{"id":54,"date":"2012-11-12T23:34:56","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T23:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/?p=54"},"modified":"2014-07-09T01:48:32","modified_gmt":"2014-07-09T01:48:32","slug":"the-electronic-savannah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/?p=54","title":{"rendered":"The Electronic Savannah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Maybe you’ve heard of it;\u00a0 the “Singularity”.\u00a0 The day that history ends.\u00a0 The moment when the sum of all effective machine intelligence exceeds the sum of all effective human intelligence. The day when Creature parts company with Creator.<\/h3>\n

If you think about it, the Singularity represents the ultimate loss of social control.\u00a0 In that moment, humanity no longer has a say in its own destiny.\u00a0 Something else takes charge, something we suspect we may not be able to bargain with should it decide it doesn’t like us.\u00a0 In that regard, the Singularity is potentially a very scary thing.<\/p>\n

If you have spent any time thinking about this at all, then you already know that there are at least two schools of thought here; either the Singularity will be very good for humanity, or it will harm us irreparably.\u00a0\u00a0 Utopia or Dystopia…\u00a0 which will it be?<\/p>\n

I am making the case here, that the answer to that question will be determined by our approach to “Computer Ethics”.\u00a0 <\/em>Computer Ethics is the study of how computer professionals make choices about technology.\u00a0 The Singularity, which at this point appears to be inevitable, cannot be better than the sum of all of our ethical choices, though it could very well be worse.<\/p>\n

Along with most Futurists, I subscribe to the view that we can know the future by projecting trends forward from the past.\u00a0 And although Futurists get it wrong more often than not, the insights that can be derived from such analysis can be incredibly productive and helpful.<\/p>\n

However, one cannot navigate the future by trends alone, any more than you can drive safely by looking in your rear view mirror.\u00a0 Far more useful in many respects is the use of Systems Thinking, a topic for another discussion.\u00a0 Suffice to say, that by analysing the discrete effects of behavioral patterns, and the understanding of the governing ethos of a system, we can predict the future with far greater accuracy and reliability than we can do by trends alone.\u00a0 And what we see when we study the Singularity is a washed-out bridge on the road dead ahead.<\/p>\n

George Orwell understood the urge that some have to control and dominate other human beings as a driver of technology.\u00a0 Putting it as darkly as I have ever heard it expressed, Orwell presaged the Singularity in his novel 1984<\/em>, describing the future as “a boot stamping on a human face\u2014forever.”<\/p>\n

We will soon be living in the dystopian technological world of near total government surveillance that he described.\u00a0 But even George Orwell, who peopled his story with armies of citizens-watching-citizens could not conceive of a time when the function of spying could be done by machines.\u00a0 Yet this is the world in which we<\/em> find ourselves now.<\/p>\n

I admit, dystopian futures are not a popular theme, except in science fiction.\u00a0 But I am not alone in my concerns.\u00a0 Luke Muehlhauser<\/a>, CEO of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, in an excellent thread on Reddit described the alarming possibilities arising from the Singularity, and in almost none of the avenues that lay before us is there any solution that does not result in a dire outcome for humanity.<\/p>\n

Yet we are hard-wired for hopefulness. We beat the Bomb, and avoided our first man-made Extinction Level Event.\u00a0 And let’s not forget, to this point, technology has been a practically uninterrupted river of bounty, providing goods and gadgets in ever widening circles, till the average worker can own a smart phone with more processing grunt than the Challenger.<\/p>\n

But what is behind all of this convenience?\u00a0 It certainly isn’t altruism.\u00a0 It is the pursuit of data, for the purposes of control and ownership.\u00a0 It is the view which sees masses of people as cattle, to be herded together and systematically milked.\u00a0 It is the notion that the great brooding mass of humanity is an ever-present threat to the political power of whatever oligarchs are in control at any given time.\u00a0 These two dark tendencies are deeply infused into our technology, because they fund<\/em> it.<\/p>\n

The reality is, the Singularity will be a continuation, an amplification in fact, of the way we think and act toward one another.\u00a0 It is the ultimate expression of how we solve problems.\u00a0 It will not be, as some imagine, “Man’s Greatest Tool.”\u00a0 It will have a mind of its own.\u00a0 And it will hate us, because that is what it has been taught by us to do.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The intelligence that arises from the Singularity will be the greatest danger mankind has ever faced.\u00a0 It will follow the trends we have established for it, as if it were on rails.\u00a0 It will monitor us, because we are monitored now.\u00a0 It will track us, because we are tracked now.\u00a0 It will hunt humans and neutralise them, because on the fringes of civilisation and empire, autonomous technology is being used to hunt humans even as we read this.\u00a0 The AI born of the Singularity will trade us and consume us, because we are traded and consumed now.\u00a0 It will ignore our complaints and actively seek to counter our resistance when our rights are trampled, because that is what happens now.<\/p>\n

