The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cory Doctorow is pretty much the undisputed champion when it comes to distilling complex tech issues based on many lifetimes of work (nonprofit forums) and his native intelligence.

So what does this mean when it comes to AI and what comes after, let alone whatever a centaur is in relation to it, or wtf a reverse centaur is?

Ah, it's actually beautiful. Once you know.

A centaur in this context is anyone who uses a tech to improve your capability. Be it glasses or binoculars or anything that multiplies force, be it heavy machinery or artificial limbs or a spellchecker on your word processor.

In more hyper-focused context, a reverse centaur is someone who has given over the agency of use over to the tool. That would be like abrogating all your authority over to your glasses. Or to your artificial limb, asking it to tell you whether you ought to pick up a cup of coffee. Or asking your smart toilet whether or not you feel like peeing at any particular moment.

So what the hell does LIFE AFTER AI mean? Like, after AI has become our overlords? After we've Butlerian Jihaded them? In this case, it's after the AI BUBBLE has burst. AI isn't a bad thing. It's a TOOL. You can murder someone with your kitchen chair, but truly, most people just prefer to SIT on them.

So, let's get back to what this book is really about.

It's not a diatribe against AI. It IS a critique of the whole industry that seems hell bent on pushing AI on all the bosses and efficiency experts and CEOs who LOVE the idea that they can just fire all the work force in favor of AI. Or even more specifically, whether we're all being centaurs who use the positive features of AI to improve our ACTUAL work, whatever it is, keeping responsibility for every stage of its use firmly in our own hands, be it the original idea, the workflow, and the final product, or whether we're being forced into a truly shitty situation where the AI dictates the original idea, forcing us to fix its workflow, and forcing us to sign off on its final product.

You know... making us become the slave to the very tool that should have been here to help us.


Of course, my explanation isn't nearly as good as his. I'm barely scratching the surface and I'm not giving any of the great real-world examples of real CEOs running toward this bubble with horse-blinders on. Or rather, reverse-centaur blinders.

Because, let's face it, this massive influx of AI-everything at the very tops of all the techbro's companies is essentially a power-grab that ignores the real-world harm that will befall everyone. It's almost like they gave up thinking two or three steps down the line. Perhaps they gave up thinking altogether. Or perhaps they just asked an AI to do their thinking for them. Like a reverse-centaur. And now they they might be thinking that if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for all of us.

Because, I guess, there aren't any people on the planet who are able to think anymore.

But then, maybe, that's actually true.

I'm remembering a quote from Robert A. Heinlein right now. "Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity." But then, if you rule out stupidity, all that's left is malice. And malice actually does fit the bill.

Mind you, this is just my own opinion, and isn't Doctorow's. At least, it isn't within this book.

Both he and I do think that AI can be a very good thing if it is used responsibly. If it is used for the betterment of each and every one of us. It is a massive time saver, a tireless worker, and does certain things SO much better than us. But it should not (and I repeat) should not be the one to actually THINK for us.

Every single one of us should take responsibility for our own thoughts. Period. If you give up that responsibility to your thinking-helper, then you've given up responsibility on your own soul. Again, my opinion. But then, why do all these powerful people want exactly that?


Sigh.

Either way, this is a very thought-provoking book and I can't say I disagree with anything in it at all. It's not a doomer book. It's a personal responsibility book. And a shine-the-light-on-the-bad-actors book. It IS a very worthwhile book.

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