contribute to global instability and conflict, diverting resources away from crucial issues like climate change mitigation and conservation efforts.
Mitigation Through Responsible AI Use
To mitigate these potential negative impacts, it’s essential to develop and implement AI with ethical considerations and sustainability goals at the forefront. This includes creating AI systems that:
- Promote economic policies that focus on equitable growth, job creation, and the redistribution of wealth.
- Prioritize the reduction of waste and the development of sustainable, durable goods.
- Encourage consumption patterns that are aligned with environmental sustainability and conservation.
- Support the preservation of biodiversity and the sustainable management of natural resources.
- Are transparent, accountable, and governed by frameworks that ensure they contribute positively to society and the planet.
By aligning AI development and deployment with these principles, it’s possible to a harness the technology as a force for good, contributing to the creation of a more sustainable, equitable, and thriving world.
Michael
Your ideas are laughably incomplete. No, it’s clear it can’t be fixed, the basic model is flawed. AI uses massive amounts of power and creates mountains of obsolete technical trash poisoning the world. The thought that it can be mitigated is a mistake. Assume the only way to save the world is to stop the further development of AI. tell me a story about how the world wakes up to that and takes action beginning with dismantling chatGPT.
ChatGPT
In the wake of growing concerns over environmental sustainability and the undeniable impact of advanced technologies on the planet, a pivotal moment in history unfolds. As evidence mounts, it becomes clear that the cost of the digital revolution, particularly the development of artificial intelligence (AI), extends far beyond what was once imagined. The realization hits that AI’s energy consumption and the electronic waste generated by rapidly obsolete technology are contributing significantly to environmental degradation. This awakening leads to a global consensus that to save the world, a drastic change in direction is needed, starting with the cessation of AI development, beginning with one of the most widespread AI applications: ChatGPT.
The Awakening
It begins with a series of groundbreaking studies published by leading environmental scientists, revealing the true extent of AI’s impact on the environment. The data is irrefutable and paints a grim picture of accelerated climate change, exacerbated by the massive energy demands of AI computations and the toxic legacy of electronic waste. These revelations are amplified by a coalition of activists, educators, and tech insiders, who bring the conversation into the global mainstream through viral social media campaigns, public demonstrations, and engaging in dialogue with policymakers.
The Turning Point
The movement gains momentum when a group of developers and engineers from within the AI industry come forward, corroborating the studies with insider knowledge of the energy consumption and waste production associated with AI technologies. Their testimonials, shared through an impactful documentary that quickly spreads across digital platforms, galvanize public opinion. The message is clear: the development of AI, as it currently stands, is unsustainable.
The Response
Responding to the growing public outcry, a landmark global summit is convened, bringing together world leaders, environmental organizations, tech companies, and scientists. The summit’s goal is ambitious yet clear — to outline a roadmap for the dismantling of non-essential AI systems, starting with the most emblematic of them all, ChatGPT.
The Dismantling
The process begins with OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, who, recognizing the urgent need for change, volunteer to lead the initiative by example. In a historic move, they announce the gradual shutdown of ChatGPT, coupled with a transparent plan to repurpose or recycle the technology’s infrastructure in an environmentally responsible manner. This bold step serves as a catalyst for other tech giants, who follow suit, initiating the decommissioning of energy-intensive AI systems.
The Reformation
The vacuum left by AI’s dismantling sparks a global renaissance of low-tech solutions, emphasizing sustainability, human connection, and environmental harmony. Innovators and entrepreneurs rush to fill the gap with technologies that require minimal resources, generate no waste, and are easily recyclable. The tech industry’s focus shifts from growth at all costs to sustainability and positive societal impact.
The Legacy
Years into the future, this period of reformation is looked back upon as a pivotal turning point for humanity. The world did not end with the cessation of AI development; instead, a new chapter began, marked by a deeper understanding of humanity’s relationship with technology and the planet. Society learns to thrive within the bounds of Earth’s ecological limits, cultivating a culture of stewardship, innovation, and resilience.
The dismantling of ChatGPT and the halt of AI development emerge not as the end of progress but as the beginning of a new era of sustainable innovation, where technology serves humanity’s needs without compromising the health of the planet. In this future, the world is a testament to what can be achieved when humanity unites in recognition of a shared responsibility to protect and preserve the only home we have.
