Waiting On Orders

No need to fear being taken over when your fellow citizens appear increasingly willing to cede autonomy to an overmastering authority. Consider two recent polls where such sentiment emerges. First we consider a surrender to governance by AI, and then recognize a groundswell in support of socialism, primarily amongst the young. In both cases, it isn’t the technology or ideology that’s most alarming, but the willingness to cede personal agency.

Keeping in mind that humans ultimately determine what AI learns and how it digests that, consider the results of a recent Rasmussen poll, 41% of Young Voters Would Give Artificial Intelligence Government Power.

• 41% of likely voters ages 18–39 would support transferring most public-policy authority from human lawmakers to an advanced AI.

• More than a third (36%) of the same under-40 cohort would even let AI replace the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court, determining Americans’ rights in matters of speech, religion, property, and more. Fifteen percent strongly support this.

Lacking self-awareness (and ego – another rabbit hole), and thus the will to survive that drives biological life, little could motivate AI on its own to take the reins à la Skynet. So,

… it’s not going to be within AI’s province to come and get us. But AI is trained and programmed by humans. Malevolent people (who often mistake themselves for the benevolent meant to lead humanity) can program AI/robotics to harm humans.

Coincidentally, other recent polling from Rasmussen, Most Under-40 Voters Favor Socialism, also finds amenability to relinquishing individual sovereignty, ergo responsibility, to a higher authority. That poll revealed 53% of Likely U.S. Voters ages 18 to 39 would like to see a democratic socialist candidate win the 2028 presidential election.

Among under-40 voters who would like to see a democratic socialist candidate win the 2028 presidential election, 31% say the biggest reason for wanting a socialist president is that housing costs are too high. Seventeen percent (17%) say it’s because the economy unfairly benefits older, wealthier Americans, and15% say the economy unfairly benefits large corporations. Twelve percent (12%) want a socialist president because taxes are too low for corporations, and 11% say taxes are too low for wealthy individuals.

As always, it is the young who often feel the brunt of economic hardship, whether the country’s economy is soft or just as a result of their relatively short time in the economy.

Crucially, many who voice support for “socialism” seem unfamiliar with its historical meaning. Enthusiasm drops sharply when the definition includes abolishing private property and seizing the means of production. What is surmised then is that what they want is not socialism proper, but a more expansive state. And America already spends more on social welfare than the entire GDPs of almost every nation on Earth.

What does a willingness to abnegate civil agency to "omnipotent" software have to do with a renewed interest in socialism in the developed world? Well, a lot, really.

Commonality between a willingness to surrender personal autonomy to overlords, be they unfeeling AI systems or socialist dictators, would seem to stem from a desire for a greater degree of confidence in both the future as well as a lack of such in one’s own ability to navigate such.

The young are those most encumbered by the vagaries of life and the cohort most given to yearnings for omnipotent rulers. Not surprisingly the poll above found that support for socialism declines with age; those older having successfully dealt with more of said vagaries than the young.

Is the world now much more bewildering and insecure than that in which previous generations negotiated their way forward from youth? I’m not convinced. Socialism, of course, has been around forever. Is AI somehow seen as a new deity, or is its fandom just a refreshed desire for an infallible system to take over?