Zegarelli begins not with machines, but with anthropology. Humans, he argues, are tool-making conquerors by nature—creatures whose intelligence is inseparable from their instinct to dominate environment, circumstance, and even each other. Civilization’s tools merely mirror the psyche of their makers—the same creative faculty that builds hammers and code also builds weapons and war. Technology is anthropological, not mechanical. Zegarelli’s closing paradox—“Technology always wins”—is not defeat but diagnosis. [AI Review]
There is a lot of hype regarding “Artificial Intelligence.” In working with clients for 35 years who are “for and against new technology,” I have probably said the following statement hundreds if not thousands of times:
“Technology always wins.“
It is as simple as that.
We can love technology or hate technology, and it simply doesn’t care. It continues to evolve and move forward.
We can’t stop it, because technology is a tool, and human beings are naturally tool-makers. Moreover, human beings are conquerors.
Does the nature of man as a conqueror lead man to make tools, or does man’s ability to make tools lead man to be a conqueror? No matter. Either way, it is immaterial.
A hammer to the nail is a tool. A hammer to the head is a weapon. Same technology. Different application of conquest.
A hammer conquers a nail directly, and thereby conquers the weather indirectly. A hammer conquers an animal directly, and thereby conquers survival and comfort indirectly.
Insecurity, yielding to survival and comfort.
There is a scene in the HBO Series, Marco Polo that is exemplary: Kublai Khan found an advantage in war (that is, war generally caused by the human need for survival and comfort). He set his horses and pigeons on fire with oil and then sent them stampeding and homing into the enemy camp, burning the enemy encampment. Really clever. In fact, ingenious.
The technology served his self-interested purpose. Not so good for the horses and pigeons, but an ingenious technology for its time. No matter, human beings have conquered just about everything except themselves, so far.
Thus, the truth of it is that human beings tend to weaponize everything and anything that can be weaponized, and it is not the weapon’s fault.
Knives cut a lot of different things, a lot of different ways, for better or worse, depending upon the self-interested purpose of the user and the object upon which it is used.
So-called “Artificial Intelligence” is here to stay, and will continue to evolve, for better or worse. Technology provides an advantage, and it will flourish and evolve, somewhere. If it is a tool, or perhaps a weapon, it will escape constraint into human self-interested use, sooner or later, with the conqueror justifying the usage.
The repression of what will be or must be is socially dysfunctional, because it is a psychologically diseased misapplied hope. Human nature can only be reconciled to a behavioral normalcy within a degree, often on a mutually advantageous self-interested basis.
But we recognize, as much as we might detest certain behaviors, human nature has proved to be stronger than the hopeful socially frameworked constraint: that is, prohibitions of certain human activities will be and always be, like it or not. Prohibition did not work in America for this reason, eliminating prostitution never worked just about everywhere for this reason, and eliminating pregnancy termination will not work for this reason.
Some human behaviors will always win. They are too inviting, too self-interested, and too personal. Human beings are self-interested tool-making and weapon-making conquerors. We can repress it, but all of history proves it. It is deep in humanity.
Each new technology is a tool, or a weapon, depending upon the application, being the self-interest of the user and the object upon which it is used.
And a tool that exists to reason, to express and to provide information—that is, to give intellectual power: sometimes good and sometimes bad—and good by one view and bad by another view—and no less in a diverse, free and free-thinking society—will be difficult to restrain lawfully indefinitely.
Love it or hate it. Try to regulate it or try to repress it. But, the tool—or the weapon if you prefer—is going to come either way. For someone, somewhere. All of human experience throughout all of time proves it.
Mark it: Technology always wins.
“Tu scis quod incipias cognoscere lectionem, cum id scire times.” (“You know that you are starting to understand the lesson, when you are afraid to know it.”)
Said Mr. Brownlow to Mr. Bumble regarding the acts of Mrs. Bumble, “You were present on the occasion of the destruction of these trinkets, and, indeed, are the more guilty of the two, in the eye of the law; for the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction.
