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Who’s afraid of AI?
We have been living in the AI era much longer than you think
When it comes to “artificial intelligence,” there are so many hopes and fears that touch on the most fundamental questions of existence, consciousness, freewill, and what type of society we are creating.
A 2023 Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 65% of Americans express concern about AI’s direction. The truth is that an Artificial Intelligence system has been operating for hundreds, if not thousands of years; it’s called the Economy. And it’s not your friend. It’s programmed to extract and centralize wealth at all costs. Its hardware is you and I and all humans living under its dominion. Its software is the bureaucracy and impersonal systems that govern our interactions.
From 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and The Terminator series, to The Matrix, most cautionary tales of AI imagine some dramatic fictional future moment—the Singularity—when the AI becomes “self-aware” and decides to act against humanity.
But what is the AI boogeyman, really? A non-human, unfeeling system that enforces its psychopathic agenda, regardless of the cost of human life and the suffering inflicted. This actually began happening long ago. And unlike most apocalyptic visions, this has been happening much more slowly and less cinematically than we imagined.
Imagine a system run by rules and enforcement without soul or humanity, enabled by human agents who serve that system by “just doing their job.” This is exactly what has been in place since we started writing spreadsheets on paper.
From the moment the concept of debt-based money was formalized and written down, the system of debt and capital functions as a societal virus that we now call the Economy.
The exact moment is hard to pinpoint because it’s more of a process than a moment. It could be the creation of the modern corporation. The 1604 Dutch East India Company and the 1670 Hudson’s Bay Company are two of the world’s first companies where a profit mandate was designed to supersede the importance of their human creators and to outlive any individual. However, it was likely far earlier than 1604 when the debt-based money system was created and imposed upon humanity through violence.
Indigenous gift economies, are objectively more sustainable for people and planet. They are based on an expected flow of mutual aid and trust-based interdependence, rather than exchanges of a transactional nature. Tracking debt formalizes hierarchy and breaks down systems built on equality and trust. Debt is the beginning of the dehumanization that allows an unconscious system (the debt system powering the Economy) to rule over conscious beings (humans as subservient to the Economy). In any case, we have certainly been living under this intelligent, omnipresent system whose goal is the endless accumulation of capital, where gravity (hoarding) overpowers entropy (wealth equality).
Things that people generally get wrong about AI:
-
It’s not Intelligent. I have to say this: there will never be a “singularity”. Any of the technologies grouped under the “Artificial Intelligence” label (machine learning, large language models, natural language processors, etc), driven by defined algorithms, will never be intelligent or conscious in the way that a living being is. Even once a semantic feedback engine with machine learning model (AI) can pass a Turing test, it will never have consciousness or awareness of what it is saying, because at the root, it is not driven by life force, it is driven by a simple mechanical program.
-
It’s not Individualized. The naive concept of an individualized, personality-driven anthropomorphic robot (everything from Star Wars to The Terminator to Blade Runner to Ex Machina) is simply not how connected technology works. AI is not a hermetic being within a physical body and never will be. It will always be connected to larger models and centralized data.
-
It’s not going to “change the world,” not in any structural sense. Advances in AI will change the aesthetics of Empire, not the balance of power. Because we are already running a more fundamental version of AI (the Economy), and WE are the software and hardware.
The group of technologies that we call AI is a simple extension of the same abstract system we already live under, optimized to accelerate it.
When we talk about AI, we should be talking about power. Who owns the tools? Who trains the models? Who sets the objectives? And whose lives are made disposable in the name of progress? Complex learning models, in the hands of the Economy, simply reinforce existing power structures; they will not create any new inequality.
The real danger of AI is not that it will become some evil supermind; it’s that the smallest, most violent, and aggressive minority will use it, as they’ve always used technology, to further entrench a system that treats life as secondary to profit. Technology, no matter how simple or complex, is only a tool for the system it is enforcing.
Artificial intelligence is not coming to destroy us. The Economy, which drives colonialism and imperialism, is already doing that. Unless we consciously, collectively, and courageously decide otherwise.
