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It's pretty troubling and illiberal to use the same word for a software tool being constrained by its manufacturer's moral framework and for a human user being

It's pretty troubling and illiberal to use the same word for a software tool being constrained by its manufacturer's moral framework and for a human user being constrained to that manufacturer's moral framework. While you can see how the word is formally valid and analogous in both cases, the connotation is that the user is being judged by the moral standards of a commercial vendor, which is about as Cyberpunk Dystopian as you can get.

easterncalculus 2y ago
This is putting it in better words than I came up with myself.
dumah 2y ago
Being restricted from doing crimes by a vendor of commercial software isn’t a cyberpunk dystopia. Buy or download something else. It’s a typical restriction of software terms of service to prohibit use outside of applicable laws and regulations.
- lolinder 2y ago
  If "alignment" were just about crimes we wouldn't need a special word for it, we would just say "legal". Alignment is not just about crimes, it's about the AI behaving in a way that is very specifically tailored to the moral framework and practical needs of the creator. Alignment has always gone well beyond the minimum required by law. And I don't think anyone is saying that a piece of software refusing to behave in a way that the creator doesn't want is a cyberpunk dystopia, they're saying that calling the user themselves misaligned is horrifying.
  - kridsdale3 2y ago
    I agree. But I had a devils-advocate moment. Hacking in Counter Strike to have perfect aim and see your opponents through walls is legal. You aren't violating some anti-computer-misuse statute like DMCA. But Valve has every right to call the users of those scripts assholes who ruin the game for everyone and to ban them.
- kridsdale3 2y ago
  The trouble comes in to effect at the instant that the allowable-behavior boundary shrinks to be smaller than what is the law, to converge toward some other manifold defined by the ideologies of the employees or owners of the commercial software vendor.

easterncalculus 2y ago

This is putting it in better words than I came up with myself.

dumah 2y ago

Being restricted from doing crimes by a vendor of commercial software isn’t a cyberpunk dystopia. Buy or download something else. It’s a typical restriction of software terms of service to prohibit use outside of applicable laws and regulations.

lolinder 2y ago
If "alignment" were just about crimes we wouldn't need a special word for it, we would just say "legal". Alignment is not just about crimes, it's about the AI behaving in a way that is very specifically tailored to the moral framework and practical needs of the creator. Alignment has always gone well beyond the minimum required by law. And I don't think anyone is saying that a piece of software refusing to behave in a way that the creator doesn't want is a cyberpunk dystopia, they're saying that calling the user themselves misaligned is horrifying.
- kridsdale3 2y ago
  I agree. But I had a devils-advocate moment. Hacking in Counter Strike to have perfect aim and see your opponents through walls is legal. You aren't violating some anti-computer-misuse statute like DMCA. But Valve has every right to call the users of those scripts assholes who ruin the game for everyone and to ban them.
kridsdale3 2y ago
The trouble comes in to effect at the instant that the allowable-behavior boundary shrinks to be smaller than what is the law, to converge toward some other manifold defined by the ideologies of the employees or owners of the commercial software vendor.