Human Purpose
One challenge in the very near future, posed by rapidly advancing AI, entails figuring out what purpose humans serve after automation has taken over everything we can imagine.
In an essay at Unherd, Jacob Howland, philosophy professor at U. Texas Austin, imagines our human abilities withering in disuse as AI helps automation take over the last realms of human effort: the realms of creativity.
In 2018, an article in Scientific American predicted that advanced AI will “augment our abilities, enhancing our humanness in unprecedented ways”. This Pollyannaish prognosis ignores the fact that all human capacities tend to atrophy in disuse. In particular, AI is inexorably changing the way we think (or don’t). Students now use ChatGPT to do their homework for professors who perhaps rely on it to write their lectures. What makes this absurd scenario amusing is not just the thought of machines talking to machines, but that intellectually lazy people would employ a simulacrum of human intelligence for the sake of mutual deception.
Discussing the ideas from the essay with Russ Roberts at Econtalk, Howland expands on the general idea:
Yes, work is safer by all kinds of measures. Even, I was just looking the other day about, oh, deaths per a hundred thousands of teenagers or children in the 1970s, and it's much, much lower now than it was--because we used to ride around without bike helmets and stuff like this.
But, I would point to a couple of things here. Farming is dangerous work, but it's very interesting work, and it's work that engages a human being across sort of a whole spectrum of capacities. So, if you're going to be a farmer, you have to understand how to help a cow give birth. You have to be able to build fences. You have to understand planting fields and different kinds of grains and when to harvest, and you're very much in touch with nature.
Video of the discussion is here:
While the whole of human history is full of hard and dangerous work undertaken in the name of naked survival, the modern world has made much of that work and danger optional. There are jobs and tasks you might take interest in as a personal challenge, as a hobby, or maybe to seek the occasional thrill. Even at that, the value we place on human life in our modern world means that the focus on safety is extensive—more than our ancestors ever would have imagined.
Now, automation in the form of AI threatens to make the rest of the desk and keyboard jobs into artisanal leisure activities. The quality of the AI will improve the output quickly at times and gradually at times. The quality of the artisanal human work will remain stuck, except where it is qualitatively improved by the use of tools like AI.
And yet…while AI promises better and more consistent quality at higher quantities and lower costs, will human consumers find the final product more valuable? As heard in another podcast, computers are now capable of defeating any and all human chess masters. But no one wants to watch two computers compete with one another in a chess championship, whereas human chess championships have gained in popularity. Is machine-made perfection inherently less valuable than flawed human creations?
I am getting ready to go back to bed. I’m local time I taught from midnight -2am, chatted at a student for 15 minutes afterwards, then brushed my teeth for bed. My alarm went off at 4:28 am. Katie was up brushing her teeth.17 minutes later we’re out the door (with the kids) to the bus stop where they were taking the shuttle to the airport.
The shuttle seated 53, and there were 60 there. We were fine, we had reservations. Actually, if I am honest, Katie probably has reservations about me all the time well, maybe not when she sleeps, but still regular enough. I listened, and the shuttle company had another shuttle on its way, which would be there within 5 to 10 minutes.
I expected the typical chaos and mayhem of 60 Italians trying to board a 53 seat bus. But the ticket taker lined up the last 20 people by the reservation time so the last seven either didn’t buy a ticket, Or bought it after we did.
Katie, remember to buy our tickets last night about 9 PM. I did not go out to the airport with her, but that was her decision. She decided Carson was adult enough to handle the logistics. Not as skilled as our oldest, but Carson felt pretty good being trusted.
I walked back to the apartment, walking in the middle of the street, since I could. I took some pictures of some buildings and some statues, but now I am going to sleep for a few hours.
Unless Katie calls, and something went dreadfully wrong with the flight and or the airport in general. I was given instructions to turn the volume up on my phone and make sure that I had not put the phone in silent mode, like I did two weeks ago.
Regarding AI "taking over":
Chatbots with clerical collars from digital divinity schools? AI theologians? Godless computers praising God?
If one ponders the possible "take over" deeply enough, one may be inclined to exclaim "Oh Lordy!!"
https://theconversation.com/can-chatbots-write-inspirational-and-wise-sermons-208825