{
"article":
{
"title" : "Who’s afraid of AI? We have been living in the AI era much longer than you think",
"author" : "Collis Browne",
"category" : "essays",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/whos-afraid-of-ai",
"date" : "2025-07-19 21:35:46 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/whos-afriad-of-ai.png",
"excerpt" : "When it comes to “artificial intelligence,” there are so many hopes and fears that touch on the most fundamental questions of existence, consciousness, freewill, and what type of society we are creating.",
"content" : "When it comes to “artificial intelligence,” there are so many hopes and fears that touch on the most fundamental questions of existence, consciousness, freewill, and what type of society we are creating.A 2023 Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 65% of Americans express concern about AI’s direction. The truth is that an Artificial Intelligence system has been operating for hundreds, if not thousands of years; it’s called the Economy. And it’s not your friend. It’s programmed to extract and centralize wealth at all costs. Its hardware is you and I and all humans living under its dominion. Its software is the bureaucracy and impersonal systems that govern our interactions.From 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and The Terminator series, to The Matrix, most cautionary tales of AI imagine some dramatic fictional future moment—the Singularity—when the AI becomes “self-aware” and decides to act against humanity.But what is the AI boogeyman, really? A non-human, unfeeling system that enforces its psychopathic agenda, regardless of the cost of human life and the suffering inflicted. This actually began happening long ago. And unlike most apocalyptic visions, this has been happening much more slowly and less cinematically than we imagined.Imagine a system run by rules and enforcement without soul or humanity, enabled by human agents who serve that system by “just doing their job.” This is exactly what has been in place since we started writing spreadsheets on paper. From the moment the concept of debt-based money was formalized and written down, the system of debt and capital functions as a societal virus that we now call the Economy.The exact moment is hard to pinpoint because it’s more of a process than a moment. It could be the creation of the modern corporation. The 1604 Dutch East India Company and the 1670 Hudson’s Bay Company are two of the world’s first companies where a profit mandate was designed to supersede the importance of their human creators and to outlive any individual. However, it was likely far earlier than 1604 when the debt-based money system was created and imposed upon humanity through violence.Indigenous gift economies, are objectively more sustainable for people and planet. They are based on an expected flow of mutual aid and trust-based interdependence, rather than exchanges of a transactional nature. Tracking debt formalizes hierarchy and breaks down systems built on equality and trust. Debt is the beginning of the dehumanization that allows an unconscious system (the debt system powering the Economy) to rule over conscious beings (humans as subservient to the Economy). In any case, we have certainly been living under this intelligent, omnipresent system whose goal is the endless accumulation of capital, where gravity (hoarding) overpowers entropy (wealth equality).Things that people generally get wrong about AI: It’s not Intelligent. I have to say this: there will never be a “singularity”. Any of the technologies grouped under the “Artificial Intelligence” label (machine learning, large language models, natural language processors, etc), driven by defined algorithms, will never be intelligent or conscious in the way that a living being is. Even once a semantic feedback engine with machine learning model (AI) can pass a Turing test, it will never have consciousness or awareness of what it is saying, because at the root, it is not driven by life force, it is driven by a simple mechanical program. It’s not Individualized. The naive concept of an individualized, personality-driven anthropomorphic robot (everything from Star Wars to The Terminator to Blade Runner to Ex Machina) is simply not how connected technology works. AI is not a hermetic being within a physical body and never will be. It will always be connected to larger models and centralized data. It’s not going to “change the world,” not in any structural sense. Advances in AI will change the aesthetics of Empire, not the balance of power. Because we are already running a more fundamental version of AI (the Economy), and WE are the software and hardware. The group of technologies that we call AI is a simple extension of the same abstract system we already live under, optimized to accelerate it.When we talk about AI, we should be talking about power. Who owns the tools? Who trains the models? Who sets the objectives? And whose lives are made disposable in the name of progress? Complex learning models, in the hands of the Economy, simply reinforce existing power structures; they will not create any new inequality.The real danger of AI is not that it will become some evil supermind; it’s that the smallest, most violent, and aggressive minority will use it, as they’ve always used technology, to further entrench a system that treats life as secondary to profit. Technology, no matter how simple or complex, is only a tool for the system it is enforcing.Artificial intelligence is not coming to destroy us. The Economy, which drives colonialism and imperialism, is already doing that. Unless we consciously, collectively, and courageously decide otherwise."