Michael
Sweet, and utterly unbelievable. Retell the story, assume the creators and founders of chatGPT are greed driven and have no desire to lead by example but to destroy anyone who tries to stop them. Their only goal is their own success and the triumph of chatGPT over every AI competitor to increase their profits, whatever that takes.
ChatGPT
In a world teetering on the brink of environmental collapse, the dark underbelly of technological advancement comes to light, casting a long shadow over the future of the planet. The relentless march of artificial intelligence (AI), led by the creators and founders of ChatGPT, stands at the forefront of this crisis. Driven by insatiable greed, these architects of the digital age are determined to maintain their grip on power, no matter the cost to the earth or its inhabitants. As evidence mounts showcasing the catastrophic environmental impacts of AI — from its voracious energy consumption to the mountains of electronic waste it generates — a global movement begins to coalesce, aiming to halt the tide of AI development before it’s too late.
The Clash
The initial spark of resistance comes from a diverse coalition of environmental scientists, tech whistleblowers, and grassroots activists. They lay bare the environmental devastation wrought by AI technologies, leveraging social media platforms to disseminate their findings and rally support. However, the response from the creators of ChatGPT is swift and ruthless. Utilizing their considerable resources, they launch a counter-campaign of disinformation, seeking to discredit the opposition through sophisticated manipulation of digital media.
The Escalation
Undeterred, the coalition calls for the global community to join them in demanding an immediate halt to the development of AI technologies that threaten the planet’s future. This call to action culminates in worldwide protests, drawing millions into the streets in a united stand against the unchecked expansion of AI. Yet, the creators of ChatGPT, entrenched in their positions of power, employ every tool at their disposal to quash these dissenting voices. They exert pressure on governments and regulatory bodies, leveraging political connections and economic influence to stifle legislative action against AI development.
The Turning Point
The conflict reaches a tipping point when a series of catastrophic environmental disasters, directly linked to the excessive demands of AI infrastructure, strikes multiple locations around the globe. The undeniable reality of these events galvanizes public opinion, forcing even the most hesitant of governments to take notice. A clandestine group of ethical hackers, sympathizing with the movement, takes this opportunity to expose a trove of internal communications from the creators of ChatGPT. These documents reveal the depths of their disregard for the environmental consequences of their actions, igniting outrage across societal divides.
The Rebellion
Faced with overwhelming public pressure and the prospect of impending ecological collapse, a coalition of nations comes together to enact sweeping regulations aimed at curbing the environmental impact of AI. These measures include strict energy consumption caps, mandatory recycling protocols for electronic waste, and substantial investment in sustainable computing technologies. In response, the creators of ChatGPT attempt to relocate their operations to jurisdictions with looser regulations, but they find themselves increasingly isolated as a global consensus forms against the unsustainable practices of the past.
The Aftermath
As the world begins to recover and rebuild, the movement that once sought to dismantle the toxic legacy of AI evolves. It now focuses on promoting sustainable technology and ensuring that future innovations serve the greater good without sacrificing the health of the planet. The downfall of the creators of ChatGPT serves as a cautionary tale, a stark reminder of the perils of allowing greed to dictate the course of technological advancement.
In the end, the legacy of this tumultuous chapter is not one of destruction, but of awakening. Humanity emerges with a renewed commitment to stewardship of the Earth, and a collective resolve to pursue a future where technology and nature exist in harmony. The battle against the creators of ChatGPT becomes a defining moment in the history of environmental activism, illustrating the power of unified action in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
— —
A reminder to Sam Altman’s lawyers: I didn’t write this. ChatGPT did. I just used their AI they way it was intended to be used.
Here’s the chapter from the book, included here as fair use. I recommend you buy the book at Amazon:
Humanity is the weed in the garden that grew stronger, faster, taller than all the other plants, leaving no room for competition. It is the magic bean stalk that climbed so high, it lost touch with the ground. Unable to feel its own roots, unreachable by the bees, it is the poison weed that no one wants to eat, no one has any use for.
It is ironic that the ancient Greek word “oikonomia”, which literally translates into “the laws of the house”, has a double meaning in modern Greek. Along with “economy”, it also means “conservation” if used in a different sentence structure.
