“Peace for our time.”
It was September, 1938. Britain and Nazi Germany had just signed an agreement designed to prevent war.
The horrors of World War I were still fresh in the collective memory of a generation. The trenches, the gas, the unrelenting machine gun fire—these were nightmares Europe was desperate to avoid repeating. As such, the nations of Europe, particularly Britain and France, adopted a policy of appeasement, a strategy of making political or material concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict.
The Munich Agreement permitted Nazi Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia. Leaders believed that by ceding this territory to Hitler, his ambitions would be sated and a broader conflict could be averted.
History may not repeat, but it certainly does rhyme quite often.
Unfortunately, this policy was built on a fundamental misjudgment of Hitler's intentions. Rather than interpreting appeasement as a gesture of peace, the Nazi regime saw it as a sign of weakness, a green light to pursue even greater territorial ambitions. The Munich Agreement, instead of preventing a war, provided the fertile ground from which the seeds of the Second World War would rapidly sprout.
“Faustian”
Named after the legend of Faust, the term “Faustian” captures the essence of a tragic tale: Faust, a man who has everything he needs in life, finds himself wanting more.
Naturally, he strikes a deal with Mephistopheles, the devil's representative. The pact is straightforward: Faust will receive unparalleled wisdom and worldly pleasures, but at the end of his days, his soul would belong to the devil.
Charlie Daniels turns this tale on its head in his classic song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, and that’s probably the first place I ever heard of something akin to a Faustian bargain. The moral of this story is that you should never challenge the devil to a duel, unless you’re really good at the violin:
The story of Faust, in its many iterations, is a brilliant cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked ambition and the cost of insatiable desires. A Faustian bargain describes a situation where someone is willing to sacrifice their moral integrity, long-term well-being, or some other invaluable aspect of their life for a momentary gain, a fleeting advantage, or a temporary solution.
The Munich Agreement was one such Faustian pact, made with the hopes of ensuring peace but instead setting the stage for unparalleled destruction. Let’s take a look at another famous example from history.
The Manhattan Project
Oh, Hitler. There you are again, providing us with another example of a Faustian bargain.
In August of 1939, Albert Einstein sent a letter to President Franklin D Roosevelt warning that the Nazis might be able to create a weapon more powerful than any ever seen before. While Hitler never successfully developed an atomic bomb, the very threat of Nazi Germany possessing such unparalleled destructive power spurred the Allies into frantic action, leading them to confront their own moral quandaries in the race for atomic supremacy. The idea that the guy who had just crapped all over the concept of law and order across Europe would be able to destroy entire cities with just one bomb catalyzed the allies into action.
Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and Richard Feynman were all involved in one of the greatest endeavors in scientific history: the Manhattan Project.
The allure of atomic energy was intoxicating. Not only did it promise a swift conclusion to the most devastating conflict in human history, but scientists also realized that there was the potential for virtually unlimited energy in a post-war world.
The Manhattan Project was a double-edged sword for two reasons. First, the potential to power cities simply by harnessing the power of the atom was balanced by the incredible destructive power of the bomb, experienced firsthand in 1945 by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Second, the US wasn’t the only nation who would develop this bomb, and that quickly became apparent.
The world hasn’t been the same since.
The race to collect enough nuclear weapons to destroy the other side over and over again was on. I grew up during the second half of this race, while everyone lived with the very real fear that we might soon destroy civilization.
The balance between the unparalleled power of atomic energy and its potential for destruction might be the best example of a Faustian Bargain so far… but there might be one more still ahead of us.
AI, the Final Frontier?
Just as Faust dreamed of untold wisdom and power, so do we today.
More importantly, we’re actually beginning to tap into this potential, the ability to harness intellectual power in the same way that we can now harness physical power.
But there’s a catch.
We’ve already seen a great deal of thorny debate around the way generative AI is trained. Artists and labels are suing OpenAI and others, with the outcome wildly unpredictable, but monumentally important.
(co-author extraordinaire and brother from another mother) and I will write about this phenomenon soon.We’ve also seen social media offer similar convenience, and we’ve observed that slowly destroy the fabric of society (am I being overly dramatic here? let me know in the comments), at least as it existed when I grew up. Social media built businesses and overthrew tyrannical governments, but then it also destroyed personal relationships and manipulated the democratic process.
Questions arise in ascending order of importance:
How do we ensure that AI doesn't perpetuate or exacerbate societal biases?
Will there be work for people? What happens if there aren’t enough jobs?
What happens if an powerful intelligence has some agency of its own?
It's not just about relinquishing control. It's about the unforeseen consequences of creating something that, once unleashed, might be impossible to rein in.
It’s about losing something we can’t afford to lose, in exchange for something that seemed like a good idea at the time.
Are we making a Faustian bargain by driving ever-faster toward something that’s smarter than we are?
What price are we willing to pay for progress?
In every epoch, humanity stands at crossroads, facing decisions that promise immense power and advancement at potentially great costs. From appeasing tyrants to harnessing atomic energy, history presents us with lessons on the risks of blind ambition and the allure of immediate gains.
Whether it's the unchecked ambitions of leaders or the uncharted territories of technology, the story of Faust serves as a timeless reminder. Tread carefully, my friends; the bargains we strike today are what makes up tomorrow.
+1 for using “epoch”
-1 for failing to include The Karate Kid taking on the devil.
https://youtu.be/CqdL36VKbMQ?si=Xemlqw_dRGcFig49
I mean, it sounds bad the way you put it, but hear me out:
On the one hand, you've got the potential for an all-powerful, hyper-intelligent artificial entity to end humanity as we know it.
But on the other hand, check out those cool Midjourney pics and haikus about farts from ChatGPT!
You tell me that's not a risk worth taking!