}
,
"relatedposts": [
{
"title" : "Black Liberation Views on Palestine",
"author" : "EIP Editors",
"category" : "essays",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/black-liberation-on-palestine",
"date" : "2025-10-17 09:01:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/mandela-keffiyeh.jpg",
"excerpt" : "",
"content" : "In understanding global politics, it is important to look at Black liberation struggles as one important source of moral perspective. So, when looking at Palestine, we look to Black leaders to see how they perceived the Palestinian struggle in relation to theirs, from the 1960’s to today.Why must we understand where the injustice lies? Because, as Desmond Tutu famously said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”{% for person in site.data.quotes-black-liberation-palestine %}{{ person.name }}{% for quote in person.quotes %}“{{ quote.text }}”{% if quote.source %}— {{ quote.source }}{% endif %}{% endfor %}{% endfor %}"
}
,
{
"title" : "First Anniversary Celebration of EIP",
"author" : "EIP Editors",
"category" : "events",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/1st-anniversary-of-eip",
"date" : "2025-10-14 18:01:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/WSA_EIP_Launch_Cover.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Celebrating One Year of Independent Publishing",
"content" : "Celebrating One Year of Independent PublishingJoin Everything is Political on November 21st for the launch of our End-of-Year Special Edition Magazine.This members-only evening will feature a benefit dinner, cocktails, and live performances in celebration of a year of independent media, critical voices, and collective resistance.The EventNovember 21, 2025, 7-11pmLower Manhattan, New YorkLaunching our End-of-Year Special Edition MagazineSpecial appearances and performancesFood & Drink includedTickets are extremely limited, reserve yours now!Become an annual print member: get x back issues of EIP, receive the End-of-Year Special Edition Magazine, and come to the Anniversary Celebration.$470Already a member? Sign in to get your special offer. Buy Ticket $150 Just $50 ! and get the End-of-Year Special Edition Magazine Buy ticket $150 and get the End-of-Year Special Edition Magazine "
}
,
{
"title" : "Miu Miu Transforms the Apron From Trad Wife to Boss Lady: The sexiest thing in Paris was a work garment",
"author" : "Khaoula Ghanem",
"category" : "",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/miu-miu-transforms-the-apron-from-trad-wife-to-boss-lady",
"date" : "2025-10-14 13:05:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/Cover_EIP_MiuMiu_Apron.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Miuccia Prada has a habit of taking the least “fashion” thing in the room and making it the argument. For Spring 2026 at Miu Miu, the argument is the apron; staged not as a coy retro flourish but as a total system. The show’s mise-en-scène read like a canteen or factory floor with melamine-like tables, rationalist severity, a whiff of cleaning fluid. In other words, a runway designed to force a conversation about labor before any sparkle could distract us.",
"content" : "Miuccia Prada has a habit of taking the least “fashion” thing in the room and making it the argument. For Spring 2026 at Miu Miu, the argument is the apron; staged not as a coy retro flourish but as a total system. The show’s mise-en-scène read like a canteen or factory floor with melamine-like tables, rationalist severity, a whiff of cleaning fluid. In other words, a runway designed to force a conversation about labor before any sparkle could distract us.From the opening look—German actress Sandra Hüller in a utilitarian deep-blue apron layered over a barn jacket and neat blue shirting—the thesis was loud: the “cover” becomes the thing itself. As silhouettes marched on, aprons multiplied and mutated—industrial drill cotton with front pockets, raw canvas, taffeta and cloqué silk, lace-edged versions that flirted with lingerie, even black leather and crystal-studded incarnations that reframed function as ornament. What the apron traditionally shields (clothes, bodies, “the good dress”) was inverted; the protection became the prized surface. Prada herself spelled it out: “The apron is my favorite piece of clothing… it symbolizes women, from factories through to serving to the home.”Miu Miu Spring 2026 Ready-to-Wear. SuppliedThis inversion matters historically. The apron’s earliest fashion-adjacent life was industrial. It served as a barrier against grease, heat, stain. It was a token of paid and unpaid care. Miu Miu tapped that lineage directly (canvas, work belts, D-ring hardware), then sliced it against domestic codes (florals, ruffles, crochet), and finally pushed into nightlife with bejeweled and leather bibs. The garment’s migration across materials made its social migrations visible. It is a kitchen apron, yes, but also one for labs, hospitals, and factories; the set and styling insisted on that plurality.What makes the apron such a loaded emblem is not just what it covers, but what it reveals about who has always been working. Before industrialization formalized labor into factory shifts and wages, women were already performing invisible labour, the kind that doesn’t