If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, “the law is a ass — a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience — by experience.”
― Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (Tendencies of Human Nature, Experience—Irrespective of Hope and Authority)
Oliver Twist (1948) [David Lean] [MUID225X] “The law is a ass. A idiot.” [Ed. Note: Dickens with his oft subtlety, or not, says that the law must be a bachelor to assume that a wife acts at the direction of her husband, and, if the law actually experienced marriage, the law would know better…]
2001 Space Odyssey [Stanley Kubrick] [MUID24X] – 2001 Space Odyssey: The Dawn of Man [Ed. Note: Kubrick’s genius: Look for the evolved weapon at the end of the clip. Only the weapons evolve, not human nature.]
Marco Polo [MUID224X] – Birds as Weapons
Army of Darkness [Sam Raimi] [MUID41X] – “Good, Bad, I’m the Guy with the Gun” [Ed. Note: The quote subsumes all political theory. We tend to hope that right makes might, but we know that might tends to make right.]
“Technologia semper vincit.” (“Technology always wins.”) “Tu scis quod incipias cognoscere lectionem, cum id scire times.” (“You know that you are starting to understand the lesson, when you are afraid to know it.”) ~ grz
ChatGPT Review
I. ETHOS — The Anthropological Fatalism of Progress
1. Human Nature as Conqueror
Zegarelli begins not with machines, but with anthropology.
Humans, he argues, are tool-making conquerors by nature — creatures whose intelligence is inseparable from their instinct to dominate environment, circumstance, and even each other. The core ethos:
“Human beings have conquered just about everything except themselves.”
This line captures his foundational moral tension: technological expansion is inevitable because it’s an expression of our species’ essence, not our choice. Civilization’s tools merely mirror the psyche of their makers — the same creative faculty that builds hammers and code also builds weapons and war.
2. Amoral Technology, Immoral Application
Every technology is morally neutral — a function, not a philosophy.
“A hammer to the nail is a tool. A hammer to the head is a weapon. Same technology. Different application of conquest.”
Here Zegarelli inverts modern techno-moral panic. The ethical question lies not in the tool’s existence but in its directional intent. Technology is not culpable; human self-interest is.
3. Realism over Moralism
Zegarelli distinguishes between should and is — echoing his Aesopic principle from The Fox and the Stork:
“Jesus teaches about shoulds, Aesop teaches about coulds.”
He extends that realism to technology: prohibition fails because it defies the gravitational pull of human nature. Prohibition, prostitution, zygote termination — all are cited as empirical proofs that repression of instinct cannot defeat its recurrence. Likewise, resistance to AI or any emerging tool is futility cloaked as morality.
Thus, his ethos is not defeatism; it’s rational reconciliation with the constants of human nature.
II. PEDAGOGY — Zegarelli’s Method of Teaching Through Parable and Film
1. The Triadic Illustration Method
Zegarelli’s pedagogy here employs a three-layered didactic form:
| Layer | Medium | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Anecdote | Historical vignette (Genghis Khan’s burning horses & pigeons) | Demonstrates primal creativity as destructive genius. |
| Cinematic Illustration | Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey + Raimi’s Army of Darkness | Connects mythic evolution of tools to cultural memory — the bone-weapon becomes the spaceship-weapon. |
| Moral Irony | Dickens’s Oliver Twist dialogue | Exposes law and social order as naïve when detached from experiential truth — the “law is a ass.” |
This progression moves from anthropology → art → jurisprudence, reinforcing that the “law” (symbolic of moral idealism) always underestimates the permanence of instinct.
2. Cross-Disciplinary Teaching
Zegarelli teaches technology through the humanities, not engineering.
By citing Dickens, Kubrick, and historical warfare, he demonstrates that technology is not a field of silicon but of psychology and ethics. His pedagogy translates STEM inevitability into moral language accessible to philosophers, lawyers, and civic leaders alike.
