The 2034 Butlerian Jihad Will Be The End of AI Ballade

Joe Rogan is ten years older than me. So, when I say that I totally dig his tech-time-travelling vibe, I mean it.

A time leap from cord phones to the newest iPhones can only be compared to Kubrick’s from bone to satellite scene in “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

I still remember when my baby girl, who was still in kindergarten at the time, smashed her grandfather’s Nokia phone into pieces. She thought it was broken because the screen was unresponsive. We laughed when she asked what all those buttons were for. My father wasn’t angry. He just couldn’t get used to touchscreen phones.

“Nah, leave it. Nowadays, kids are born with a remote in their hands. I’ll get a new phone. Let’s play. I kept some of your plushies. Disney is timeless.”

Here’s the thing. GenZs, and especially Generation Alpha, take all these tech wonders for granted. I used to run with a walkman. Now, I feel so blessed and grateful for being able to use Galaxy Buds.

The Joe Rogan Experience Episode #2220

You should definitely watch this one with Francis Foster and Konstantin Kisin as guests. It’s refreshing to talk about tech and AI even for a moment rather than to admire the presidential candidate’s superpower to talk for three hours straight without going to a bathroom.

Joe was spot on comparing 2014 and 2024 from a tech perspective. In essence, nothing changed, dramatically. Now, I’m paraphrasing:

But, 2034 it’s going to be bananas because of AI.

Look, there’s no way to sugarcoat the fact that AI is a serial job killer. It is what it is. The next inevitable industrial revolution. You just can’t have it both ways, can you?

Denis Villeneuve made my little boy’s dreams come true with his movie adaptation of “Dune.” It was an epic mind-blowing experience. And, the part two as a complete IMAX show, it’s impossible to describe.

So, when Rogan expressed his concerns about the year 2034, I put two and two together. So many people lost their jobs because of AI and automation. Look, there’s no need to take this the wrong way. I have a law degree and I write. Do you know what happens with lawyers and accountants in “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?” Well, Google it, if you committed a heresy of not reading all the books.

My brutally honest point being: hey, we can survive the AI purge of designers and writers, but as Rogan pointed it out, the truckers are the next level. The mega-cities fully dependent on supply lines. The millions of trucker jobs. The scene is set for the Great Revolt also known as…

The Butlerian Jihad 2.0

“After two generations of chaos led by the Butlerians, the god of machine-logic was overthrown by the masses and a new concept was raised: "Man may not be replaced." The Jihad itself had finished with the complete destruction of all intelligent machines that were originally built by humans throughout the worlds, but it proved to have many profound impacts on the socio-political and technological development of humanity throughout the new empires that emerged, including a large technological reversal of the entire human civilization.”

I will let the Dune Wiki Fandom page make the long Butlerian Jihad story short.

Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind

“Even the simplest computers and calculators were banned, with the penalty for building or owning such a thinking machine technology being put to trial and sentenced to immediate death. This lack of thinking technology created a severe gap in humanity's quality of life, revolving around a need for humans to perform complex logical computations and calculations. This gap led to the creation of the mentat order: the Bene Gesserit, and the Spacing Guild.”

Now, I have to walk on eggshells. It’s ridiculous to think of truckers as tech destroyers. I have friends who depend on tech to stay in touch with their loved ones while on the road for weeks, sometimes even months. But, at the same time, it’s not unimaginable for some self-driving trucks to be set on fire in the not-so-distant future. So, compromises would have to be made.

We won’t have AI gods, but self-driving AI trucks can save lives on ice roads.

“Ice road truckers face a fatality rate of 112 deaths per 100,000 workers. The most common cause of death for ice road truckers is vehicle accidents, often due to icy road conditions and poor visibility. Despite the danger, ice road truckers are essential for transporting goods to remote areas in Alaska and northern Canada. One study found that the risk of dying on an ice road is 21 times higher than the risk of dying in a regular car accident. Ice road truckers are more likely to suffer from fatigue-related accidents due to long, grueling hours on the road.”

So, hit the road Jack in your truck, and you, I’m looking at you, AI: we need to talk.