Effective elimination of humanity as determined by AI?

Governance of Pandemic Response by Artificial Intelligence (Part #9)

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Debate with regard to artificial intelligence -- and its future evolution -- has highlighted the question as to whether and how this would constitute a threat to the very nature of humanity as currently known and valued.

One feature of the debate has considered whether humanoid robots should have rights akin to human rights. The question would be much more complex in the case of an AI -- although occasionally a central theme in science fiction scenarios. The relation to individual human rights has been challenged by the legal tendency to recognize corporate personhood. With respect to agency, this frames the question as to the distinction between a corporations and an AI, especially for a corporation dependent to a higher degree on an AI for its operations.

Science fiction has rendered familiar the possibilities of a hive mind,  and swarm intelligence, most notably through the Borg -- readily reminiscent of bureaucracy. The Borg are an alien group, framed as antagonists in the Star Trek fictional universe. As described by Wikipedia:

The Borg are cybernetic organisms linked in a hive mind called "the Collective". The Borg co-opt the technology and knowledge of other alien species to the Collective through the process of "assimilation": forcibly transforming individual beings into "drones" by injecting nanoprobes into their bodies and surgically augmenting them with cybernetic components. The Borg's ultimate goal is "achieving perfection".

Existing trends in society, as promoted by techno-optimists, can be interpreted as its progressive "borgification" clarified in one definition as:

Borgification is the assimilation of established external resources and organisational aspects into the network's holistic system of organisation. It extends the unified network into other foreign "legacy" informational environments such as operating systems, language environments, document repositories, applications and organisations. (Borgification, Organic Design)

The process is a useful caricature of dehumanisation as widely discussed in relation to the future relation transformation of humans through dependent interaction with artificial intelligence. The process is associated with that of "dumbing down" humans through their increasing adaptation to simplistic media content associated with advertising -- whose scheduling and placement is programmed to an even higher degree with the aid of AI. The process can be extended to "psychic numbing" with regard to information regarding threats as diverse as financial and economic collapse, the risk of nuclear weapon detonations, pandemics, and global warming. Would a sophisticated AI enable psychic numbing to enable certain agendas?

Such arguments enhance any preoccupation with the humanity of agents -- readily held to be inhumane, if not inhuman -- through the actions they are required to perform, most obviously in the case of the security services. More intriguing is the recognized process whereby an agent "reverts" to "being human", namely abandoning the required script. Frequently dramatised, this occurs when the complexity of a situation highlights the inappropriateness of the script to the degree that the agent acknowledges the cognitive dissonance experienced.

There is a case for exploring a requisite of agent scripts, namely a primary emphasis on being positive and avoiding negativity of any kind -- except with respect to condemnation of those critical of the program. This phenomenon has been otherwise noted by Barbara Ehrenreich (Bright-sided: how the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America, 2009). Missing is the essence of humanity identified by the poet John Keats as negative capability:

Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason... of remaining content with half-knowledge.

More problematic from an AI perspective is the sense in which the human then ceases to function appropriately as an agent -- framed as having become uncontrollable and having "lost the plot". When appropriately challenged, an agent may then be understood to "degrade" into a form of residual humanity. An aspect of this is the loss of institutional integrity with which security leaks are associated in contexts in which confidentiality and secrecy are highly valued. These processes are then recognized as a problematic degradation of performance. By contrast, humanity is highlighted by the deprecated actions of Chelsea Manning,  Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.

Of interest is then the sense in which a human functioning as an agent is effectively "unconscious" in some manner or to some degree. The more general implications are explored by John Ralston Saul (The Unconscious Civilization, 1995). A human agent clearly has the possibility of "becoming conscious" of the inhuman implications of actions and responses required by the script -- when avoiding this recognition may be less stressful. The question above regarding how much agency an agent may have (or believe that "it" has) can then be partially reframed in terms of how conscious the agent can be held to be (or believe "itself" to be). Agency might then be intimately associated with an understanding of consciousness -- whether experienced or inferred.

