#Not Awesome- “Why Technology Favors Tyranny”
“Why Technology Favors Tyranny” by Yuval Noah Harari is a fascinating look at AI and its impacts socially today. His take on how these systems can be used for tyranny in any democracy is true and is the source of much of Science Fiction of the 20th Century forward.
But, if we stop and think about things for a moment it may not be as bad as we think.
Human Work and Machine Work
Take, for instance, the human birth rate in developed nations. It continues to drop and in a few nations it’s now negative. To make matters worse, in these same nations the number of people over 100 years of age continues to rise. With such a trend it’s no wonder the peoples of Japan are embracing machines to help care for the elderly.
Developed nations are running out of labor and if immigration laws stem the flow of immigrants to a nation, then machine labor is the only choice left.
There is a downside to immigration that no one talks about which is the place where the people left. Now that place has a population drop and there is the sudden need for machine labor to help its economy.
This is all hypothetical. The flow of immigrants and economies are much more complex than what I describe. But with this issue machine labor is needed to help deal with labor market size to keep an economy humming and not always to replace existing people.
Human Information and Machine Information
Democracies are also based on information. Laws, rules, and knowledge. The internet is human information, and a lot of junky human information. The saying trash in trash out appears to be the state of the internet most of the time.
Here is the thing, we people are the feeders of the information or misinformation. We create the information and yes, it’s true that some AI could make up stuff, but it can only do so with the information at hand.
Our free speech on the internet has created a pool of convoluted garbage. There is no real substance too much of what is on the internet. The internet doesn’t have an English teacher grading it, and that is the problem with communication mediums like the internet.
The total freedom to do and say whatever you want breeds Tyrants. Tyrants come along and use these tools to their maximum impact and advantage. Then once in power push out all other competing information. If you want to keep the Tyrants down, we have only two choices with the internet: a. create a content regulatory body to clean it up, or b. keep it as junky as so no Tyrant can stop it.
The problem is if an AI is using the internet and we are in plan b, then all we will get from the AI is junk. If we are socially using plan a, then the AI will give us back better information. Except now we have the Watchmen problem of who is watching the Watchmen concerning this regulatory body. You could still end up with tyranny called groupthink.
Conclusion
I don’t fear the machines, but I’m also cautious. I become concerned when programmers try to use the moral logic of Descartes for example. Yes, I realize someone can use the machines for the establishment of tyranny in a democracy, but one could say the same thing about the rifle. How many democracies have been over thrown by this simple high speed rock thrower we call a rifle?
Those who seek power will always corrupt the system to build a tyranny. Those who realize the greater truths of democratic principles will come to realize that they are in leadership roles for the betterment of the greater good of all the peoples. This means even as machines take over and disrupt society and the economy, those who follow democratic principles will ensure that the least among us are cared for.