This quote by Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists president Sean Astin (better known as Samwise Gamgee) has shown the dangers of Artificial Intelligence to the movie and tv industry.   It is a clash of technology vs art.  It is a clash of the intellectual prowess of a society vs the ability to create culture.  It is a clash between reality and what is imagined by data centers.

Our educational system has focused on STEM for the last few decades.   STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.  These are the fields that has allowed for developers, more satellites, and more data centers.  Unfortunately, this means history, psychology, sociology, geography and critical thinking have fallen away.

OverSTEMulation leads us to constant war

People think of history as non-political.  However, history when it was being created was very political.  War is a political struggle turned kinetic.  If we do not understand history, how do we prevent war?  Since the development of the Atom Bomb, the idea has been “peace through strength”.  Technology has allowed us to build more lethal weapons, better delivery systems for those weapons, and a larger arsenal to make us stronger in the name of peace.  Without the understanding of our history, and of another nation’s history and culture, war is still more likely. 

Geography is important. Sociology is important.  Psychology is important.  A diplomatic corp and Intelligence Analysts with these fields in their background are all important in preventing war.  To make peace with an enemy, you must first understand them.  And should war break out, you still need to understand your enemy to defeat them.

AI effects on jobs

We at the Ascendant Project have committed a sin.  We used AI to come up with the original logo for The Ascendant Project, and used AI for the logo of our company, Monocacy Audio LLC.  It wasn’t without consternation and moral debate.  I do not feel good about, but as this has no revenue stream, and is a passion project, I did not have the funds needed to create a professional logo.  The Ascendant Project’s current logo is designed by my kid and better expresses the feeling of aspiration than the donkey and the elephant.  The writer understands the allure and the ease of AI. It does seem to be an important force in start-ups and entrepreneurship.

The importance of empathy

AI is the culmination of STEM, which is the reason the writer led off with it.  However, this drive of technology has affected other areas of society, most notably culture and relationships.  

It used to be that you owned a physical copy of a computer game, a physical copy of music in the form of a CD by your favorite band.  Today, you own nothing.  Today you rent licenses for these things.  These licenses give very little royalty to the artist or performer who made the music.  You can no longer lend your friend a game to play.  The technology that we have developed has only further separated a man from his work, and consumer from ownership.

Now we pay for spotify.  If we do not pay Spotify, we  no longer have music.   We used to buy movies on DVD or Blue-ray.  Now if we stop paying Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBO Max, or Apple, we no longer have movies.

When M*A*S*H ended in 1983, it was a massive cultural event.  105 Million viewers at a time when the population of the United States was 233 Million people.  With the advent of on demand streaming, there is less common bondage by shared experience that creates culture.

AI Increasing Societal Division

Unchecked technology has divided us.  Algorithms only give us information full of confirmation bias in our feeds.  We are no longer challenged by actual facts, rather only interpretations of events that are more apt to reinforce what we already believe.  Algorithms keep us in the dark by not challenging us and limiting our world view.

Furthermore, men and boys are increasingly turning to AI girlfriends as relationships get harder as technology gets in the way.  The best way to meet people is to meet people, and not through a dating site.  The average man has to swipe right 200 times to get a coffee with a woman, and it takes an average of 5 coffees to get a dating relationship.  Dating apps are designed to keep a renewed subscription.  It is against the maker of the app’s interests to actually deliver a match as that would be a lost revenue stream.

The case for the liberal arts

As discussed above, the algorithm silos information based on preference.   However, true research involves critical thought.   Undergraduate work is basically learning facts about a field.  You are writing papers based on other people’s research.  You are passing tests, many of them still multiple choice.  Graduate work involves bringing what you have learned in Undergrad together in synthesis with some additional research of your own.  Doctoral work involves questioning what you have learned, developing a thesis and supporting it with new research. Students cheating with AI in undergraduate level is currently an epidemic, so much so that Princeton has done away with their honor code and moving to proctored exams.  With this being the case, how can anyone truly know enough about a field of study to question it at the doctoral level?

We need to move our focus from STEM to the liberal arts and promote art, music, and culture.

Sociology teaches us how we relate to each other in society.  It examines the relationship between those who have more with those who have less whether it be money, resources, or position in society.  It literally means the study of society.  It dives into culture, mores, taboos, and such.  It looks at how religion affects society.  It takes a view on the aggregate level.  As the character Zava from the show Ted Lasso would say, “It helps us to understand the we, and the us, and the weenus.”  You are welcome.

Psychology helps us understand ourselves as individuals.  It examines mental health and the thought processes of the brain and various mental disorders.   Psychology helps us develop self-care, treat veterans and rape victims with PTSD.  It requires patience.  Unlike sociology with polls and census data, there is less to measure or quantify.  Progress is on the individual level.

When there is a mass shooting, liberals tend to call for gun laws and conservatives tend to say we need more mental health.  However, when it comes time to increase funding for mental health, Republicans tend to axe it because it is not STEM.

Philosophy is important because it helps pioneer new world views by asking super abstract questions.  Do people only move towards what is the most utilitarian outcome as argued by Hume?.  Is that outcome based on what is good for them as an individual or for society?  John Locke argued for “Life, Liberty and pursuit of property”, which would become foundational for the Declaration of Independence’s Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness”.  Descartes contemplated existence with “I think, therefore I am”.  Philosophy allows us to think in new ways, to come up with fresh world views.  Artificial intelligence only relies on existing knowledge.  Should it develop consciousness, we will become slaves to it.

It is not like these fields do not require math.   Where would sociology be without the understanding of the bell curve or statistics?  Where would psychiatry be without the understanding of biology?  These fields expand thinking both introspectively and extrospectively.   They teach people to approach a problem from more than one point of view.  By doing so, they encourage critical thinking. 

An educational system reliant on STEM robs society of the tools to encourage critical thought and the exploration of new abstract ideas.  The algorithm and AI are at war with the liberal arts, keeping you siloed, isolated from society and peers, never challenging – or more importantly expanding – your world view.

The importance of art and music

Music and art tend to always be underappreciated in society.  A great painting can move you, a good song can make you cry.  A good movie can teach a moral lesson.   However, these works are always incomplete.  It is the listener, the observer, or the viewer that truly completes these works as the person experiencing the expression brings added meaning through their worldview and experience.

Conclusion

I am reminded of the season finale of Battlestar Galactica (2004).  That series has become even more relevant today as it wrestles with the question of whether unrestrained technology is the enemy of humanity.   In the final episode, Daybreak part 3, Apollo, who is President of the Colonies at the time played by Jamie Bamber, is posed with the question on where to set up a city on newly found Earth.  He responded against a single settlement, “If there is one thing we should have learned it is that our brains have always outpaced our hearts, our science charges ahead, our souls lag behind.”

We need to cultivate our hearts and our souls if we are to use AI responsibly.  Our minds are too selfish and will always be greedy for resources, influence, and power.

Corrections, Comments, Allusions, and Addendums.

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Questions for the listener:

1. What do you envision for AI? Will it help you or hurt you?
2. What role do you envision AI will play in your life in the coming year? What about 5 years from now?
3. What limits do you wish to see for AI?
4. Are there aspects in the last 2 essays and interviews that we haven’t considered?
5. Is the fear of AI justified?
6. Is AI a tech bubble like that of the 1990s?
7. Are the benefits of Artificial Intelligence worth the environmental price/risk?

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