The Ai Predicament

When the people of the 20th century had mastered the Computer, they expanded its utility, and the span of its reach, into the minds of men and women all around the world, and so, as time passed. . . in this sweet by ‘’n by, time slippin’ by moment by moment, inch by inch, while time keeps on slippin’ into the future . . . we had spun our networks into the world wide web. The trumpet blasts of human progress were strategically positioned to take control of online assets, thereby appropriating resources for optimum use of the world wide web, for the progress of the human project and for civilization itself. But in human history, there are always some shinannigan-shakers or top dogs who confound the algorithms, like back in ’08, concocting MBS’s and CDO’s that dragged us down the path of financial confusion and contusions.

But surveying the horizon now, the omens are that we’re headed for an Ai juggernaut that may—if we don’t keep an eye on it— sideswipe, or contort, our human dignity and freedom. . . unless we can get smart and take some precautions. As with the appropriation of any new frontier for human progress, there’s got to be rules of the game. As long as everyone plays by the rules, all is well and will stay that way and we’ll be happily ever after. But within the human tribes there are inevitably some covetous hooligans who are not playing by rules. The rules: Thou shalt not cover thy neighbors’ stuff, or his/her data. So back in time, way back, ages ago, there was this Achan guy, back in the ancient days of our literary development, who broke the rules. He took some stuff that didn’t belong to him. And his violation negated the good karma that could have been abundant for all parties who are involved in the grand project of human progress. If he had not crossed the lines of misappropriation and downright theft, causing all hell to break loose in the markets and in the world wide web, then everything would have been hunky/dory. But this Achan guy was way out of line. He was weaponizing the Ai, to take advantage of people and to gather their private information and their assets unlawfully, which is to say, taking data and stuff that didn’t belong to him. . . and as if that weren’t enough, spying on people so he could take advantage of them and purloin their assets for his own enrichment and empire-building. Clearly, the Achan case study demonstrates the necessity for homo intellligus to get a hold of ourselves; and in the wider sphere of the world wide web, it is plain to see that Man needs to get a handle on this Ai juggernaut cuz It threatens to, if not put on a human-managed leash, to launch us into the outer limits of techno-confusion, beyond freedom and dignity! I mean, we dare not have Ai telling us what to do, when we are supposed to be telling Ai what to do. We cannot have Ai algorithms running roughshod over our freedom and dignity. When we discern that AGi/Ai is getting too big for his britches, we need to delete him down to a manageable level. So Wake up, people! You ought not to be downloading your decisions to Ai. Get a life! And seek out the better angels of our web, and our world. Take a break from the wobbly web every now and then. Go take a walk in the park; smell the roses. Read a book. Get a Life! Don’t get too caught up in the web.

The web was woven for Man, not man for the web. Glass half-Full