If you want a reference for the scale of the AI grift, consider how the neoconservatives circa 2001-2003 sold the Iraq invasion to Americans.
It's *exactly* the same mess of lies, wishful thinking, and greed. In Iraq, they wanted to Steal The Oil, which was just nonsensical—but also to drive weapons sales, hand out reconstruction contracts, and scare the crap out of possible geopolitical rivals. The AI bros have a similar mix of motivations, all boiling down to money.
https://goblin.band/notes/9ueb7onsb2i4873k
@cstross Growing up, "if Rome had books, indoor plumbing, paved streets, tenement housing, retail bakeries... how could they just let everything fall apart so we didn't recreate that for a thousand years" was a hard question to answer.
Now? Not so much. Plutocracy+gerontrocracy. Rich bastards burning everything down for personal short-term gain, poor people sublimating envy into worship, "the status quo is too big to fail, it's been around forever, I literally can't imagine it collapsing"...
@landley @cstross
one path to collapse is pretty advanced already:
"Late Soviet Britain" by Abby Innes
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/late-soviet-britain/6C375F1A3E6007A1496A52F8BF313277#