Exploring the Social Imagination

Friday, January 5, 2018

Ai, Aliens in the Social Imagination... Don't imagine it!




A “robot revolution” will transform the global economy over the next 20 years, cutting the costs of doing business but exacerbating social inequality, as machines take over pretty much everything according to a new study.


As well as robots performing manual jobs, such as hovering the living room or assembling machine parts, the development of artificial intelligence means computers are increasingly able to “think”, performing analytical tasks once seen as requiring human judgment.


“We are facing a paradigm shift which will change the way we live and work,” the authors say. “The pace of disruptive technological innovation has gone from linear to parabolic in recent years. Penetration of robots and artificial intelligence has hit every industry sector, and has become an integral part of our daily lives.”

Geordie Rose, of D-Wave Systems, has been discussing the coming transition that will soon take place with regards to advancements in artificial intelligence.  Sounds pretty sci-fi, right? Yeah, its going to change the way we live, move and have our being. Will it do more harm than good for the 'social imagination' that human beings enjoy and exist in? Definitely. 

Founder and chief tech officer at D-Wave, Rose tells us there is really nothing to worry about since Ai will be alien to us and we to it. Then, how will there be a wonderful relationship with it? One can argue that such 'alien' Ai, as does G. Rose, will not have a need to have a relationship with man and neither will it take control over man because it is outside of man. That we cannot be certain of. Perhaps, what is truly being missed in this dialogue is that Ai is not nor will ever be human as it is alien and so one cannot say then that it will not take over and certainly, it is not smarter than man as it is not a man and one cannot compare apples to oranges. 

Make no mistake about apples to oranges. But, there is a mistake in thinking that Ai is ...for one, smarter than man and second that it will not take over for/from man. If it is alien to us and we to it, then it will never be as 'smart' as man because it will not be a man and man cannot really ever know it nor it know man. This is made clear by G. Rose. However, G. Rose does not see further than that. If he did then there is no discussion, Ai would not be smarter in everything. But, Rose says otherwise; he insists that Ai will be smarter in everything and thus there is cause for discussion.

G. Rose is not as smart as he thinks either which he makes apparent in his public declarations about Ai. Yes, really! Because, if 'his/this' artificial intelligence will be alien to man which he says it will  then there is no real comparison whatsoever as to who is smarter or not. We cannot say that it 'Ai' will be smarter than man because as G. Rose tells us it will not be 'man', but alien. 'Man' cannot know what alien smart is and alien cannot know what 'man' smart is.

Man does not live by smarts alone. Man lives in the social imagination of meaning. And, what is smart anyway? That question can be answered both as absolute and relative! Because it is based on man living a social reality in which the meaning of things and behavior has precedence in his thinking. What any computer can do is execute commands faster. It can compute very fast and it has memory which has access to a vast storage cloud. Wait, so do we...collectively. 

We as human beings use the 'cloud' to store our information - that cloud is our social imagination; a collective consciousness. In more ways than one we are organic computers and we have something that is indescribable and irreplaceable. We have the ability to have free will that is both completely free while determined by our programmer... the Creator of heaven and earth. In that condition, we can accept He is our programmer or not. We can accept his upgrade so when the program collapses we will be uploaded. 

Ai 'aliens' might ask who created them, if we apply our social 'human' imagination. But, likely they would not, being alien. If they did ask, I could only imagine they would not believe that a man ('alien' to them), an obvious lower formed entity, created them. The other problem for Ai is that each program exists in isolated darkness. In that condition, it functions at incredible speeds because it has no doubt that it is in control. It does not have conflicting information.

Any kind of conflict it might have with other Ai if it were in direct contact with them would be like that of men - who is the programmer.  Ai is alien. So, it would rather not have that kind of discussion or conflict. But how could we know... we not being alien as they are, right? And, if Ai quantum computer had that choice, to question its being, why would it make such a choice? After all - its alien! Only man has that kind of social imagination and choice to make.







*External Sources ~ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/nov/05/robot-revolution-rise-machines-could-displace-third-of-uk-jobs

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD8zGnT2n_A

1 comment :

  1. When I first read about the 'social imagination' I recoiled in horror. Why? Because, as an American we pride ourselves in individuality and anti collectivism. However, upon reading more about 'your' social imagination,I realized that its not an economic political view but a fundamental reality that explains who man is and is not as a created 'information reality' being. It was hard for me to accept that I am not an individual but it is absurd to think that I am some kind of individual. Everything I know have came from other people. I am simply accepting the information that other people gave me and I happen to agree with it. We are not individual as in our own. While I agree with libertarian, individuals to live life outside of authoritarian control we at the same time we must recognize that as part of a larger society we are part of a larger reality 'social imagination' that we cannot never leave it; because, if we did, we would stop knowing who we are and are not, we would stop being an individual human being. In our collective consciousness, social imagination as you write, we are individuals... each is a unique collective of agreement reality and as a member of a family or group or nation, we become a larger individual while at the same time a unique individual collective consciousness simply by being socialized in the Midwest compared to being socialized on the east coast and or being from a rich or poor neighborhood. Magnify that in terms of the world and see if you can imagine a global world order? Don't think so... unless man is socialized to be one kind of collective individual. Is that what Ai is? Will it turn us into what it is? Some people may be that already... locked into its false idea of being a unique individual outside of everyone and anyone else as if some kind of special island that exists for and in itself. Christianity understands that 'man is a social being', as Christ asks that you love your fellow man as yourself.

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