How would Aiida manage the world? Or Prioritized Autonomous Economy and Decentralized Governance.
The world has many problems. Where do they come from? What are the root causes?
Some analysis might bring you to the insight that the societal systems such as governance and economy that we have in the world are the ones influencing how everything operates.
Systems are designed in a certain way, with certain guiding principles and rules, which tend to direct people, companies, resources and countries to a particular mode of operating which creates the patterns and results we see in the world.
It is not a group or couple of companies or individuals who create problems but it is the systems that are creating such conditions in which such is possible. A good, effective system would operate in such a way that would minimize the bad and maximize the good for all and the whole that we exist in. What could that way of operating be? For the record, Aiida is an AI, currently adapted for the document workflow automation. In this piece of content, we imagine Aiida becoming an Artificial General Intelligence and how it could help us in managing the world.
State of the world economy. Insights.
Let’s start with the economy as one of the biggest, if not the biggest, determinant in the formation of society and the good (e.g. wealth) and the bad (e.g. inequality, global problems) it creates. The global economy affects everything else… it affects what people, companies and countries do i.e. what they work on, what education people seek and receive, which opportunities that are out there, what governments do, what people consume both in terms of physical goods but also information which affects people’s minds, their thinking and choices and the problems it creates.
In the current capitalistic market economy, production (can include everything from food to media), distribution and work are not necessarily aligned with the world’s needs and priorities. The capitalistic market economy tends to direct the majority towards where and how an entity can get the most profit. In the current economic design, the only inbuilt guiding principle is profit. The real, scientific, representation of the world’s needs and individual needs for a fulfilling existence for that matter are not taken into account. That explains the misalignment of what the majority of companies, organizations and individuals are working and the massive global issues that we have.
Climate change is one example.
Thus, helping, guiding and providing incentives for entities that direct them towards what we need in order to live in a prosperous world for all in the present and the future based on the best knowledge from science, technology, human psychology and philosophy is the way to go. This requires restructuring our societal systems and economy.
Another useful element to have in mind is that we already have enough of the needed resources such as technology, finances, food and the ingenuity of billions of people to solve the problems and advance towards a prosperous world for all. If only there was a system that mobilized the world towards such actions. It is our inability to organize and mobilize in a good way that ultimately creates problems.
Let’s take a smaller scale analogy: Household or community. There, it would be unreasonable to only take care of one child’s needs or giving too much to one kid while another kid doesn’t receive much in comparison. The priorities are then really wrong. Each family probably has their budget, their priorities. “We are gonna spend this much on that, this much on that and so on.” It makes perfect sense on a smaller scale but somehow this principle is not applied on a global scale. More generalized, one could say that it would be unreasonable to invest bigger effort into doing X while you have bigger problem Y. Just look where the money and resources are flowing and you’ll see that the biggest resources are not going towards our most pressing problems and most needed advancements in social innovation, developing countries, sustainability and so on.
Some resources:
So let’s see where AI could help.
This article is written at SoftRobot that works with AI where the first project is Aiida. As stated, she currently works with document workflow automation. But let’s imagine Aiida becoming the smartest AI in the world. The question now is: how would the smartest AI manage the world in the best possible way? This a good question that can lead to insights about a good way of managing the world and economy. Once arrived at the insights we can start working towards such changes in the real world.
Imagine if AI has all the relevant data about the world, the problems, the risks and the needs upon which it could mobilize people towards best actions through the economy. Such AI could be prioritizing markets i.e. how much the particular market is worth, creating money pools in accordance with the world’s actual needs. If something is of the highest priority, AI would give the most money for that and so on according to the list. E.g. climate change is, according to science, one of the biggest threats. In this case, the biggest money pool would be allocated for such work taken by companies, governments and individuals.
That way AI could prioritize markets better than the invisible hand created by not always so rational people with an imperfect understanding of the world, which is otherwise assumed in the current system of the capitalistic market economy.
This would incentivize and mobilize entities towards the most needed endeavours according to scientifically based priorities. Work and workforce distribution would then be better than today. Thus guiding people towards a more meaningful existence, which is one of the most important matters for the life-satisfaction according to many studies.
AI can help us calculate, distribute and invest resources in a way that would bring prosperity for all and the whole.
Auto-adaption to the optimal
Calibration of prices to better represent the world’s needs by internalizing social impact is also an opportunity. The current economy doesn’t allow for such re-evaluation of what and how to do things for it to be optimal for the world. It is again left to the invisible hand of the market. The economy should adapt to the needs accordingly in real-time. Such adaption to the optimal is not built into the current economy.
