The Beginning of Infinity

David Deustsch argues in "The Beginning of Infinity", published in 2011, that human progress is boundless and driven by the endless pursuit of good explanations through critical thinking and creativity. In order to pursue good explanations, you need a tradition of open criticism rather than blind obedience to authority. This was seen in the Enlightenment culture, and the dynamic, open societies it created in the West.

Deutsch (pronounced Doych) divides human cultures based on how they handle ideas and traditions:

- Static cultures: These societies rely on stable, unchanging memes. They forbid questioning authority or changing core rules. They reject error correction.

- Rational/Enlightenment cultures: These dynamic societies expect traditions to be criticized and improved. They view problems as normal and solvable through better ideas.

Two comments on this -

1. Indian culture used to be the most advanced civilization on the planet thousands of years ago. It's GDP was highest in the world as a share of the global total until and during the 1st millennium (1st to 10th century) and again for a bit around 1700 AD during the late Mughal empire. The Age of Enlightenment occurred in Europe primarily between 1680s - 1789. By the 1700s, India was more of a static culture. The caste system was entrenched, making meritocracy and social mobility non-existent. Even when there was merit in the ideas and the legacy knowledge left behind by ancestors that lived through the peak of Indian civilization (yoga, Ayurveda, astrology, vastu shastra), they were passed on as "stable, unchanging memes" and rejected error correction. The "source of truth" was the original text, and these traditions were not to be criticized and improved upon. 

2. In comparison, the Enlightenment culture in the West, and AI today embrace error correction. There is no "source of truth" with texts that were a product of the Enlightenment culture, only hypotheses and theories that were continuously to be improved upon. Copernicus replaced the geocentric model with the heliocentric model in the 16th century --> Kepler proved that planetary paths are ellipses, not circles, in the 17th century --> Einstein showed in the 20th century that the universe has no true center --> and Einstein's work has been corrected, improved and expanded upon in the years since. 

AI, and certainly AI in collaboration with human intelligence is going to be capable of even better critical thinking and creativity, and thus better explanations than humans alone. AI cultures will supersede non-AI cultures, just like the Enlightenment culture superseded static cultures.