✨😈 Is AI really a 'deal with the devil?'

The medieval story of Faust continues to infect how we think about technology

There’s good reason I regularly write about science fiction in this newsletter, such as my recent essay on the 10th anniversary of the release of Interstellar. ( “Why 'Interstellar' is an Up Wing masterpiece”) Speculative pro-progress, Up Wing stories can inspire belief in humanity's capacity to solve problems and create a better tomorrow. Yes, progress is disruptive but the sacrifices are worth enduring.

Too often, of course, sci-fi stories are techno-pessimist, dystopian, Down Wing. That’s certainly the case when the subject is artificial intelligence. Hollywood has give AI worriers a rich cinematic corpus to draw upon — such as the Terminator and Matrix franchises — when telling their apocalyptic tales of computer-driven doom.

But sometimes the doomers and gloomers employ a much older story as a way of expressing their AI apprehension. I’ve read more than few pieces like this one from The Guardian in 2023: “ChatGPT isn’t a great leap forward, it’s an expensive deal with the devil.” The focus here is on the environmental costs of AI, but other times it’s about job loss or existential risk.

Faust and the danger of forbidden knowledge

But whatever the exact costs of the “deal” in question, the transactional framing itself was popularized by Doctor Faustus, the Elizabethan tragedy written by Christopher Marlowe. The eponymous character summons the demon Mephistopheles and trades his soul for magical powers and knowledge. It’s a bad bargain, however, as demons eventually drag him to Hell. Marlowe’s Faust, based on earlier German stories, serves as a warning about pride and the price of forbidden knowledge.

But there’s another Faustus, one with a more Up Wing take on intellectual curiosity.