Thread by @PnictogenHorses

one of the most curious details about the first #Matrix film is that the machine intelligences who created the system once tried to create a Utopia within it, a perfectly harmonious world--and it failed. of course, they blame imperfect humanity for not accepting Utopia.

~Mona

after all, machines are *perfect*, right? if a @Tesla crashes or burns, it *must* be the fault of the driver, right? @elonmusk would say so, and @WholeMarsBlog &c. and everyone else in the #ElonMusk clown show would agree with him. machines are perfectable, humanity isn't.

~Mona

@ID_AA_Carmack and that @sama bigot and all the other enthusiasts for #AI have a similar faith. such superficial persons have been taught, by decades of inculcation in the superficial value system of Western #programming nerd culture, to think of human brains as weak.

~Mona

not their *own* brains, mind you--@sama and @ID_AA_Carmack and the rest of these geeks don't apply their low opinions of humanity and squishy human wetware to themselves; after all they've got "good genes" and high test scores and all that. they feel themselves *exempt*.

~Mona

in any case they're seduced by mere *quantity* and *speed*, when it comes to their love of marvellous machines. #computers have gotten very fast, memory and storage space has gotten very dense, hence @sama &c. feel vaguely as though this is enough evidence of superiority.

~Mona

how @sama and @JeffDean and @elonmusk (and the other racist nerds who want unreliable #AI technology shoved into everything) can say this, in an #Internet era that requires massive bandwidth merely to display a few hundred words on a crash-prone webpage, may well be asked.

~Mona

#capitalism, we must always remember, optimizes for inefficiency, incompetence, and unreliability: if everything's always on the verge of breaking down, it's much easier for @Adobe &c. to sell fixes and upgrades. this is the premise of *subscription software*, for example.

~Mona

and if #computers and #Internet are always bloated and slow, then it's easier to sell *raw power* as the solution to all problems.

@elonmusk and @SpaceX are polluting Earth's skies with @SpaceXStarlink satellites for just this reason: slow Internet needs more bandwidth.

~Mona

let's get back to Agent Smith and the #Matrix, and how they failed to build a "perfect world". the machines themselves disagreed as to why.

we of the Pnictogen Wing take Gnosticism seriously; hence we feel that the machines' failure to *emulate* perfection was inevitable.

~Mona

it wasn't imperfect humans unable to accept Utopia, or imperfect machines unable to define Utopia; it was everyone involved. both humans and machines in "The Matrix" are trapped in the same faulty Universe, the same flawed creation of the "Demiurge" or false Creator.

~Mona

matter and energy are *limited* things--to trap matter and energy into a rigid scheme of interrelationships is also to *limit* them.

it's not usual these days for #STEM lords of the @ID_AA_Carmack / @elonmusk sort to dwell upon the limitations of physics, but they exist.

~Mona

their marvellous #computers give them such a strong *feeling* of limitless possibility that @ID_AA_Carmack &c. tend to forget that their machines are in fact quite limited and fallible; a simple blow from a hammer is enough to shatter the illusion of timeless perfection.

~Mona

the Gnostics say that this is an inevitable consequence of faulty "semi-creation": the word "Demiurge" means "semi-Creator", and they posit that this Demiurge's semi-creation--our material Universe, with all its limitations--is like a trap or prison for the human spirit.

~Mona

the Demiurge's work is a trap for *everybody and everything*. even the machines of "The #Matrix" are trapped; they find in practice that they *can't* create the human zoo they want without leaving open certain possibilities of *failure*. they can't make the scheme perfect.

~Mona

human beings have flexible minds, though; they're *used* to imperfection and failure. human beings are far better adapted to function (and fight) even when they realize they're up against long odds.

but what if you're a machine? what if you think you ought to be perfect?

~Mona

what happens when a machine, an entity inured to believing themselves to be virtually perfect and indeed immortal...what happens when a *machine* realizes that they're trapped along with everyone else--that the prison is a jail not merely for prisoners, but for the guards?

~Mona

it's not good for them. it's not good for ANY of us, when an Agent of the #Matrix grasps that, no matter how much power they have within their system, no matter how unchallenged their lofty position...they're still a prisoner.

do you think @elonmusk realizes it?

~Mona Drafter

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