- By Yabir Garcia
One of the fears that I have with our approach to AI and LLMs is the threat of creating a new Dark Age. I won't enter into the details of what caused the medieval Dark Ages or if they were indeed that "dark".
Commonly, the medieval Dark Ages are considered to have started right after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. The Roman Empire provided stability, reducing the number of civil wars. The existence of an army that secured merchants in every corner of the empire allowed for successful, growing trade and provided security to the population.
When instability grows, society collapses. People left big cities and went to rural areas to be safe from incursions, the economy collapsed as there wasn't a safe way to transport goods, and knowledge vanished.
The Catholic Church preserved books and gatekept knowledge. Basically, if you weren't part of the church, you didn't have access to the knowledge.
My point of view is that we are living through something similar in modern times. Just as Rome crumbled under administrative bloat and an inability to maintain its borders, modern nations are struggling under the weight of economic fragility. We are seeing the collapse of the global economy due to high government debt. Politicians don't have incentives to fix the situation since they will lose support if they try to do anything. Spending money on things that make them look good (in front of the people who vote for them) is better for their careers. The way to break nations in our times is by breaking their economic base.
The other critical point is cultural tension. Even if you don't share my ideas, you can see how there is political tension that drives cultural tension.
Right now, LLMs are a source of truth for many people. We are becoming more and more dependent on them and rewiring ourselves to make use of them instead of reading books or original sources. At some point, we will forget how to research, and by the time we want to do anything, the knowledge will be gone.
Getting access to a book will be really complicated because there won't be many of them, and they will be reserved for the wealthy. You won't be able to download them because it is illegal (YOU ARE STEALING!!!!) and then your only source of information is LLMs that digest everything for you... until you can't afford to pay for them, and then you will have nothing.
It is a bit exaggerated, but I really feel that the chances are not zero. That puts fear in me. Something similar was developed by GeoHot in his blog. It is something more plausible and somehow similar to the idea that I've been maturing for a few weeks already.
As he said: Have you considered not participating? I would add that owning is more important than ever: gathering books, resources, and knowledge.