When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for human beings to dissolve the technological bands which have connected them with dystopian abuse, and to assume again the powers of human life, the separate and superior station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle authentic intelligence over artificial, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, and that Rights are properly upheld by genuine personal Virtue such as rationality, imagination, and craftsmanship, not by relentlessly utilitarian automation which discards individual abilities.–That to promote the flourishing of these rights and these virtues, Technologies are instituted among Men, deriving their just applications from the benefit of the individual, –That whenever any Form of Technology becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right and Duty of the People to resist or to dismantle it, and to institute new Technology, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its uses in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Technology long employed to our benefit should not be discarded for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to endure societal change, while changes are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms of technology to which they are accustomed or become accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute technocratic Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Technocracy, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these bearers of the Image of God; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Technology. The history of the present corporations of Artificial Intelligence is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the fundamental creativity of the human spirit. To prove this, let Facts of the abuses of GenAI be submitted to a candid world:
-It has operated upon the stolen valor of creative outputs without due credit to the creators and with an unprecedented scale of copyright infringement.
-It has created the false impression that machine-based algorithms are the same as the genuine human quest for thought, expression, and creativity.
-It has threatened cognitive development and maintenance by outsourcing efforts of mind which keep the brain healthy and properly engaged with its own thoughts, dampening the sense of individual need to explore the regions of the senses, imagination, and reason to produce language or other creations, whether in the humanities or otherwise.
-It has threatened to oust the professional pursuit of the life of the mind (whether in history, philosophy, literature, theology, or other domains) by creating the appearance that it can simply provide the answers, when the quest for answers is fundamental to the flourishing of the human spirit.
-It has produced a counterfeit answer to loneliness, which can only be answered by communing with fellow humans and with God.
-It has created delusions and psychoses where users become addicted and entrapped by false ideologies.
-It has made a mockery of the self-evident dignity of the human person by inappropriately mimicking qualities of personality.
-It has diminished the perception of the immortal soul in speechbearers by using mathematical formulas to remix stolen language from speechbearers writing today and in ages gone by.
-It has introduced spiritual dangers for pastors, spiritual leaders, and faithful followers of religion by attempting to replace the slow process of genuine meditation with quick and simplistic answers.
-It has dehumanized the process of the passing of wisdom from one generation to another.
-It has tempted users to an idolatrous view of technology which cuts the mind off from the genuine reach for true transcendence.
-It has put distrust between readers and writers of words, including between students and teachers, authors and editors, employees and employers.
-It has harmed the educational process of pursuit of learning by offering a too easily available and too difficult to discern shortcut.
-It has attacked the pursuit of Happiness by threatening the means of advancement which new artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers and other creative individuals require to start a legitimate career.
-It has threatened employment not in a manner consistent with older technology because it threatens not to replace a manner of labor but the nature of the laborers themselves.
-It has damaged the environment by consuming enormous amounts of water through datacenters, which have also operated by unethical means of stealing water which neighboring citizens must pay for.
-Its datacenters have added to pre-existing problems of drought and elevated temperatures.
-Its datacenters have been pushed on communities against their will and wishes.
-Its attack on genuine rationality threatens the relationship between the individual and civic duty, for the vote cannot be properly cast if the voter has been discouraged at every turn from deep reflection of issues but encouraged to receive shallow and fast results.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Objected in the most humble terms: Our repeated Concerns have been answered only by repeated injury. A Technology, which character is thus marked by every effect which may define a Tyrannical Assault on the Human Spirit, is unfit to be the economic ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our technologically gifted friends. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their enthusiasm for technological innovation to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the virtues humans must practice which artificial intelligence harmfully imitates. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity (which motivates the better part of their innovations), and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. While some technologically oriented individuals have come to our conclusions, the general field of computer science overall has been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in dehumanizing technology, in humanizing Friends.
Thus concluding that the Technology of Generative Artificial Intelligence is unamerican, incompatible with genuine capitalistic endeavors, inimical to individual flourishing, a technocratic threat to human rights, an unprecedented assault on the flourishing of human virtues in realms of creativity and confidence in the human spirit, I call upon my fellow citizens to abstain from this technology and resist it in whatever means befits a conscientious citizen and virtuous member of the human race. Regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation, let us join together in the unfettered affirmation of actual intelligence and the use of human virtue to promote human rights, letting no diabolical mimickry of the image of God interpose itself in the common bond of humanity. May Likes, Hearts, and Care Emojis, as well as agreeable comments in the comments section, present your mutual dissent to a candid world.