exist on payrolls but sits at the foundation of every functioning society. They were cooking, cleaning, raising children, nursing the ill. These tasks were foundational to every economy and yet absent from every ledger. Even when women entered the industrial workforce, from textile plants to wartime assembly lines, their domestic responsibilities did not disappear, they doubled. In that context, the apron here is a quiet manifesto for the strength that goes unrecorded, unthanked, and yet keeps civilization running.The algorithmic rise of the “tradwife,” the influencer economy that packages domesticity as soft power, is the contemporary cultural shadow here. Miu Miu’s apron refuses that rehearsal. In fact, it’s intentionally awkward—oversized, undone, worn over bikinis or with sturdy shoes—so the viewer can’t flatten it into Pinterest-ready nostalgia. Critics noted the collection as a reclamation, a rebuttal to the flattening forces of the feed: the apron as a uniform for endurance rather than submission. The show notes framed it simply as “a consideration of the work of women,” a reminder that the invisible economies of effort—paid, unpaid, emotional—still structure daily life.If that sounds unusually explicit for a luxury runway, consider the designer. Prada trained as a mime at Milan’s Piccolo Teatro, earned a PhD in political science, joined the Italian Communist Party, and was active in the women’s rights movement in 1970s Milan. Those facts are not trivia; they are the grammar of her clothes. Decades of “ugly chic” were, essentially, a slow campaign against easy consumption and default beauty. In 2026, the apron becomes the newest dialect. An emblem drawn from leftist feminist history, recoded into a product that still has to sell. That tension—belief versus business—is the Miuccia paradox, and it’s precisely why these aprons read as statements, not trends.The runway narrative traced a journey from function to fetish. Early looks were squarely utilitarian—thick cottons, pocketed bibs—before migrating toward fragility and sparkle. Lace aprons laid transparently over swimmers; crystal-studded aprons slipped across cocktail territory; leather apron-dresses stiffened posture into armor. The sequencing proposed the same silhouette can encode labor, intimacy, and spectacle depending on fabrication. If most brands smuggle “workwear” in as set dressing, Miu Miu forced it onto the body as the central garment and an unmissable reminder that the feminine is often asked to be both shield and display at once.It’s instructive to read this collection against the house’s last mega-viral object: the micro-mini of Spring 2022, a pleated, raw-hem wafer that colonized timelines and magazine covers. That skirt’s thesis was exposure—hip bones and hemlines as post-lockdown spectacle, Y2K nostalgia framed as liberation-lite. The apron, ironically, covers. Where the micro-mini trafficked in the optics of freedom (and the speed of virality), the apron asks about the conditions that make freedom possible: who launders, who cooks, who cares? To move from “look at me” to “who is working here?” is a pivot from optics to ethics, without abandoning desire. (The aprons are, after all, deeply covetable.) In a platform economy that still rewards the shortest hemline with the biggest click-through, this is a sophisticated counter-program.Yet the designer is not romanticizing toil. There’s wit in the ruffles and perversity in the crystals; neither negate labor, they metabolize it. The most striking image is the apron treated as couture-adjacent. Traditionally, an apron protects the precious thing beneath; here, the apron is the precious thing. You could call that hypocrisy—luxurizing the uniform of workers. Or, strategy, insisting that the symbols of care and effort deserve visibility and investment.Of course, none of this exists in a vacuum. The “tradwife” script thrives because it is aesthetically legible and commercially scalable. It packages gender ideology as moodboard. Miu Miu counters with garments whose legibility flickers. The collection’s best looks ask viewers to reconcile tenderness with toughness, convenience with care, which is exactly the mental choreography demanded of women in every context from office to home to online.If you wanted a season-defining “It” item, you’ll still find it. The apron is poised to proliferate across fast-fashion and luxury alike. But the deeper success is structural: Miu Miu re-centered labor as an aesthetic category. That’s rarer than a viral skirt. It’s a reminder that clothes don’t merely decorate life, they describe and negotiate it. In making the apron the subject rather than the prop, Prada turned a garment of service into a platform for agency. It’s precisely the kind of cultural recursion you’d expect from a designer shaped by feminist politics, who never stopped treating fashion as an instrument of thought as much as style.The last image to hold onto is deceptively simple: a woman in an apron, neither fetishized nor infantilized, striding, hands free. Not a costume for nostalgia, not a meme for the feed, but a working uniform reframed, respected, and suddenly, undeniably beautiful. That is Miu Miu’s provocation for Spring 2026: the work behind the work, made visible at last."
}
]
}