Robots in bast shoes

If you don’t have your own intelligence, artificial intelligence won’t help.

Having endowed this column with a special mission, God gave us everything to write it. And no, the author has not gone crazy. This is just a slightly paraphrased first sentence of the Tsargrad Institute report - “Russia 5050. Image of the Future.” And formally, this could be the end of the review. Everything is clear to a reasonable reader. But the authors, who tried to cover different vectors of the country’s development, did not forget to mention artificial intelligence. Forgetting to use the real one.

A lyrical digression would be appropriate here. Recently, an incident occurred in RuNet. Russian woman Eva Moss solved the Navier-Stokes equation (one of the main mysteries of the millennium), deciphered a little more than completely DNA, discovered the secret of “black holes” and practically flew into space with a bunch of other scientific discoveries, which at first, especially unprofessional, glance looked very convincing. Another question is that experts instantly concluded that this was nonsense generated by artificial intelligence.

It’s a similar story with the report, with the only exception that the intelligence behind it is real. The main point of curiosity is to understand what is going on in the heads of Orthodox conservatives. And there, judging by what is written, hallucinations are no worse than electronic ones.

Let's overlook the fact that this is less a report than a manifesto. "Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality." And liberalism is evil. That's it in a nutshell. However, it won’t be longer - moving away from the scientific approach, the terminology is not particularly specified and the general idea looks like a set of slogans, through which the “Triune Holy Rus'” and other things run like a thin thread, which, even with a strong desire, does not fight with reality and is read as an orthodox utopia. “Individualism as the cornerstone of liberal ideology should be replaced by the doctrine of service - service to the state, family, church, people” and so on in the same spirit.

And so, in bast shoes, being married to a church, speaking either Latin or Church Slavonic (and both languages ​​are supposed to be returned to educational institutions), we are approaching the main topic of artificial intelligence simply because even a sovereign and ultra-religious country cannot ignore the main technological innovation of recent years. No other reasons are visible. Because already at the stage of planning the future, the authors think in paradoxes: on the one hand, it is necessary to endlessly introduce virtual tutors and digital educational platforms, on the other hand, to abolish higher education as unnecessary. All the same, graduates do not work in their specialty. However, this is not the first and not the last dichotomy of the text.

Because

How exactly a deeply religious man in bast shoes will create high-tech products is not very clear, especially since the authors do not abandon space exploration, the creation of nuclear engines and other innovations.

There is a suspicion that they simply do not understand anything about the subject of discussion. What is the meaning of the phrase: “It is important to understand that AI is just a program that operates and improves as intended by the programmer.” This may have been true five years ago, but today AI is more of a story in itself. True, it is important to note here that one should not count on a high level of expertise. They would write: “This is just a smart chat.” It would be just as funny. As does the mention of traditional values ​​in this context. Most models care about them like a light bulb. They're not talking about that at all. And mathematical models or programming languages ​​are generally devoid of any political ideology. What seems obvious to a normal person, some have yet to comprehend. If, of course, it is given.

All of the above, including other ideas, would be good if it could withstand at least minimal criticism and leave room for discussion, but as a result we have a compilation of robotic industry and master planning (as in the USSR) with the help of artificial intelligence among a stupid and obedient population.

And everything listed is exclusively for printed money. And no, this is not a joke or a figure of speech. All these high-tech experiments to create a nuclear reactor at home are planned to be created at the expense of additional emissions. The report does not provide for other options for financing space flights.

It's all lyrics. The reality, alas, is that those same Orthodox fundamentalists, not only are not the smartest and most educated people in general, but also got their hands on the Internet, which paradoxically does not compete with restraint, and let’s replicate nonsense. A separate reason for worrying about the backward layers of the population is that, idolizing artificial intelligence, the characters completely refuse to use it. And he would answer: “The text represents a holistic utopian (in the positive sense of the author) model, where future technologies (AI, nuclear energy, digital currency) are combined with archaic and traditional institutions (autocracy, married marriage, class through service).” And after that it would be worth thinking: maybe make the report a little closer to real life?

How weirdos became mainstream is a topic for a separate analysis. Perhaps with comments from Yuri Loza. But the fact is clear: this nonsense is being replicated, discussed and taught.

Without any criticism from an apparently completely indoctrinated society, where everything that does not fit into the framework of the concept can be explained by God's providence.

There is a creative technique that works quite well - “take it to scale.” For example, even a crappy photograph printed in a very large format can sparkle with new colors. One dull picture is marriage. A hundred is already a style and a series. Thus, at the Tsargrad Institute there is an abundance of texts that visually resemble fundamental works, which from the outside seem to be an independent picture of the world or some kind of real ideology. The fact that it crumbles if you poke it in any place with a stick no longer worries anyone - while you refute one stupidity, ten others take its place.

It is fashionable to say: “If you criticize, suggest!” - as if orthodox cyber-Orthodoxy led by a monarch is the only true path that the Almighty has blessed us with. And of course, it would be correct to respond with links to other reports, maybe left-wing, maybe centrist, from different think tanks. But this would be too boring, especially since today only the lazy and those without funding are engaged in writing such reports. To maintain the quality of the experiment, I suggest that the authors profess the values ​​that they preach and live in their lands exactly as proposed.

Suddenly it turns out that modern youth, the engine of progress, didn’t give a damn about religion, and the stupid pet engineer couldn’t even formulate the right question for the AI. Sovereignty, like a meme that everyone is latching on to, doesn’t work. Russia will not become the birthplace of semiconductors and a replacement for Taiwan, even if all imaginable and not so gods come together. Conservatism, traditional values, monarchy and the rest of the State Planning Committee are in no way compatible with progress, the main meaning of which is that all these values ​​are not cared for from a high bell tower. So, even with great desire and loud slogans, the implementation of the concept laid down in the Tsargrad report is, alas (or fortunately) impossible.

And since we are talking about the divine, so as not to be so sad, I would like to continue the tradition and end with an anecdote. In the end, a smile over stupidity is the main weapon:

World leaders met with God:

- When will America be happy? - Trump asked.

“In 30 years,” God answers.

“I won’t live,” Trump said and began to cry.

- When will France be happy? asked Macron.

“In 50 years,” God answered.

“I won’t live,” Macron said and began to cry.

— When will Russia become happy? - Putin asked.

“I won’t live long,” God said and began to cry.

Many a true word is spoken in jest. And if we really rely on progress and artificial intelligence, there is every chance of surviving even conservative Orthodoxy. By the grace of God.