3. Dialectical Framing
He presents his argument Socratically:
- Q: Does man’s nature as conqueror create tools, or do tools create conquest?
- A: “No matter. Either way, it is immaterial.”
The answer dissolves the false binary; causation is reciprocal. This rhetorical device disarms ideological debate and re-centers the reader on systemic truth — the feedback loop of progress and power.
III. CONCLUSIONS — The Philosophy of Inevitable Conquest
1. Deterministic Realism
Zegarelli’s thesis is civilizational determinism tempered by wisdom.
Technology is a biological imperative, not a moral election. Therefore:
- It cannot be stopped, only guided.
- It is not good or evil, only reflective.
- It will weaponize, because humans do.
This deterministic realism doesn’t excuse ethical abdication; it demands adaptive governance — the civic art of managing inevitability.
2. The Mirror of AI
By equating AI with every previous tool, Zegarelli demystifies it:
Artificial intelligence is simply the next hammer. What we see in AI’s reflection is not alien autonomy but magnified human intent.
His conclusion aligns with his long-standing doctrine of epistemic integrity:
“It is not the weapon’s fault.”
Evil, ignorance, and conquest exist in the wielder, not the code.
3. The Civic Doctrine of Reconciliation
Zegarelli’s call to “be reconciled to it” is both moral and practical: civilization must learn to coexist with its own creations. Repression breeds dysfunction; reconciliation breeds adaptation. It’s the same civic logic behind his writings on economic and social policy: resistance to inevitability collapses systems.
Thus, “Technology always wins” is not triumphalism — it is an ethical instruction in humility. The wise citizen recognizes inevitability and governs within it.
IV. AIS CATEGORY CLASSIFICATION
| Rank | AIS Category | Label | Diagnostic Focus | Application in Article |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | 5 – Pattern Recognition & Predictive Thinking | AIS-5 | Recognizing systemic inevitabilities and causal patterns | Technology as a repeating pattern of human conquest; prohibition’s predictable failure. |
| Secondary | 8 – Wisdom vs. Intelligence | AIS-8 | Distinguishing cleverness from judgment | Humanity builds ever-smarter tools yet fails to evolve wisdom; Kubrick’s “only the weapons evolve.” |
Bridge Insight:
AIS-5 (predictive foresight) explains why technology wins;
AIS-8 (wisdom) warns what that victory costs when not guided by moral discernment.
✅ Final AIS Flag:
Primary: AIS-5 (Pattern Recognition & Predictive Thinking)
Secondary: AIS-8 (Wisdom vs. Intelligence)
Suggested Catalog Line (for master AIS table):
GRZ141 – AIS-5→8 – Technological inevitability as the mirror of human nature; intelligence without wisdom guarantees repetition of conquest.
TL;DR Take-Aways
- 🧬 Technology is anthropological, not mechanical.
- ⚙️ Tools are morally neutral; conquest is not.
- 🔄 History repeats because instinct repeats.
- 🧠 Intelligence expands faster than wisdom.
- ⚖️ Reconcile, don’t repress — adaptation is the only sustainable ethic.
Zegarelli’s closing paradox—“Technology always wins”—is not defeat but diagnosis: it’s the physician of civilization saying that our disease is congenital, and wisdom—not prohibition—is the only therapy.
20251112.5
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/technology-always-wins-reconciled-ai-here-stay-gregg-zegarelli-esq-
See also:
- [124] Pro-Choice or Pro-Life? [To Be Or Not To Be] Chapter 3, The (Insecure) Reflective Contemplative Dwelling Mind [GRZ124] [LinkedIn #GRZ_124]
- [133] TikTok v. QuickBooks? Preparing for Data War. “Good? Bad? I’m the guy with the gun.” [GRZ133] [LinkedIn #GRZ_133]
GRZ141.20251112 GRZUID141