“We have to win the AI race against China at all costs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Time and time again, this extremely complex discussion is reduced to a binary: One winner / One loser

This is where I dismount the badly beaten, dead horse, and ask the Q that no one is asking:

What happens to the Chinese people?

Not the CCP. Not the geopolitical chessboard. The actual human beings inside a VERY different cultural system.

My aunt asked me about what I was reading. I so viscerally remember saying, all noetic serious like, “One day we’re gonna want to lose our real arms so we can get robot ones.”

She said to my mother, “Oh, the hope of children…” She then turned her attention to me and dropped the bomb, “Honey… that’s ridiculous.”

I still FEEL her response chopping me down. Okay, maybe not CHOPPED, but I experienced a quiet, internal shift towards “Don’t dream toooooo much, kid. That’s silly movie / comic stuff! Keep your thoughts in reality.”