BlackEconomics.org®
Without purposeful intent, last week we began what may become a series of submissions now undetermined in number that emphasize the mind’s role in our lives—especially economically. We confess at the outset that we claim no particular expertise about how the mind functions other than observing and hearing events as part of life’s course and limited studies in psychology.
This essay is intended to convince you that your mind is as powerful as you want it to be and as you are willing to work and invest to make it.
As we consider the role of our minds and how the power of our mind helps determine our effectiveness as economic agents (whether we are consumers, investors, laborers, managers, or industry owners), we urge you to be cognizant of the following points:
- The mind gathers knowledge, which expands our capacity to solve problems.
- The capabilities of the mind are tested and measured to determine our “level of intelligence”—our intellects.
- The mind’s role in economics is to (as expressed in last week’s submission) envision a favorable future and to identify and operationalize requirements (the full scope of inputs) for achieving that future.
- It is a two-step process. Author Steven Covey (1989) confirms that humans wittingly or unwittingly do everything twice.(i) Typically, an action is conceived in the mind and enacted materially at some later point.
- The latter realization is central to a required awakening that: AI (Artificial Intelligence) is not the “real thing” (and Marvin and Tammi told us “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing”).(ii)
- If AI is not the “real thing,” then can it ever parallel the wisdom of the “real thing:” Not necessarily in volume and analyses, but in problem solving. Certain innovation experts have undoubtedly already posed and addressed the following assertions and question. While AI is not only known to absorb existing knowledge, which is largely associated with existing human expressions, concerns, issues, or problems, but it is also touted as being capable of “recursive improvement.”(iii) That is, AI can now identify problems, structure a literal rendition of the problem that enables it to “solve/resolve” the problem by querying its massive knowledge resources. But can AI improve itself (we should never forget that it is an “it” not a living being) so effectively and successfully that it can use its voluminous knowledge resources to go beyond the historical and extant and envision and ensure definitively the production of a perfect future?
- If the answer to the latter question is “yes,” then we will know immediately that we are in a completely new world where the laws of probability and statistics that have brought great acclaim to prodigious minds will have to be retracted because the future can for the first time be identified with certainty and with no error margin.
- If the mind is our most powerful instrument—and we said as much in the first submission in this series—due to its power to envision and produce future benefits, why would humans relinquish so freely and voluntarily our control of our “system of things”—especially our economy?(iv)
We hope that an important thrust of this essay is not lost. It is that the mind operates in the human brain computer and is the creator of our waking moments of life. Why should we relinquish our autonomy in favor of something that is not “the real thing” (even if it proves to be marginally more economically efficient and accurate—but still reflect human-like imperfections) in a social system that claims allegiance to, and pride in, “democracy” and “freedom”? It may be reasonable to consider selected and increased uses of AI-driven robots for production purposes; especially when production is harmful to human life.(v) But why should we sign on to a certain future life of slavery, even if that life might offer a slightly elevated level of material comfort and convenience?
Oligarchs and plutocrats continue to work their long-held plan to ensure permanent control of authority and power through individuation and digitization. They continue to use the tried and true “divide and conquer” strategy to gain complete control of the population. We have already entered the final phase where we (living beings with natural proclivities to think and work to ensure our survival and to find pride and joy in it) are told that our natural proclivities must be redetermined because AI and robots can meet society’s demands. Yet no guarantees are provided concerning the quality of life that we can expect in this new world. And even if guarantees were provided, the durability of legislation has always been a problem for society.
We believe that the “offer” (and some experts in the field say that it will be extended on a no alternative “take it or leave it basis” within the next two-to-three years) before us to turn increasingly to AI and robots to manage our lives is not an “offer” at all. It is a guaranteed death sentence for human life as we know it, and we should reject it categorically. Time for planning and preparing to elude the death sentence is evaporating rapidly.
©B Robinson
052325
i Steven Covey, 1989. Seven Habits of Highly Successful People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. Simon and Schuster. New York.
ii Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell popularized “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” as a 1968 No. 1 Hot Rhythm and Blues Single and a No. 8 Billboard Top 100 hit.
iii Former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, has been discussing AI’s “recursive improvement” for over a month in the public domain.
iv We say “our” fully comprehending that we (Black Americans and Afrodescendants) are, for now, mere pawns and puppets in someone else’s chaturanga game and puppet show, respectively.
v Of course, robot creep could become a concern; i.e., a persistent expansion of robots in production where human life is not jeopardized.