Human extraction
By Claudia Befu
21.
The raw material
of artificial intelligence
is not rare metals,
but precious brain power.
Your brain
is the new semiconductor.
22.
Our advanced science and technology
cannot make a drop of water.
It must extract it from planet Earth.
Our advanced science and technology
cannot make an ounce of intelligence.
It must extract it from human brains.
Is our embodied existence
the new natural resource?
23.
The emerging blueprint
of our technological age
is not built on human flourishing.
It’s built on the optimized use
of all natural resources
so that we can produce more for less
at a faster pace.
24.
We humans start to feel
the sting of being extracted by tech
because of our biology.
Let this be a mirror
to how our species extracts and exploits
other living beings on this planet
in the name of progress.
This is what happens
when life has no intrinsic meaning.
When our existence is counted
by the amount of food we need to ingest
to become productive for capitalism.
25.
We mine humans
just as we mine nature.
Our planet, and increasingly our lives,
are the raw resources of progress.
What, then, is progress?
26.
Technology must ultimately rely
on the most valuable
data-processing unit we know:
the human brain.
Will we extract technology
to enhance humans?
Or will we extract humans
to enhance machines?