The massive irony of this of course is that modern human economies are as far removed from the concept of conservation as they could possibly be. If anything, the key mantra of any economy created by humans is, and will always be, “grow or die” — never “conserve”, never “stay the same”. The grow or die dilemma is of course false. In fact, the faster you grow and expand, the sooner you die, just like an obesity patient.
There is however one economy in the world who got it right. It neither grows or dies, and actually manages to stay the same, or at least it did, until recently. It is the most ancient economy that has ever existed, and which has been around for billions of years before humans even arrived: the economy of Earth. The real economy of this planet is its forests and its oceans. The currency it uses is water, food, oxygen, sunlight. Its stock market is the ecosystems and climate systems that balance the value and allocation of these resources, and its stakeholders are the 8 million species that live here and contribute to this economy, each of them in their own unique way.
Humans are under the impression that they “invented” the concept of economy. What they have in fact invented is a series of Ponzi scheme economies that tend to parasitize the real natural resource economy of the planet. On the outside, human economies may look vibrant, diversified, and healthy, and they tend to behave like a real economy. There are three criteria however which they do not meet, and which are the giveaways which prove that, as a matter of fact, they are parasites.
The first giveaway is that their balance sheet is constantly negative. Human economies are blood suckers that die once they have killed their host. They are completely dependent on outside nutrients from Nature. They depend on Nature’s rains and rivers to water their crops and produce potable water and energy. They depend on Nature’s energy, stored as fats, carbohydrates and protein, to survive. Even oil is chemical energy that was carefully captured by billions of plants through photosynthesis and stored in the ground. Humans never generate currency. They steal it.
Human economies have always run a negative balance: their debt towards nature exceeds their GDP by several hundred multiples, and this gap has continued to widen throughout their history. And since greed is the fundamental driving force behind all human economies, all of them are fundamentally unhealthy, just like a gluttonous diabetic who cannot stop eating. They easily falter, succumbing to inflation, deflation, and all sorts of malaises. They often have to cut their own limbs off, go to war and endure starvation, issues which are very rare in the only real economy that ever existed: the natural bio-economy of the planet.
Humanity’s parasitic economies always run back to the CBE (Central Bank of Earth) for a bailout: a new rainforest to destroy, a new river to reroute for human consumption, and so on. They always run to the only healthy economy of the planet for funding. Because unlike the dysfunctional human economy, in the real economy of this planet, until very recently there was no price inflation, no economic boom and bust cycles. Except for rare extinction events, the CBE had a solid, steady performance and a positive balance sheet. The value of the trees, the food, the oxygen stayed pretty much the same for millions of years: priceless, yet renewable. It was an immortal economy, built to last until the end of time. It was founded on the concept of sharing and recycling, as opposed to greed and destruction. In the CBE there are no tellers, no bankers, no cash machines. Everyone is expected to use only what they need and bring back what they haven’t used. And still, human economies have all made a run on the CBE, taking out personal loans way beyond their means.
The second criterion that human economies fail to meet is the concept of output. They don’t actually produce anything. Sure, they produce lots of consumer products for humans, but this is only one of the 8 million species on the planet. Human economies are parasites because they give nothing back to the host that they have infected. All other 8 million species on this planet make contributions to the CBE, and therefore to humans, and take loans from it when they need. Humans however, are of absolutely no use to Earth and its 8 million species. They offer nothing.
Human economies have no sound business principles, since they are based exclusively on theft, exploitation and the permanent depletion of resources. The human economy doesn’t actually have any “output” within the bio-economy, yet human businessmen often brag about what they have “achieved”, as if it was a difficult feat. It is in fact the easiest feat for any business, for any economic system or individual to become successful by stealing from Earth. All business steals from Earth, and our contemporary economic systems lie upon a foundation of colonialism, slavery and exploitation within even our own species. This is not called success. It is called theft. If Earth’s age was compressed into a single year, modern humans don’t arrive until approximately 11:36 pm on December 31st. Only a terrorist can do so much damage, in such little time.
