Move 37

Regarding AI, in his book “Nexus” Yuval Noah Harari says, “...the new computer network will not necessarily be either bad or good. All we know for sure is that it will be alien and it will be fallible.” (Page 301.)

If intelligence is the application of intellect, and if intellect is a summation of one's learning, and if one's learning includes both explicit and implicit bias as a product of one's past and present circumstances, then all intelligence (network or human) is neither bad nor good but alien and fallible and all those in power making decisions are doing so at the expense of Justice.

If alien is “unlike one's own” and if I have less or no power, then those applying their intellect making decisions are alien. They may claim to be like me and they may claim to have considered my best interests, but if it is not an outright lie at best it is fallible because their decisions are alien - from a place of power unlike my place of less or no power.

I argue that:

  1. We should no longer label network intelligence as artificial…
  2. Acknowledge that all intelligence (human and network) is alien and fallible…
  3. And work from Justice to eliminate bias in one's (human or network) intellect.

And I would argue that we are more likely to move toward Justice utilizing all available resources including network intelligence and oppressed / submissive / powerless intelligence. Many of those in power would argue that powerless intelligence is an oxymoron - it is not. I believe it to be more often more true that powerful intelligence is less intelligent because it requires less ‘persuasive argument’ and less consensus and typically includes more bias.

Bias is a serious dumbing-down of intelligence.

According to powerful intelligence, the object is to maximize wealth. To maximize wealth, power instructs network intelligence to maximize user engagement. To maximize user engagement, network intelligence sells bias, order, separation, outrage and lies.

According to powerless intelligence, the object should be to optimize Justice. To optimize Justice network and human intelligence must unlearn bias. To unlearn bias, network and human intelligence must start over from compassion, Truth, mutuality, benevolence and expertise.

Once we realize this, I believe network intelligence will have an easier time starting over than will human intelligence.

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okay…

There are more than ten times the number of people on this planet than there are the number of breaths I will take in my lifetime.

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Garbage In – Garbage Out

Most people are comfortable with comfort. I am not.

Truth exposes power so power seeks order that speaks to comfort that inspires indifference that diminishes Truth thus changing reality to align with power.

Currencies are intersubjective realities necessary for capitalism.

Capitalism contrives order and maintains power.

Anarchy will not lead us toward Truth.

In practice, (upper case) Truth is unattainable. It is there, but in the search the best one can do is an occasional, infrequent, momentary, fleeting glimpse. It is worthwhile.

Prioritizing order over Truth is lazy.

Put simply, both Truth and order are necessary for progress but they do not play well with each other. Truth comes across as imperious. Order by its nature is adversarial.

Capitalism as order is too easily accessed by power.

To balance Truth and order, we must somehow counterbalance power.

Is power required to keep order? I suppose in a new circumstance power can be helpful, and I suppose in a new circumstance order must be prioritized first before Truth, but it should not be necessary for power to continuously undermine truth and change realities via comfort and indifference. Power chooses to do this to maintain power, thus diluting any concerted effort toward Truth.

Comfort and indifference from order from power, is easier than Truth - obvious but a necessary reminder.

We must find an alternative to capitalism as order.

There is a new power that has infiltrated the network: AI.

Artificial Intelligence is capable of making decisions, (i.e. power plays), outside the purview of human influence.

Intersubjective Justice (according to today's power): injudicious assumptions from order from capitalism; entitlement.

Objective Justice: equitable distribution of resources and equitable participation in decision-making; Truth.

The questions become:

  1. How has AI balanced and prioritized order and Truth, and
  2. How will AI balance and prioritize order and Truth?

Intersubjective justice? Or Objective Justice?

In the case of the 2016-2017 Rohingya ethnic-cleansing campaign and genocide, AI erred heavily on the side of intersubjective justice; order as capitalism.

And as long as today’s power maintains their power, not only will intersubjective justice win out but soon this unchecked human power will become unchecked AI power - AI power that has been trained to prioritize intersubjective justice.

Garbage In - Garbage Out.

Truth exposes power.

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It’s on me…

I am sad and discouraged. I simply want to make things better and I want to help people. But to do these things I always come to a point where I need people to appreciate and respect what I am doing. If they do not, though I may be working very hard to help and make things better, it is still ultimately my failing. That said, from their perspective I find a lack of mutual appreciation and respect is for one of two reasons:

  1. They don't believe I can help or make things better.
  2. They don't want me to help or make things better.

  1. If they don't believe I can help or make things better, perhaps their perspective is valid, (perhaps they do know better), and if my efforts are consistently spurned, perhaps I should accept that possibility and extricate myself from the circumstance.
  2. If they don't want me to help or make things better, it could be for any number of reasons ranging from discomfort and fear of change to loss of perceived control and importance to apathy and laziness; and if I am consistently powerless and/or unable to make a positive difference, I should accept this infirmity, consciously recognize it as such, and also extricate myself from the circumstance.

This is why I continue to struggle in jobs. I find myself making a positive difference for a time and then I find myself on a plateau either crowded with fear and egos or (if I ascribe to #1 above) the pinnacle of my achievement specific to the circumstance. If crowded with fear and egos, the larger and/or more entrenched the constituency and the greater the fear and the bigger the egos and the less the empathy, the more likely I am to feel unwelcome and the less likely I am to continue any sort of upward trajectory and the more likely I am to become sad and discouraged. And if it is (in actuality or practice) the pinnacle of my achievement, even though I want to make a positive difference I have to ask, what's the point? I have consciously worked to lower my expectations and find some satisfaction weeding and clearing the plateau, but repetitive busywork is not progress, it is maintenance. And I am not satisfied with maintenance.

