At some point, pervasive surveillance alongside an army of AI-controlled bots and drones with unquestioning mechanical loyalty might actually make it different.
That’s one possibility of the near future that really scares me: it might become practically impossible to have a revolution anymore. Of course, the tyrant can’t depend entirely on the AI bots, but they could easily be enough to tip the balance in the tyrant’s favor – revolutions are already a dicey business, before introducing that factor. Historically, revolutions have succeeded because while the revolutionaries might not be as well trained or as well equipped, they have the numbers, and they might be able to get some of the tyrant’s own forces to turn against him. But in an age of AI surveillance along with plentiful, cheap, and deadly robots, that may change. The robots could outnumber revolutionaries, and they could be immune to being turned against the tyrant.
At some point, pervasive surveillance alongside an army of AI-controlled bots and drones with unquestioning mechanical loyalty might actually make it different.
That’s one possibility of the near future that really scares me: it might become practically impossible to have a revolution anymore. Of course, the tyrant can’t depend entirely on the AI bots, but they could easily be enough to tip the balance in the tyrant’s favor – revolutions are already a dicey business, before introducing that factor. Historically, revolutions have succeeded because while the revolutionaries might not be as well trained or as well equipped, they have the numbers, and they might be able to get some of the tyrant’s own forces to turn against him. But in an age of AI surveillance along with plentiful, cheap, and deadly robots, that may change. The robots could outnumber revolutionaries, and they could be immune to being turned against the tyrant.