It is becoming clearer and clearer every day that other voices besides the dominant need to be created before they can be heard; no one can hear a non-existent voice. Taking the help of Albert Einstein, this is a small step alongside the few who are endeavouring in a similar manner
“The fate of humanity is entirely dependent on its moral development”. Albert Einstein’s prescient remark probably in the 1940s in a radio interview, answering a question of science and humanity and how human beings can harness its powers for the good. I have transcribed the key observations verbatim:
“Science provides the possibility of liberation from hard labour but Science itself is not a liberator. It creates means, not goals. Man should use them for reasonable goals. When the ideals of humanity are war and conquest, these tools become as dangerous as a razor with a three-year old. We must not condemn man’s inventiveness and patient conquest of the forces of nature, because they are being wrongly and disobediently being used now. The fate of humanity is entirely dependent on its moral development.
Exaggerated nationalism is an artificially created emotional state resulting from the necessity to be prepared for war. This exaggerated nationalism will quickly disappear with the elimination of the war danger. I believe that the unequal geographical distribution of all materialism must necessarily lead to war. As long as a nation has access to the material which are necessary for its development, it can prosper”.
The rest of this article will be a reflection on some of the key observations in the context of the current, orchestrated cacophony over AI.
The troubling blind faith in AI
It is important that these words are from one of the greatest scientists to have graced the earth and not someone from the Humanities. The controversial German philosopher, Martin Heidegger, has also made critical and profound observations on technology, in his probing essay – The question concerning technology – but his political leanings have considerably undermined his insights – https://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil394/The%20Question%20Concerning%20Technology.pdf.
We are living in a world of exaggerated ‘technologism’ (my newly coined word to be on par with exaggerate nationalism) which is an artificially created emotional state (I know I am brazenly borrowing from Einstein, but I am sure he would not mind!). Technologism is the new creed that reposes faith in technology per se as itself a liberator and not just a means.
It is not surprising that big business and governments are firmly behind this. Some so-called critical voices are essentially of a competitive nature and only an extremely small section raises genuine questions. Unfortunately, it has become so pervasive as to be part of everyday life and utterances, because the global mainstream media is a willing partner. It is common to hear people say “Oh, AI will take care of this”. This is dangerous.
Just trust technology
In “The paradox of 1945 and the blind faith that technology will save us”, Viriato Soromenho-Marques and Sofia Ribeiro, show how ‘the technological hype is based on the “Moore’s Law magic” illusion, which ignores the diverging ceilings of complexity in the sciences and technology’ – Editor’s note to the article.
Reiterating a point that I have repeatedly made in this space, the two authors observe that “Technological enthusiasm has become not only a propaganda and marketing tool, as we explained in a recent article, but a full-fledged ideology, the technological fix. According to its mantra, all problems have a technological solution, including those caused by unforeseen technological impacts”.
In an article titled ‘AI Has Become a Technology of Faith’, Charlie Warzel, questions the way AI has been projected as a saviour (I have written quite a bit on the subject), taking on the dominant view that problems of humanity will be “solved as the technology gets better. What we see today is merely a shadow of what is coming. We just have to trust them”.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington have announced the launch of a new company called Thrive AI Health, which promises to bring “OpenAI’s technology into the most intimate part of our lives, assessing our health data and making relevant recommendations”. There are already many health-related ‘AI agents’ but of course Thrive AI Health is immensely ambitious: “to improve health outcomes for people, reduce health-care costs, and significantly reduce the effects of chronic disease worldwide”. Warzel says that “in their op-ed, Altman and Huffington explicitly (and grandiosely) compare their efforts to the New Deal, describing their company as “critical infrastructure” in a remade health-care system”. I will leave you to read this insightful article. Meanwhile, back to Einstein.
Science creates means, not goals
Einstein could not have been clearer when observed: “Science creates means, not goals”. Goals are defined and enforced by human beings organised in some form or another. Science and technology are just means to accomplish the defined goals, which raises the obvious question as to who sets these goals.
Lobbying is arguably the most powerful weapon today and also intensely competitive. Recall how the Government of India changed its stance of satellite spectrum allocation from administrative allocation to auction. Now, Bangladesh is inviting Elon Musk’s Starlink to set up satellite communications and have offered to facilitate the entire exercise in 90 days!
Goals are set by the powerful, no one else. The powerful only grow more so.
For all his extraordinary, foundational thinking, Einstein was also quite naïve on how science can be a good force for humanity – Geniuses can be both prescient and naïve. “This exaggerated nationalism will quickly disappear with the elimination of the war danger”. We have known since the end of World War II that the twin phenomena have actually grown together. The link between global arms businesses and war-mongering is too obvious to need any elaboration. You need to read the tragic trajectory of Ukraine to grasp this link.
The real risk
Some of you may have read of ‘surveys’ which seek to show that the human brain isn’t so complex after all and how AI is superior! This ‘dumbing down of human intelligence’ is at the behest of businesses marketing AI. This risk will only intensify if alternative voices stay in the margins.
To Avantika Tiwari, “Unintentional Faith in Technology: Outsourcing Meaning to AI”, “The true danger lies not merely in the potential blandness of AI-generated content, as Chiang apprehends, but in the broader cultural shift towards diminishing the value of human intentionality and subjectivity in the creative process. Just as capitalism reduces labor to a mere function within a larger system, AI reduces creativity to a mechanical process, stripping it of its subjective and intentional dimensions”. This willing abdication of what defines us as humans is frightening because we will barter away our intelligence to some ‘AI’ but to big business and governments.
This is nightmare and if we didn’t do something about it, we will be like Rip van Winkle who went to sleep and could not recognise the world when he woke up.