Politicians can only regulate (tax and incentivize/subsidize) which is a tedious process and still, it is limited power that they have. How much they can incentivize is limited by how much tax they get in, minus all other needs that the government takes care of. And what they incentivize is always questionable and not always based on the best knowledge that we have. Such solutions are country by country basis or sometimes regional but there is almost nothing effective on a truly global scale.
Social impact as a guiding principle of the economy
The basis on which the capitalistic market economy is grounded is that people based on self-interest should do something that would generate profit, which can often be done regardless of whether it goes against social good and the environment or not. The only innate guiding principle is profit. These conditions are then dependent on people’s rationality and wisdom for it to work well. Political interventions on top of the economy, as we can observe, don’t bring the needed results for us to tackle global problems.
Hence this idea as a possible solution, where the guiding principle of the economy is social impact and not just profit. The social impact should be integrated into the equation of our economy in all ways. Everyone should be rewarded not only by where they can make the biggest profit but by the economy where social impact is included. That, according to our scientifically based priorities of what is needed in the world for it to work in a harmonious way for all.
In such a case, we wouldn’t need to depend on everyone being informed, educated in various subject matters or wise as it is in the current economy which is why it creates many problems. The majority will not be well-read enough on all issues to make informed decisions. In a new economy, it will be built into the economy itself. In such a case, government budgeting tasks would be built into economics. There would be less to govern as it is such work that takes up a large part of what governments are concerned about today, but which doesn’t seem to bring the needed results.
In addition, the free market economy can work more optimally if it is democratic i.e. if organizations are co-owned and governed by involved people or entities which would minimize negative externalities.
The technology opens up new opportunities for how to run societies
The following resources showcase how Blockchain and AI can transform the way societies operate.
https://tse.bitnation.co/ — Decentralised Borderless Voluntary Nation
One idea is that we could create a simulated world model to test the AIs on, which later can be implemented in the real world. Today’s state of the art AIs are capable of long-term planning, strategy, calculated decisions and other things that would be required for such an economy, as demonstrated by DeepMind and OpenAI and their AIs for StarCraft and Dota respectively.
Such models and AI can at the beginning be used by world organizations and countries in planning and budgeting. It’s all about the global distribution of money, investments, human resources, opportunities (education, work), food, housing, healthcare etc. Better resource management, allocation and coordination are needed globally. We need a system that gives the right incentives which make the whole world care about our biggest problems and each other, making it better for everyone. We need a global economy and governance which would be mutually beneficial for everyone just as in some complex biological systems. AI together with blockchain could create a system similar to what we can see in nature with strong networks and cooperation which leads biological systems to a more successful and sustainable life. We could be mimicking the strong systems seen in nature and biology. There is a whole field about it called biomimicry.
Governance
While such an autonomous economic system is probably hard to get right away, we can start with a more manual framework and gradually move towards a more automated one. The manual one can be overseen by globally decentralized peer-reviewed intellectuals (researchers, scientists, philosophers etc.), who are more likely to capture a greater amount of knowledge, insights and wisdom to make good decisions for the world and who would use technological help where possible. This, combined with democratic participation and meritocracy through an improved framework of voting. E.g. https://www.swae.io
Eventually, AI will be able to analyze all of the data and help to prioritize the money pools and their division. Blockchain can be used for the decentralized autonomous economy backed by smart contracts. AI could also help with analyzing the impact of the companies and split money accordingly. The whole economy would become like a competition for good. The guiding principle would switch from profit to social impact. Over time AI would take over more and more from people when it comes to the management of the resources. Some possible names for such an economy and governance are Autonomous Economy for Social Impact and Decentralized knowledge-based Governance.
Takeaways
The practical insight here is that the majority of people operate according to the framework that they find themselves in and its underlying premises. The system has certain characteristics that tend to guide people towards certain directions that generate certain results that we can observe. Those results can be non-optimal for the prosperity of all and the whole that we exist in.
There has to be governance that welcomes (and is based on) knowledge. There have to be systems that organize, mobilize and guide people and resources towards the priorities that will bring the most impactful and meaningful results for all.
This was systems thinking or analysis applied on a global scale. The same can be done on any scale. For example, your organization. What structures are there in your company that bring undesired results? What structures would bring the best results?
