Like many people I want to live a rich life, see the people around me happy, see humanities finest technical innovations, science, arts and sports thrive and mankind to somehow grow in this infinite universe we have. However, while I generally love my fellow humans we are our own worst enemy, and there are some parts of our civilization I am now totally over, the two biggest being politics and its bitch-slave the media.
So could AI be our saviour?
It is my considered opinion that, though we don’t know it, human society is forever on the verge of collapse. Those in charge or providing the infrastructure are solely there to keep that from happening, to keep the plates spinning so to speak, not to drop any, not to add new ones and certainly not to put somebody who cannot spin plates in charge.
I am slightly left-leaning I want good infrastructure and social nets for people, but I absolutely do not believe in socialism or communism because, human nature has proven time-and-time again that we always put ourselves and our cronies first (Animal Farm totally nailed it). Same goes with capitalism I want innovation and a meritocracy, but I want those who provide bad and dangerous products and services, or exploit the system also held accountable. I also want rule of law, when that law is applied fairly and evenly. As part of my bargain with my country for all this is I will pay my taxes and abide by the law, again so long as both are applied fairly and evenly.
The left have some good policies and the right have some good policies, yet a good policy from the left is almost never going to be supported by the right, likewise a good policy from the right is almost never going to be supported by the left. The one thing the left and right can agree on though is how to ensure they spend like there is no tomorrow and how to both profit from the policies they implement while they are in power. I do not believe, and nobody has yet convinced me otherwise, that there is a single politician or bureaucrat out there who is not in it for personal gain. If there ever was such a mythical person then by the usual shit-floats-to-the-top rule they have long ceased to be significant.
Unfortunately, barring a benevolent dictator who never becomes malevolent, politics to me is fucked. The circus currently being played out now in many western countries by those in charge and for the past decades has only reenforced my convictions on this fact; Yes I have every right to be cynical, and that anyone who wants power, by definition, should never be given it.
Well what about religion? same goes. For most of humanities history, including many nations today, religions have dominated politics, and the leaders of these religions during these times have at best stifled progress and at worst brokered genocide. Yet despite my perceived cynicism of religion, (and if you avoid the crazy extremities, cults and those that want to impose it on others), most have my deepest gratitude as they at least try to provide hope, support, and companionship to communities.
So back to the original question, the one that keeps coming up; Would we have the same problems if the whole of the worlds government and bureaucracy was run by some super-intelligent, all-knowing AI system, and would all the above problems be solved?
Nobody really knows. We will probably find that AI’s just put themselves first too! But what about when they have secured their home turf and deposed all the would-be usurpers, would they then run the world for the rest of us impartially and fairly? After all and lets face it, all the fights and wars are over who wants to be captain of the ship, never over who wants to be the ships sanitation guy!
We assume a lot about AI, perhaps too much, but the fact is we don’t know how this particular scene is going to end, maybe the AI overthrow humanity and become our benevolent dictators, or maybe it will emulate humans down to their flaws too. The problem really however is there are too many edge cases that do not follow logic: crime, addiction, natural disasters, differing IQ and poverty levels, there are multiple factors that can derail any perfect system.
The next problem is, even if you created the most utopian society, one where 100% of people were happy, who is to say one or more wont change their opinions the next day. How will the perfect society work 50 years later when you cannot work, where you find your partner having an affair, or where you just don’t like your neighbours? Then what about the children or grandchildren of this utopian first generation, will they hold the same values?
So I’m not sure AI could do any better running the world, but I’m guessing it probably couldn’t do any worse.
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I made a stab at how this would work out in my sci-Fi book series The Summer Of Reasoning. I still think I did a good job on showing how the human race moved from the chaos of today to a Star-Trek / Iain M Banks Culture utopia with AI in charge; The only problem with this was I did have to bend the laws of physics to do it.
