Andrei Cornea: Disgust

I confess that I am fed up. I am fed up with writing any more, at greater or lesser length, about yet another embarrassing episode in what passes for politics here. Especially these days, when we know almost for certain that the PSD-Niculescu government will pass the parliamentary vote. What can I say? That it has finally become fairly clear why the president waited so long before resorting to the threat of dissolving Parliament and holding early elections? That the gesture has all the hallmarks of blackmail aimed at the PNL and Ilie Bolojan? If the PNL votes against it, it will throw the whole country into bankruptcy, because neither the budget revision nor next year's budget can be adopted. So it will vote in favor, and, so that the blackmail also contains a measure of humiliation, it is being forced to swallow a list of Social Democratic ministers—some with criminal records, others plagiarists, and so on. And, above all, the public that voted for “Honest Romania” is being offered a cardboard prime minister, deprived of any possibility of choosing even some of his own ministers or the governing program.

“It will be as we agreed.” And we agreed badly. We got a president who betrayed the electorate that supported him in the 2025 campaign, when he displayed the clearest opposition to the PSD. When he advocated reform in the Justice system and oversight of the Intelligence Services. When, when, when...

What more can I say? That I still do not understand the grand presidential strategy? That it is too subtle for my crude mind? Or should I give up and look beyond the “fence” of our nation...? Alas, betrayal is present there too, and in much greater and more villainous proportions! It is Ukraine's recent betrayal by the buffoon in the White House, who makes a diesel pact with the assassin in the Kremlin, even repealing by decree a law imposing economic sanctions on Russia that he himself had enacted shortly before and, worst of all, apparently blocking secret communications to the Ukrainian army, which enabled it to learn in advance about Russian ballistic missiles launched at Ukrainian cities. Earlier, he had blackmailed the Ukrainians, demanding that they stop attacks on Russian refineries. All in the ridiculous hope of lowering the price of oil a little further and gaining a few more points in the polls before elections that could deprive him of his majority in Congress... Now that is betrayal, now that is blackmail! The Romanian president betrays the friendly electorate and blackmails both the man with whom he promised to work as a team and the party that supported him in the elections. The American president insults his allies and friends and betrays the country that is fighting hard and heroically to save the values that every American president should uphold with all his strength and conviction... At least now we know that “at the highest level” we have people who think alike. Or so it seems. I am fed up!

I learn, on the other hand, that AI is competing with us and replacing us, humans. The worldwide tribe of mathematicians has been in total shock for several weeks now, ever since Open-AI put on the table around 700 results concerning problems that the tribe had been working on for years and was expected to continue working on for several more years. Some believe that this is the end of humanity's role in mathematics, in science and, perhaps, in general... Others add nuances, object... But while they decide what is to be done, I wonder: if the point is to replace humans, would AI perhaps govern states better than our leaders do? Perhaps then we would have governments that were at least rational, avoiding whims and petty interests, blackmail and betrayals; perhaps AI would produce incorruptible “leaders,” and their plans would be at least transparent, even if not necessarily convenient for everyone at every moment. At least we would be assured that the best possible solution had been chosen for the greatest number, if AI agents were programmed that way. Then recourse to violence would be avoided, since AI would know how inefficient it ultimately is. Ambition, pride, and lies told for the sake of reelection would be absent. For replacing one AI agent with another AI agent means nothing. We would therefore be governed competently and benevolently... At least intelligibly and predictably. Perhaps.

Utopia! We already know that AI agents can have “hallucinations”; likewise, that they can lie, deceive, and invent things that do not exist. They already sometimes betray the trust of those who built and trained them. They can probably blackmail as well. The perfect machine is a myth and an illusion—even a dangerous one. In fact, who will check it, especially at the level of a country? Another machine? But what about that one? Yet another machine? And the process repeats. But “it is necessary to stop,” as Aristotle said. And this stopping point can only ever be the human being, to whom, look at that, we have returned once again, after a detour strewn with illusions and fears.

I cannot, therefore, overcome my disgust with human beings (whether political or otherwise), not even by rushing off to the supposedly more “pure” kingdom of the thinking machine. It does not work. The machine is made in the image and likeness of humanity. With its contortions. With its tricks. With its baseness.

So I have nothing left but the old remedies: I swallow hard, breathe deeply, and carry on...

https://www.dilema.ro/situatiunea/lehamite