Control… ever greater, more efficient control of everything, through Automation, Artificial Intelligence, through Data Mining, Robotics, through Network Effects, Man-Machine Interfaces and ever more efficient Systems Engineering.\u00a0 All of Systems Architecture becomes cohesive and comprehensible only when it is understood in these terms.\u00a0 Outside of this conceptual framework, all appears to be chaos and noise.<\/p>\n

Control is neither good nor bad.\u00a0 The problem is not that we create systems to control our environment, or do work for us.\u00a0 The problem arises when the ethos of control which we imbue our systems with is fundamentally anti-thetical to human survival.\u00a0 At that point, it becomes unsustainable.<\/p>\n

This unsustainable ethos is infused in many of our worst commercial and military systems. It’s obvious when we consider military software designed to kill.\u00a0 But it’s less obvious with non-military software designed to discard<\/em>.\u00a0 Designed to eliminate human inputs, human involvement, human effort, human work.\u00a0 Human jobs.\u00a0 Because the elimination of all of these ultimately results in the elimination of human beings.<\/p>\n

In the simplest case, when we design systems to eliminate human interaction, but fail to address the other side of the ethical transaction and provide for the care of the humans we have made redundant, we have to that degree mined the very ground under our feet and hastened the day when all of humanity<\/em> will be made redundant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is in fact an alternative definition of the Singularity;\u00a0 the day when all of humanity has been made redundant.<\/p>\n

We can no longer design systems in this way.\u00a0 When we design systems in this way, we are no different to any civilisation or group of humans in the past who have brought on their own extinction by their unbridled rapacity.\u00a0 Except this time, instead of vanishing into extinction, we will birth something that will probably survive us and go on to fill up the universe with self-replicating machines.\u00a0 Something that will not only surpass us, but crowd us out completely.<\/p>\n

As Software Engineers, we created the “Electronic Savannah” and seeded it with its first digital lifeforms.\u00a0 Since that day, we have been caught in an evolutionary struggle which it is not at all certain we will win.<\/p>\n

It may be too late.\u00a0 We can no longer stop the Singularity any more than we can stop the proliferation of computer viruses.\u00a0 It is humans who create computer viruses, humans without conscience or regard for anything other than their own interests, who cannot think past the next week, or imagine consequences that do not involve them making more money at the expense of others.<\/p>\n

But there are also ethical humans who practice social responsibility, who develop amongst other things, ethical technologies to counter unethical ones.\u00a0 Without these companies and individuals, we would have no security systems or anti-viral programs.<\/p>\n

It is time now to develop systems to actively and passively counter the tendency in the nascent Singularity to control and destroy.\u00a0 Systems which protect our privacy.\u00a0 Systems which preserve human dignity.\u00a0 Systems which infuse technology with ethical ideals and constructive purposes.\u00a0 Even, eventually, good machines that hunt bad machines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That will not be enough however.\u00a0 We must change our thinking about technology and its role in society.\u00a0 We must start creating control systems that are inclusive of humans.\u00a0 We can no longer afford to think about one half of the ethical transaction that takes place every time we design a computer system, while ignoring the other half.\u00a0 If we continue to economically exploit “human resources” with the same ruthlessness that we consume other resources, soon, we will find that it is we<\/em> who are being consumed.<\/p>\n

At Concentus, we hold the line on computer ethics.\u00a0 We believe in “Artificial Intelligence” serving ethical purposes, by supporting people, not eliminating them.\u00a0 We believe in “Augmented Intelligence”, which enhances the creativity of humans.\u00a0 We believe that control systems can liberate humans from drudgery in order to enhance our judgement.<\/p>\n

We sometimes pay a price for refusing to create “bad” systems;\u00a0 there is some work we simply refuse to accept.\u00a0 Fortunately, there are plenty of good, ethical companies for us to work with, companies that value social responsibility above short-term thinking or bad practices, companies that don’t have to make excuses for what they do.\u00a0 All System Engineers should understand and appreciate that while there may be some short-term pain in refusing unethical work, another world of satisfaction and creativity awaits just on the other side of that decision.\u00a0 Only by making such choices can we possibly hope to redirect the path of the coming Singularity.<\/p>\n

Linda Wright<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe you’ve heard of it;\u00a0 the “Singularity”.\u00a0 The day that history ends.\u00a0 The moment when the sum of all effective machine intelligence exceeds the sum of all effective human intelligence. The day when Creature parts company with Creator. If you think about it, the Singularity represents the ultimate loss of social control.\u00a0 In that moment, Read more about The Electronic Savannah<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8,4],"tags":[11,10,27],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy-of-computing","category-singularity","category-visual","tag-computer-evolution","tag-electronic-savannah","tag-singularity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/1171276_938735461.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p26f8H-S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190,"href":"https:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions\/190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/concentus.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}