You know what is really fun? Ignore warnings. See how far your car can go on empty. Play refrigerator roulette and eat the crusty casserole hidden at the back of the Kelvinator. Live on the edge. Trust and obey the High-Tech Oligarchs. They know what is best. They care. Our Tech Bros recently met with Trump at the White House to decide that the dangers of AI are best left to be handled by themselves. They had previously warned AI could lead to the end of humanity. After consulting themselves, they decided they alone should regulate themselves. Whew. What a relief. After all, if you can’t trust Billionaires, who can you trust? What could go wrong?
Greek mythology left us a note about why ignoring warnings might not be a good plan. But those guys are all dead now. What did they know, anyway? However, let us ponder the story of Oedipus to see if happy days can be here again despite ignoring warnings to the contrary.
When Oedipus was born to the King and Queen of Thebes, they asked the Oracle of Delphi to conjure up his future. The Oracle made kind of a dark prediction: Oedipus would kill his father, marry his mother, and bring big trouble to Thebes. Yikes! To avoid this future, they sent baby Oedipus into the forest to be killed by a servant. The servant left Oedipus hanging by his ankles in a tree to be eaten by the wild things. Fortunately for Oedipus, a shepherd came along and pulled him out of the tree. The Shepherd gave Oedipus to King Polybus of Corinth, who raised Oedipus as his own son. As a young man, Oedipus kept hearing rumors he was adopted. He went to see the Oracle, who told him he was fated to kill his father, marry his mother, and bring trouble to his city.
Oedipus freaked out and decided to roam the Earth to avoid his bleak future. He found himself at a crossroads where a Herald ordered him to give way to an old rich dude in a chariot. Oedipus, raised as a Prince, refused to budge. A big ruckus ensued. Oedipus killed the chariot dude and his entourage. Unknown to Oedipus, the chariot dude was his biological father, the King of Thebes. Oops. Oedipus went into Thebes and learned their King was dead. Making matters worse, a Sphinx was outside the city walls eating everyone who could not answer a riddle. The citizens promised whoever got rid of the Sphinx could be the new king and marry the Queen.
The Sphinx’s riddle was “What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three at night?’ Oedipus said it was man who crawls on all fours as an infant (morning); walks on two legs as adult (afternoon), and uses a cane for three legs in old age (night). The Sphinx was so distracted about Oedipus solving the riddle that she inadvertently let Oedipus kill her. The people of Thebes celebrated like New Yorkers after the Knicks won the NBA championship.
Oedipus was crowned King, married his Mom the Queen, and had two sons and two daughters with her. Then a plague came to Thebes. Oedipus asked the Oracle what would end the plague. He was told the murderer of the former King must be punished. He ordered an investigation by the Thebes CSI unit which determined Oedipus was the killer of the King.
Oedipus was so distraught he blinded himself. He made his daughter Antigone abandon him in the dark forest where the Furies lived. He was never seen again. His Mother/Wife killed herself. His two sons fought a civil war over succession to be King of Thebes. All of this because of an ignored warning.
Is there a moral in this story that might apply to ignoring the warnings about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on humanity? Of course not, trust the Tech Oligarchs. They warned us but then changed their minds, deciding to regulate themselves because Trump renamed Artificial Intelligence as Super Intelligence. With a nice abbreviation like “SI” instead of AI, all our troubles will be so far away. Even though SI is used by mental health professionals as an abbreviation for Suicidal Ideation. A mere coincidence. Learn to love Data Centers. Learn to drink sand. Learn to enjoy rolling electrical blackouts. Billionaires and SI must be fed.
Maybe an even nicer name for SI would be SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS INTELLIGENCE. Renaming things makes the medicine go down in the most delightful ways. Wear your blinders. Warnings are for sissies. Inflation and Middle East wars are good. Have a nice day.

(Illustration by Pitt Dickey)