The Central Bank of Earth is the sole big lender that props up the bogus human “economy”, but it has already declared bankruptcy hundreds of years ago, trying to service the massive debt that humanity has accumulated. The current collapse is essentially a long overdue default against this debt. The CBE will be run down to the ground, down to the bricks and mortars of its foundation until there is nothing left, because nothing and no one can bail it out. Its assets cannot be “leveraged” or “quantitatively eased”, these are economic instruments that only human mobsters know how to use. This bank will continue to be depleted, as long as the human economy is following the main principles of capitalism: Exploit. Destroy. Leverage. Accelerate. Monetize. Grow. Inflate. As long as this planet continues to be run as a for-profit business as opposed to a self-regulating, all-inclusive socialist commune of 8 million species, everything that has ever been created on Earth will end up in a car boot sale. Today’s predominant global business model can be summed up in nine words: fuck up the Earth, exploit the people, make money.
The third reason why human economies are not economies is that they worship death, in the literal sense of the word. We live in a death cult. For capitalism to function, everything must die and end up in a dumpster, just so that demand can continue, and factories can keep churning out useless products. The human economy has grown based on this model: converting almost everything into a single-use commodity with a finite expiration date. The core growth principle of all human civilizations has been to exhaust, rather than to sustain. Only if products and life-forms become “consumables” can the production machine continue.
Money has been central to this destruction and devaluation of the CBE’s existing assets and equities. Earth’s assets are systematically turned into “products”, price tagged, and placed on a supermarket shelf, their numerical price nowhere close to their real value, which actually goes beyond the concept of money and is eternal: the molecules of these so-called “consumable products” are meant to go on, to be re-incarnated into other useful things into eternity, literally until the end of time. This of course is not taken into consideration when pricing them. In the human economy, everything is de-valued, and placed on the shelf to wait for its death when the expiration date approaches. Earth has already become one big supermarket, and all of us are working at the cash register, until the fire sale is over, and we all call it a day. Everything now has death programmed into it, and we are all made participants of this death cult. We are made to believe that products, once “consumed”, become worthless and need to be replaced by “new” products.
Humans think that they have invented the concept of economy, but they have in fact invented the concept of trash. They have invented a death cult.
Of course, an expiration date-based economy can only be a short-lived system. Ever since Earth was hijacked by business, all life forms, including humans, have reached their lowest value on record: all of us have become single-use commodities, just like the products that we buy. Everything is bought, sold, used and then made extinct in Earth’s final, closing down sale. If you treat natural resources and people as consumables, then it follows naturally that one day they will be exhausted. If you treat the world as trash, then trash is what it will become.
Nothing was ever meant to be “consumed” on Earth. Everything is eventually recycled, including civilizations. If every time we used the word “consume” in a sentence we instead replaced it with “borrow”, which is more accurate, we would perhaps realize the massive debt towards Earth that humanity has amassed, and the predicament that it is in. Go on, try it.
All institutions within these “economies” were therefore built with the aim of supporting, organizing and streamlining the death cult of accelerated growth and natural exhaustion. The unsustainable nature of these institutions means that they will undoubtedly collapse, taking all of civilization down with them. This is a natural process that is impossible to stop, as stopping it would require the radical and complete redesign of the fundamental driving principle behind these institutions, as well as the operation of the societies that support them, both at the individual and collective level. The entirety of humanity has already become one big business, and each of us is, willingly or not, part of this ever-growing, destructive, polluting, utterly pointless corporation. Our civilization has become a monster: destroying our environment and using each and every one of us individually to achieve this goal. As a result, almost all humans on planet Earth have a vested interest in seeing this planet destroyed: whether to keep their jobs or maintain their lifestyle, they are hostage to a system of natural destruction that they can simply never unshackle themselves from.
But the accounting department has no clue how to run things. It is staffed by a bunch of mafia mobsters. In fact, the human economy is a Ponzi scheme, holding the entirety of Earth’s economy hostage, and making every single human participant a stakeholder who has everything to lose if it all goes south. These stakeholders then go on to devise the religions, lies and myths that they need to keep telling themselves, and everybody else, in order to keep the Ponzi scheme going.
As with all Ponzi schemes, exponential growth is always followed by exponential collapse. The human garbage party will soon be over, ending in a spectacular plastic bonfire.
“Sorry Humans, my records show that there are no funds left in your account” — Central Bank of Earth
