An addiction

“Talk about technology is an addiction,” writes Joanna Russ. She continues: An addiction is a situation of constantly escalating need—in short, an insatiability. Not only that, but the cause of the escalation is the satisfier of the need. Russ, To Write Like a Woman, page 28 Insatiable seems an apt description for the moment. Doomscrolling is a kind of insatiability, an act that can never complete or resolve. Likewise: talk of so-called AI in terms of its “existential” risk. Russ again: First, the addict is the ideal customer. Second, addiction is a beautiful and effective method of social control. It is especially good at obfuscating and confusing—in political terms, mystifying—what it is the addict really needs. From the point of view of profits, the perfect stimulus is one which satisfies a human need only briefly or partially, and at the same time exacerbates the need. Russ, To Write Like a Woman, page 28 So we talk about about how AI will kill us, and it seems like we’re doing…