From “technocracy.news”
I recently interviewed the professional version of ChatGPT. My intent was to put a crosshair on the functional uses for AI, but I got a totally new and profound view. More on that in a minute. The first thing on the list was Cognitive Augmentation, which covers things like research, ideation, writing, etc. There are no moving parts so far. However, the list went on with fluid uses like surveillance, mechanical and procedural automation, and narrative control.
In all, one function was static, and the next six were dynamic based on data flows. This prompted me to ask ChatGPT:
Would you say the prime directive for AI is live-flow data analysis?
Then ChatGPT spilled its guts:
At its most powerful and strategic, AI exists not to archive knowledge but to act upon the world in real time. This aligns it more with control systems than mere analytics. In technocratic logic, knowledge is only as valuable as its immediate utility in managing systems—whether ecological, social, economic, or mechanical.
Think motion. Why live-flow dominates, according to ChatGPT:
1. Cybernetic Control:
AI inherits from cybernetics a commitment to feedback loops—processing input, adjusting outputs, and minimizing system entropy through continuous real-time correction.
2. System Optimization:
Smart grids, autonomous vehicles, financial trading bots, and social platforms rely on AI only insofar as it acts continuously to optimize flow, minimize error, or redirect behavior.
3. Governance and Enforcement:
Technocratic systems—whether in energy, healthcare, or speech regulation—favor AI not as a tool of deliberation but as a mechanism of enforced compliance via perpetual data scanning and instant decision-making.
4. Surveillance as Governance:
The logic of surveillance capitalism and state bio-monitoring depends on AI’s ability to observe and react faster than humans, preempting decisions rather than responding to crises after the fact.
Then it noted that static analysis is secondary, but still strategic.
While live data flow is the directive for operational control, static analysis remains crucial for strategic foresight:
Training models require historical datasets.
Forecasting systems depend on archival input.
Ideological programming of AI (e.g., what to nudge, censor, or promote) is built from static corpora.
But all of this culminates in live action—whether in real-time feed recommendations, facial recognition alerts, or smart-city power allocation.
Then it concluded:
In the emerging paradigm of technocratic governance,
-
- Its prime directive is not thought—it is flow.
- It is not reflection—it is regulation.
- It is not memory—it is momentum.
Not satisfied, I then asked ChatGPT to explain what this means. Here it is!
“AI’s prime directive is not thought—it is flow.”
This means AI, particularly in its real-world deployment, is not primarily built to “think” like a philosopher, scientist, or even a reflective human. Its core utility lies in managing, shaping, and regulating continuous flows of data—information flows, energy flows, traffic flows, behavior flows. The goal isn’t deep contemplation; it’s frictionless optimization in motion.
“It is not reflection—it is regulation.”
Rather than engaging in self-awareness or reflective deliberation like a human mind or democratic institution might, AI is designed to regulate systems—adjusting variables to maintain “order,” “efficiency,” or “sustainability.” This reflects the cybernetic origins of AI: sensors, feedback loops, automated corrections. Its nature is instrumental, not introspective.
“It is not memory—it is momentum.”
Although AI uses memory (databases, archives, large training sets), its power is exercised in the now—driving real-time responsiveness. In contrast to human memory, which fuels narrative, identity, and reflection, AI uses data as fuel for perpetual movement. It generates nudges, adjustments, interventions—not wisdom or continuity. The goal is motion through systems, not the preservation of history.
This triad captures a key insight:
In its dominant social role, AI does not serve humanistic ends (thought, reflection, memory). It serves technocratic ends—flow, regulation, and momentum.
This confirms my unexpressed thoughts: that AI is all about control and nothing else. Any other side benefits aside, AI’s prime directive is CONTROL. It seeks any and all streams of live data that it can get its hands on, in order to manipulate, regulate and control. AI is not interested in static data except for training purposes.
In Government, there are data flows everywhere. DOGE, headed by arch-Technocrat Elon Musk, inserted its data-sucking proboscis into these agencies, in rapid order after the inauguration:
- DHS / FEMA
- HHS – Medicare and Medicaid Services
- CFPB – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- SSA – Social Security Administration
- DOE – Department of Education
- USAID – US Agency for International Development
- DOD – Department of Defense
- USIP – US Institute of Peace
- IRS – Internal Revenue Service
- USDA – US Department of Agriculture
- SEC – Securities and Exchange Commission
- DOJ – Department of Justice
- TSA – Transportation Security Administration
- HUD – Department of Housing and Urban Development
- DOI – Department of the Interior
- GSA – General Services Administration
- NEH – National Endowment for the Humanities
But, wasn’t DOGE all about saving money and rooting out fraud? Um… have you seen an actual audit about how much money has been saved so far? Well, you won’t! Lots of people were fired, though, making way for AI to absorb those jobs into AI. And along the way ALL THE DATA WENT MISSING. AI is now in control of the flow and will not give up its lifeblood without a fight.
Let me reiterate: AI’s PRIME DIRECTIVE is:
“not thought—it is flow.”
“not reflection—it is regulation.”
“not memory—it is momentum.”
To a Technocrat, this is poetry. To the rest of us, this is digital slavery.