Is the Current Social Imagination prepared for a Brave New World?

Aldous Huxley was born in England and graduated from Balliol College, Oxford. Such a fortunate opportunity was his as he came from money; and, perhaps that is why he considered himself to be a humanist and pacifist. Out of that, he grew interested in philosophical mysticism and universalism. In his most famous novel Brave New World (1932) and his final novel Island (1962), he presented his vision of dystopia and utopia, respectively.

In an article published online [see source below], Brave New World is set in the future of our own world, in the year 2450 A.D. The planet is united politically as the “World State.” The Controllers who govern the World State have maximized human happiness by using advanced technology to shape and control society. People are grown in bottles and brainwashed in their sleep during childhood. As a result, the citizens of the World State are physically and psychologically conditioned to be happy with their place in society and the work they are assigned.

Every citizen belongs to a “caste,” ranging from highly intelligent and physically strong Alphas to Epsilon “semi-morons.” Lower-caste people are produced in batches of more than a hundred identical twins, and live their whole lives alongside their duplicates. All citizens have instant access to pleasures of all kinds. They are conditioned and socially encouraged to be sexually promiscuous.

“Synthetic music” and “the feelies”—movies with physical sensation as well as pictures and sound— provide immersive sensory experiences. Whenever citizens do experience an unpleasant feeling, they are encouraged to take soma, a drug which provides a “holiday” from negative emotion.

Most of the novel’s events take place in England. Huxley uses familiar English landmarks to help his readers decode the future he has imagined. Charing Cross Station in London has become the “Charing T Tower,” because Christian crosses have been replaced by the “T” of Ford’s Model T car, while train stations have been replaced by towers which launch intercontinental rockets.

The novel’s other major location is the “Savage Reservation” in New Mexico. The Savage Reservation is an area where the technologies of the World State have not been introduced. The “savages” still give birth, believe in gods and endure physical pain and emotional suffering. The people and customs of the Savage Reservation are modeled loosely on the traditions of Zuñi Native Americans. The setting of the Reservation allows the novel to contrast all historical societies— from the Neolithic era to Huxley’s own— with the society of the World State.

Isn't that interesting? It certainly is and more so coming from the social imagination of a man (author of Brave New World) who lived quite well when compared to others of his time period. One might speculate that from loftier social positions in the wider social imagination, disgust with society at large is built in from the beginning.  And, thus one could be so motivated to re-imagine the social imagination, write a novel and call it ~ Brave New World.

Certainly, an intelligent, curious person would/should ask what would be the most dreadful event that could usher in a brave new world and who would benefit? Perhaps, it could be a nuclear exchange between super powers or a devastating world wide economic collapse, a global pandemic or an alien arrival? And who would benefit? Well, it would not be the lower caste or the 'savages'... would it?



ONLINE SOURCE ~  https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/bravenew/setting/ and https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brave-New-World

*For interesting reading ~ https://www.andrewleunginternationalconsultants.com/new/2020/03/the-coronavirus-could-reshape-global-order.html

Ai in the Social Imagination ~ Applied as in UpLoaded!

According to IBM and MIT, artificial intelligence is the ability of machines to perform tasks usually associated with human beings. It includes concepts such as machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, natural language processing, and visual recognition. AI uses supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, and deep learning to learn and train models with data.

Artificial intelligence (AI), is used in computer programming. Why/How? Why, because there is no other way to program and how is just a matter of the 1s and 0 commands/directives that are necessary in programming. 

You see, though we call it machine learning its still the process of taking in and sharing information over time through social interaction (which for machines is the same: taking in and sharing information [what something is and is not] via programming and downloads... essentially 'shared info).

This is in fact the same for humans after all, we grow in our social awareness/social imagination and social knowledge because of 'discrimination' illustrated by deep learning, neural networks, natural language processing, and visual recognition (what something is and is not). Hence, this can only occur through the 'natural' process of information discrimination.

Humans discriminate information in terms of positive/negative, its usefulness and or successful or unsuccessful application. AI does the same because it uses human supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, and deep learning to learn and train models with data.  That is exactly the point of discriminating 'one thing from another'.

That is why, AI can result in bias by selecting for certain neutral characteristics that have a discriminatory impact. There are very simplistic examples put out there that show people who live closer to the office are likelier to be happy at work. So an AI algorithm might select only resumes with certain ZIP codes that would limit the potential commute time. 

Yes, an algorithm could have a discriminatory impact on those who do not live in any of the nearby ZIP codes, inadvertently excluding residents of neighborhoods populated predominantly by minorities. AI also can result in bias when a company tries to hire workers based on the profiles of successful employees at the company. If the majority or all the high-performing employees who are used as examples are men, any AI algorithm evaluating what makes a person successful might unlawfully exclude women. 

And, new evidence shows that Facebook’s algorithm, which automatically decides who is shown an ad, carries out the same discrimination anyway, serving up ads to over two billion users on the basis of their demographic information.  

You see, Ai begins in the social imagination...and certainly that does NOT mean its better or wiser or smarter. Ai is based on/coded on the way we imagine and learn and its on steroids.

"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened" ~ Romans 1:21.

‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’ Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination" ~ Acts 17:28-29.

 Keep in mind, in your social imagination, that the ultimate programmer is unseen...and that applies for the Ai man creates. But, what man creates and applies does not have the goal of the Creator! Why? Because, what He has in mind for us is not what most people think... since we live in entropy our goals are biased. His goal for us is to be uploaded into a better version of what we already are ~ HIS.






 *ONLINE SOURCES ~ https://developer.ibm.com/technologies/artificial-intelligence/gettingstarted/

  https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/04/05/1175/facebook-algorithm-discriminates-ai-bias/

  https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/pages/artificial-intelligence-discriminatory-data.aspx

  https://ainowinstitute.org/discriminatingsystems.pdf