Same As It Ever Was

Our recency-bias is to imagine,

That AI will rise - Armageddon,

That technology progression,

Cranks our stakes up to eleven,

But the stakes in fact remain break-even,

Take the discovery of how to control fire way back when,

Which made cooking food and warm sleep possible way back then,

But also got used to destroy other’s villages - arson,

Be it controlled fire or AI’s the newest innovation,

This New-Improved vs. Worst-Ever tension,

Is not a question,

Of volume-level one being turned up to eleven,

It’s more like -

The promise versus peril of controlled fire and AI alike,

Inversely proportionate,

The good or bad outcomes were really driven by us,

The good or bad outcomes are really driven by us,

The stakes that fire introduced added up to One + Negative-One = Zero,

AI is the same exact equation,

Even if it feels bigger, like Eleven

It’s really Eleven, plus Negative-Eleven.