“As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying” Arthur C. Clarke.
When I was teaching my university environmental Studies introduction class, many of the students named it the ‘doom and gloom’ class because of the myriad ecological problems that had to be covered (e.g., see earlier post, Spirituality, Service, and Connectedness – Part 7 – A Call to Action in a Different Way {August 2021}). I always made a point of explaining a problem and then going over the various solutions that were possible to resolve the problem. However, what I realized early on was that students got easily overwhelmed with such apparent negativity, and focused more on the problems and not on the solutions. This seemed especially true of issues that were massive and global in scope – they felt completely disempowered about being able to have any influence on real solutions at such a large scale. And this is understandable considering that the roots of many of these problems goes back millennia, although it was the industrial revolution followed by the technical revolution of the last two centuries that have brought us to the state we are in today – technology coupled with corporate greed, and money as the measure of success in which humanity and the natural world are irrelevant.
What I have tried to do in this blog is make you all aware of the bigger issues and then point out a way of thinking that would resolve the issues. When we talk about artificial Intelligence (AI) it is like all other technologies, it can be used for great benefit of humanity or it can be used to ruin, destroy or control. How it is used is all dependent on the mindset or worldview behind the users of that technology. For instance, multimedia can be used for effective communication and entertainment or it can be used as a propaganda tool for control by technocrats and governments that have slid into compliance with elite agendas that do not favor the common person.
The internet is one of the most liberating technologies of our modern era (comparable to the printing press that began mass literacy) since it put information cheaply into the hands of the common people, BUT it is also one that can easily be the most controlling if we let it.
Switching off your phone isn’t crime yet, but I have to wonder how long before the bureau-technocrats write laws requiring everyone to have their phone on them and turned on at all times – for your, and society’s, benefit, safety and security of course. Snowden (NSA leaks 2013) and Assange (Wikileaks 2010) have pretty much made it clear that our governments have AI algorithm’s that are can keep track of us and all manner of information on our phones. That wonderful feature, you can turn off for now, where your phone knows your location and can give you all manner of help and advice may become a locked in feature in the not-too-distant future. Now follow that thought a tad further to contact tracing and vaccine passports for instance and the current Chinese social credit system – all linked to AI – and you see the very real potential corruptibility of the system by technocrats, willingly or unwittingly. The ‘common good’ keeps creeping in here, but common good keeps changing, and who decides what it is?
Now China has a plan to develop the ‘social credit system (SCS)’ for the whole country and to export this idea to very willing technocracies within governments all over the world. For now, China has districts that have versions of the SCS in many places but it is only a matter of time until they all come together under one unified system. The reason? The Chinese government (CCP) wants to be able to judge every citizens’ behavior and trustworthiness so that they are all good and compliant citizens. Ultimately, it would be the AI version of Orwell’s ‘Big Brother’ from 1984. And the most perturbing thing about AI is that once you set up the algorithms’ (noting that algorithms are also being used to create more advanced learning algorithms’) it is all automated. No need for a human overseer. And the media technology wants all of this technology linked first to your phone and then to implantable microchips within your body that are readable by any authorized scanner. Businesses would have entity scores so that the government could check for nefarious practices, while individuals have ID-linked scores – or should we say individual records of everything you do, say, listen to, or places and people you meet or visit. So, what is bad about enforcing honesty?
The simple consequence of all of this is that ‘Authorities’ would rank you on a score that gives deductions for poor social behavior (as interpreted by?), and add points for good behavior. Of course, much of what is negative or positive is what some probably faceless authority says it is. And with the way I have seen virtue shaming arise during the Covid pandemic, many people would be eager to tell on you, let alone endless CCTV facial recognition plus monitored phones and microchips being used to identify the undesirable troublemakers. AI has no morality, except that which is programmed into it, if any. A data-based system with no conscience or continual public discussion on what is good and bad should truly concern us all! Forget personal freedom if that happens.
Besides enforcing specific social behaviors, the authorities could easily establish blacklists for outcasts within the system. I think of the soviet gulag system as one example of extreme punishment and social separation. And the misuse of AI is real now in the CCP. In the long term, it is clear that social credit fits into the CCP’s grand designs for ‘data-driven governance’ covering all spheres of society” Jessica Riley. Now consider how the authorities might use this technology to enforce other global level programs, such as Agenda 2030. I’m all for finding ways to reduce climate disruption and to reduce pollution from fossil fuel use, but it bothers me to see governments and the United Nations happily jump in bed with the WEF and corporate talking-heads on how they will promote the New World Order for a greener planet. These same people that created the global ecological problems are now stepping up to tell us how to resolve them, but how? By getting us to accept extreme limitations while they still practice destructive corporate capitalism.
One aspect of the Green Agenda 2030 is that farmers, who did what the governments and chemical companies wanted in creating industrial agriculture, are now being scapegoated under the agenda 2030 – all seems like yet another totalitarian two-step by the corporate and Cabalistic leadership. And AI technology is a premier tool for making this happen and enforcing it. I believe that AI can be used for great benefit in helping humanity evolve into a ‘better version of itself’ but not when technocrats have sole control over it.
I started this post with the Clarke quote because it says what must be done. We need to promote freedom and a new morality to heal the world, but I don’t think autocrats and religions will do it – they’re too invested in power and control. We must do it for ourselves from the ground-up and not from the top-down.
I really, really like this story to illustrate the path needed: There is an old tale where a rabbi was asked by one of his students “Why did God create atheists?” After a long pause, the rabbi finally responded with a soft but sincere voice. “God created atheists” he said, “to teach us the most important lesson of them all – the lesson of true compassion. You see, when an atheist performs an act of charity, visits someone who is sick, helps someone in need, and cares for the world, he is not doing so because of some religious teaching. He does not believe that God commanded him to perform this act. In fact, he does not believe in God at all, so his actions are based on his sense of morality. Look at the kindness he bestows on others simply because he feels it to be right. When someone reaches out to you for help. You should never say ‘I’ll pray that God will help you.’ Instead, for that moment, you should become an atheist – imagine there is no God who could help, and say ‘I will help you’” (from A Theological Debate by Eduard Frankfort).
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