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Does the aggregate organism of all humans acting together lack a frontal cortex? [pdf]

Bradley_A_Pliam 4y ago
If we all act in our own self interest, that should seem to include taking care of our host planet. But what I see and call out in this Ethics and Software Manifesto is that, in the aggregate, the giant organism of all humans acting together in this world, resembles a giant tapeworm. What do you say?
PaulHoule 4y ago
Kind of a poor title. One of the most profound insights in political science is Arrows’ Theorem which points out that you can’t rationally aggregate people’s preferences into a consistent set of preferences. You can make the case from that that ‘The Public Interest’ doesn’t exist and such…
- Bradley_A_Pliam 4y ago
  The title of the document should've been posted: "A 21st Century Software Ethics Manifesto:facing unbridled realities brought about by software" but I wanted to raise a question that it raises. We are like a tapeworm, in the aggregate, destroying its host if we don't have high level thinking about our host planet that coalesces into a voice that most of the organism responds to
- Bradley_A_Pliam 4y ago
  The impossibility of the Arrow Theorum is not dealt with in a society that has maximized freedoms of the individual, based on pure volunteerism. Virtually every other type of society has a way of dealing with this limitation with large numbers of people. The solution has been government that either uses coercion or enticement to overcome this problem of diversity of wills.
  - PaulHoule 4y ago
    But neither the market nor elections gets the right answer either in terms of "correct" or "legitimate". this book covers the head space you are in ("homo sap has gotten in over his head") and you should read it now: https://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun-at-Work-Livingston/dp/0937063053 https://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun-at-Work-Livingston/dp/093706...
    - Bradley_A_Pliam 4y ago
      That book looks quite fascinating but it advocates change through each individual (within a class of engineers), therefore it is not placing the urgency that is needed right now for change in our society, banking instead on long-term changes that will be too little too late. FWIW, it is not that implausible that the world moves toward authoritarianism. This is the most crude but effective path toward achieving coordinated responses to a centralized mandate. I'm hoping for a different solution, think pervasive messaging without the force of the law. Not as with the Matrix, but as in "Life is Beautiful" the dad protects and elicits advantageous life-saving behavior from his son. Also I wanted to mention Joseph Merz argument (https://www.planetcritical.com/p/urgency-action-and-ethics-joseph?s=r#details https://www.planetcritical.com/p/urgency-action-and-ethics-j...) that it is too hard to go down the educational route, he wants to focus on direct influence of human behavior. Sound evil? It's basically trying to do what advertisers have done to us for decades or more.
      - PaulHoule 4y ago
        Livingston is far from the "lifestyle anarchism" that Bookchin warned about https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-social-anarchism-or-lifestyle-anarchism-an-unbridgeable-chasm https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-soci... that is, Livingston provides answers (that can be applied at the workgroup level) to the problem of people being over their heads with technology aimed specifically at technologists who are in the belly of the beast and are facing the problem directly. If you want some top down answer to the problem you might as well pray to God because that's as likely to work as the alternatives.

If we all act in our own self interest, that should seem to include taking care of our host planet. But what I see and call out in this Ethics and Software Manifesto is that, in the aggregate, the giant organism of all humans acting together in this world, resembles a giant tapeworm. What do you say?

PaulHoule 4y ago

Kind of a poor title. One of the most profound insights in political science is Arrows’ Theorem which points out that you can’t rationally aggregate people’s preferences into a consistent set of preferences. You can make the case from that that ‘The Public Interest’ doesn’t exist and such…

Bradley_A_Pliam 4y ago
The title of the document should've been posted: "A 21st Century Software Ethics Manifesto:facing unbridled realities brought about by software" but I wanted to raise a question that it raises. We are like a tapeworm, in the aggregate, destroying its host if we don't have high level thinking about our host planet that coalesces into a voice that most of the organism responds to
Bradley_A_Pliam 4y ago
The impossibility of the Arrow Theorum is not dealt with in a society that has maximized freedoms of the individual, based on pure volunteerism. Virtually every other type of society has a way of dealing with this limitation with large numbers of people. The solution has been government that either uses coercion or enticement to overcome this problem of diversity of wills.
- PaulHoule 4y ago
  But neither the market nor elections gets the right answer either in terms of "correct" or "legitimate". this book covers the head space you are in ("homo sap has gotten in over his head") and you should read it now: https://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun-at-Work-Livingston/dp/0937063053 https://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun-at-Work-Livingston/dp/093706...
  - Bradley_A_Pliam 4y ago
    That book looks quite fascinating but it advocates change through each individual (within a class of engineers), therefore it is not placing the urgency that is needed right now for change in our society, banking instead on long-term changes that will be too little too late. FWIW, it is not that implausible that the world moves toward authoritarianism. This is the most crude but effective path toward achieving coordinated responses to a centralized mandate. I'm hoping for a different solution, think pervasive messaging without the force of the law. Not as with the Matrix, but as in "Life is Beautiful" the dad protects and elicits advantageous life-saving behavior from his son. Also I wanted to mention Joseph Merz argument (https://www.planetcritical.com/p/urgency-action-and-ethics-joseph?s=r#details https://www.planetcritical.com/p/urgency-action-and-ethics-j...) that it is too hard to go down the educational route, he wants to focus on direct influence of human behavior. Sound evil? It's basically trying to do what advertisers have done to us for decades or more.
    - PaulHoule 4y ago
      Livingston is far from the "lifestyle anarchism" that Bookchin warned about https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-social-anarchism-or-lifestyle-anarchism-an-unbridgeable-chasm https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-soci... that is, Livingston provides answers (that can be applied at the workgroup level) to the problem of people being over their heads with technology aimed specifically at technologists who are in the belly of the beast and are facing the problem directly. If you want some top down answer to the problem you might as well pray to God because that's as likely to work as the alternatives.