Anti-humanism across the technological spectrum

One thing that both extremist environmentalist and blind-faith artificial intelligence activists have in common is their belief around humans, and both sides of the technological spectrum have reasons against the existence of humans based on their energy use. The fact is that your average human will consume a baseline of ninety watts of power to stay alive¹ (approximately the same energy use as a low-powered computer), not mentioning all the auxiliary energy needed to clothe, house, transport, and feed them.

Artificial intelligence

Proponents have argued that artificial intelligence is actually less energy intensive than humans, since the energy use of a computer in, say, copy editing is much lower than the energy use in the human learning the same skills. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, argues that the energy needed for AI queries is significantly less than humans: the present energy use is greater for AI models, but that training an AI requires much less energy than raising a human for twenty years.²

Artificial intelligence is currently only used in industries that do not matter in broad terms, like phone lines, or advertisement.³ But companies are actively looking to use it in cultural industries, like modeling, movies, advertising, and article writing. I, personally, believe that is anti-civilizational, in that it actively detracts from human culture toward a cheaper simulacrum of humanity.

Ecological argument

Many ecologists believe that energy use of humans, including transportation and diet, is way greater than can be sustained by our planet. A moderate position in this belief is that human standards of living and energy demand should shrink to match this fact.⁴ This is known as the degrowth model. This self-imposed austerity has its own spectrum, from mindful living to severe asceticism.⁵

Farther than this position is the rabbit-hole that is antinatalism, or the demographic issue, popularized by Limits to Growth, fascists, and other eccentrics. Groups such as the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement believe that it is imperative to avoid having kids, and in some cases, commit suicide, since these are the greatest choice one can make when it comes to individual resource consumption.⁶

Humanist defenses of energy use

Pope Leo XIV has recently put out an epistle arguing that technology in general has a neutral stance, but the current wave of AI growth has not promoted the best ideals: namely, not respecting human dignity, or the environment.⁷ Current doctrine says that humans are endowed with a spirit to create beyond what already materially exists. This mirrors other esoteric thinkers, such as Software Pagan,⁸ who believe that the “struggle against entropy” is the essence that separates living beings from the rest of the material world, and therefore they must continue to live.