30 July 2015

The machines will take over... But why?


Modern accountability...
It seems that not only inept African leaders have a problem with accountability...

Any rhetoric that implies that a computer, robot or any “algorithm-based system”, has somehow a "mind of its own" or "is an artificial intelligence" is a sad and evil dereliction of accountability by those who create and execute these algorithms.  (This include any information based behaviour of the genetic make-up of an organism, social conventions, economic principles etc.  all of which are currently in the domain of influence of the human mind - we can change genes!…  The way we look at our interaction with nature clearly expose the materialist "cop-out" and ultimate dereliction of accountability by deciding that the mind "IS" the brain and the chemical composition is predetermined by forces outside any control.  This is the largest cop-out humans can achieve, but let us rather talk about our relationship with the things we design and create… For those who want to read about the vacuous situation of materialist thought, please consider Thomas Nagel’s book “Mind and Cosmos: Why the materialist neo-Darwinian conception of nature is almost certainly false.)

The mind that can no longer take responsibility for its own output, is starving its own moral being. Any mind that cannot see other minds starving from this deficiency of "taking responsibility" is dangerous to progress and any civilised existence, because in civilised communities fellow humans have always been there to ensure justice as part of civilisation and progress.

If the culture of taking responsibility cannot match (i.e. “be of the right kind that fits with”…) the design of current and future ideas, then progress will starve a slow death until there might be a sudden final collapse of progress and civilisation.  It does not matter how "impact-full" your designs are as long as you take responsibility for the known and unknown impacts, regardless of what transpires during the execution of your design.  All designs clearly show the intent of the designer and an intent to derelict accountability stand out for most to see even long before the design is being concluded – But most of us only see ourselves and other people derelict their responsibility at the point where some unintended consequence expose itself.  Please note that it is not “dereliction of responsibility” if you plan and execute designs to reduce impacts of unintended design outcomes.  You might need new designs just to take responsibility for your old designs.

Anyone that offload his responsibilities onto any other entity that is perceived to be able to absorb the consequences that have been derelict, is immoral.  If capital (…i.e. capital, as a measure of how we value things.) is not available to resolve unintended consequences of any design, then progress will end, but if capital is available to resolve unintended consequences then progress will find new markets just by solving existing challenges.

This said, the question remains… Why would anyone spin a story about "machines taking over" or "the economic market has a mind of its own", if not to ensure that the accountable people can escape justice?

To conclude, it should be clear that there will hardly be a situation where “Machines take over”, there will only be a situation where the work of our hands will produce unintended consequences together with its intended consequences.  We will remain responsible for what follows from our decisions and remain able to do something about it.  What are you doing to take responsibility?  What is your response to people that openly derelict their responsibility?

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