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Norbert Wiener's 1950 book The Human Use of Human Beings makes some uncannily accurate predictions, e.g.
It is the thesis of this book that society can only be understood through a study of the messages and the communication facilities which belong to it; and that in the future development of these messages and communication facilities, messages between man and machines, between machines and man, and between machine and machine, are destined to play an ever-increasing part.
And those messages will be an "ever-increasing part" of an ever-growing whole, alas — just ask anyone who has recently spent time with WorkDay and its ilk ☹️.
Weiner 's predicted "new industrial revolution" has a lot in common with current worries about AI:
Thus the new industrial revolution is a two-edged sword. It may be used for the benefit of humanity, but only if humanity survives long enough to enter a period in which such a benefit is possible.…