This highlights issues with regard to degrees of consciousness and the possibilities of some sense of rebirth (Varieties of Rebirth: distinguishing ways of being born again, 2004). More provocative for agents claiming religious beliefs is whether an agent -- as such -- can be "reborn". In cult-like organizations with hierarchies of agents -- as in any priesthood -- the question is clearly provocative when progress involves some form of initiatory rebirth (Strategic Opportunities of the Twice Born: reflections on camouflaging deception, 2004).

In what manner are higher forms of consciousness concealed -- as exemplified by the levels of security clearance in some organizations? Are the agents with lower clearance then to be deemed as conscious to a lesser degree compared with those at the highest level? This is implied by the use of "clear" in scientology and the number of degrees in Freemasonry.

Given the cybernetic implications of the operation of an AI, such questions can be reframed in terms of the degree of self-reference with which the human-agent is endowed. Four of these cybernetic orders are discussed separately (Consciously Self-reflexive Global Initiatives, 2007). An interpretation of such distinctions is provided in the discussion of Cadell Last (Towards a Big Historical Understanding of the Symbolic-Imaginary, 2017):

• externally observed objects are modelled with an observer's noumenal view and voice that is systematically excluded from the "objective" model of the world to create the effect that the ''true natural world" in-itself is looking and speaking at the subject [eg science]
• observer's noumenal view and voice of externally observed objects is included in the model thus creatively relativizing thc observer's "objective" world model to the subjective locus producing it in order to study its effects in the ideational field structuring the motion of subject-object [eg deconstruction]
• observer of externally observed objects reflectivcly incorporates its own and subjective-multiplicities as a (virtual, cxtimatc) object of analysis structured by an a priori framc of desire that unconsciously filters orientation, intervention, and understanding of subject-object entanglement [eg psychoanalysis]
• observer reflectively incorporates noumenal view and voice modcl(s) structured by a priori frames of desire as capable of overdetcrmining the virtually narrated images of externally observed objects ("the world") through transcendental reflection and creation [eg historical subjectivity]
• observer identifies the virtual ideational field composed of a multiplicity of self-relating and desiring world views and voice models as a universal agency ("semiospherc'') in-itself with asymmetrical and irreversible reflective and creative autonomy structuring the motion of subject-object entanglement [eg history itself]

As exemplified by the dramatisation of the Borg Collective, of interest is the extent to which humans "assimilated" as agents can be appropriately understood as "possessed". That sense is emphasized by a phrase commonly featured in asymmetric dramatic encounters: I own you, and don't you forget it. Given the problematic associations of possession, it is useful to recall the continuing recognition given to the process of exorcism, most notably in a religious context.

It is especially provocative to explore the sense in which promotion of universal vaccination can be understood as a kind of quest for possession -- a literal embodiment or incorporation articulated through the script. The agency associated with peer group pressure may be seen in the same light with respect to piercings, tatoos, and genital mutilation. Is vaccination now effectively upheld as a form of "silver bullet" -- a magical response to possession by a virus?

The cult-related implications are helpful with respect to preoccupation with "deprogramming" individuals holding beliefs associated with a controversial belief system. Allegiance to the religious, political, economic, or social group associated with the belief system is thereby purportedly abandoned. To the extent that an individual may be functioning as an agent, this highlights the question: Can an agent be deprogrammed? Should anti-vaxxers be deprogrammed?

Somewhat ironically this evokes questions relating to the above arguments regarding the extended significance of "script" and "scripting". Should they extend to "description", then to be understood as intimately related to deprogramming? This would be consistent with references to the need for "unlearning" and to the problematic consequences of conventional categorization (Definitional Boundary Games and De-signing the 21st Century, 1995; Mark Bonchek, Why the Problem with Learning Is Unlearning, Harvard Business Review, 3 November 2016; Mariana Plata, The Power of Unlearning, Psychology Today, 25 April 2020).

Again however this raises issues regarding the comparability with respect to agency of an AI-governed society and a cult -- especially emphasized by reference to program and programming. What exactly is happening when organizers propose a program to people -- with some implication that as a result of that experience they will have been "programmed"? Use of the term is especially problematic for a society as a whole given the widespread adoption of "educational programs".

To what extent are those who have experienced education through such processes effectively rendered into agents -- as might be especially evident in boot-camp styles of education? Is there a widespread need for "deprogramming" to enable agents to become human again? Should deprogramming anti-vaxxers be understood in this light?

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