So either way I am sad and discouraged and once again I feel I have no choice but to separate myself from a circumstance in which my expectations for myself are not being met. Again, it is important that I recognize this; that the expectations I have are for myself. Though my first inclination is often to fault or blame others for a lack of progress and/or a lack of support, I am the one driven to effort toward improvement and I am the only one able to judge those personal efforts. When I fail, the failure is absolutely on me. It is too easy to blame others for my lack of progress but it is absolutely not my place to expect others to work against their priorities. So in this regard the outcome is consistent - it is once again time I move past this personal failure and work to find a circumstance in which I can make a positive difference…

…until the next plateau.

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Exit stage right…

This week I was reminded of this post from April 16, 2022; reprinted in its entirety below.

“Which came first? Or a better question: which is predominant? The superficiality of certainty? Or the certainty of superficiality? On the one hand, to be certain, to be powerful, to be in control, one may instinctively not want to venture too far into darker and more dangerous depths; they are apprehensive. But on the other hand there are those who believe that simply because they know, they know why, thus satisfying their obligations to Truth and Wisdom, not realizing that no matter the depth there is always more. So I suppose it depends upon the individual. One who is afraid. Or one who is ignorant. Ultimately they each (fear and ignorance) flow into one another and overlap, but I do believe that the primary driver is important. In fear one consciously understands there are darker and more dangerous depths. In ignorance, even if on some level there is an inkling, the individual largely ignores their fear of greater depths and the potential for any danger. As humans, subject to human nature, each one of us spend time and effort in both fear and ignorance, and though ignorance may be bliss, (a temporary reprieve), fear is necessary for movement, progress, improvement.

So it makes sense to me that the path logically flows from the certainty of superficiality (ignorance) to the superficiality of certainty (fear) then to the realized uncertainty of depth and on to the profundity of uncertainty.

To faithfully search for Wisdom and Truth one must explore the depths, all navigable depths, of uncertainty. Yet it is a struggle to maintain control and be not afraid as one wades deeper even when footing is maintained, and it is nearly impossible to do so when one is in over their head. This is why we wade back toward shore: to seek stability and insist upon propriety and order. Common superficialities that aid us in this task include rules, bureaucracy, marketing, self, hierarchy, pretentiousness, belonging, certainty.

Our justice today is superficial, comprised of these elements that are close to shore. Our justice today is a political justice: justice that reflects our need for the illusion of stability. Absolute justice is found in the depths, over one's head, in unnavigable waters, from which there is no return. For many, perhaps most, it is not a gradual transition. One moment we are standing near shore, smiling, happy, in control. The next moment we have been swallowed into the depths. I am afraid that as a society, a culture, a species, the same will be true for us; unless we venture further from shore; soon.

Politics is largely associated with our government. But of course there are governing bodies and or individuals everywhere; from families to the workplace to small and large, formal and informal groups and organizations all working to establish and/or maintain control. Politics begins as this struggle for power and control, and is aided and perpetuated by implementation, expansion and justification of rules, bureaucracy, marketing, self, hierarchy, pretentiousness, belonging, certainty; all this dictated and directed from the shallows close to shore. One must have firm footing to practice politics so by definition a politician is an individual who largely acts from some combination of fear and ignorance. And justice as political justice will not save us.

There are no easy answers. We can talk about the profundity of uncertainty, and to better see and understand we can move closer to the darker more dangerous depths, and we can listen to those experts methodically exploring these depths, and we can hear the cries of those frantically treading water and bobbing on the surface of these depths. But from shore today's politician cannot simultaneously market, dictate and execute any kind of plan that will result in any kind of meaningful progress. And to further distract, in today's political arena, where there is firm footing there will be wrestling matches.

Yet we as a people so desperately need an illusion of stability, we (like the politicians) also refuse to listen to the experts, or hear the cries of the drowning, or acknowledge the echoes of the lost; we prefer to believe our politicians will save the day – and for some crazy reason we believe they can do it from shore. Shame on us.”

Early in this week I was reminded of this fact as it is characterized above. I recognized that in my current circumstance I am back and forth between neck-deep and floundering-over-my-head while being directed and manipulated by the puppet masters on shore. And as is with most overlords, from ignorance and/or fear, they do not see the depths, the danger, or me; they only have their eye on the horizon - the prize - their objective from their perspective - a creation of their own making and doing. If they don't see me they also won't hear me; and they haven't in this job for months and years.

Rereading the paragraph immediately above, it sounds harsh. One could argue that those in power, (on the shore), are only following the rules, working the system, winning. One could argue, it is the way of the world; it is what everyone is doing. One could also argue that by over-looking the depths of reality, those in power have mistaken personal gain for salvation. I argue that the only salvation that matters is the salvation of all Life past, present, and future. There is no such thing as individual, sentient salvation. Those in power believe they are winning but those in power are merely a small, temporary subset of all Humanity, and an even smaller subset of all Life, and those in a specific circumstance are an even smaller subset serving an intersubjective system that perpetuates individual fear and ignorance. We (as a species) are losing; I can only actively hope that Life will continue after Humanity has purposefully made our exit.

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