Reflections on the Challenge
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Experiences
T had focused on observing ideologies, exemplified by Oliver Dowden's impassioned speech at the UN on AI regulation, which elicited mixed emotions in her - fear, pity, embarrassment, and a lack of enthusiasm - leading her to ponder the relative weakness of political power against multinational tech corporations that are competing with each other. She questioned the ethical integrity of AI development, wondering if decisions were genuinely made for the "greater good." Her reflections extended to AI's potential long-term impact on organic life, contrasting its potential sustainability with the fragility of the human ecosystem.
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Responses
Responding to T, N acknowledged the significance of considering organic life within ethical debates, particularly concerning technological advancements like AI. He supported T's apprehensions about the limited scope of contemporary ethical dialogues, particularly when powerful corporations primarily drove these discussions. He emphasised that humanity acted as "trustees" of Earth and questioned whether existing ethical frameworks adequately accounted for this broader perspective, especially in the development and application of AI. He further speculated on the potentially destructive choices AI systems might make based on an objective analysis of human impact on the universe.
Beelzebub’s Tales, Chapter 30 cont.
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Passage
Just at the beginning of this sixth personal sojourn of mine I soon categorically made clear ... that most of the causes of the strangeness of their psyche are found not in that usual consciousness of theirs, ... but in that consciousness of theirs which, thanks to their abnormal ordinary being-existence, was gradually driven within their common presence and which although it should have been their real consciousness, yet remains in them in its primitive state and is called their ‘subconsciousness.’
... in that part of their psyche there are not yet atrophied the data for the fourth sacred impulse which is named ‘Objective-Conscience.’
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Discussion
T elaborated on the notion of "Objective-Conscience," stating the text meant that the values that should be at the forefront of our minds are not there; they have shifted into our subconscious.
N added that these values haven't been lost; they have just moved into the subconscious, reinforcing the idea that objective values exist in the subconscious, and work is needed to bring them to the forefront of our consciousness.
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Passage
if one of the inhabitants of any locality of this planet by chance finds himself in another place of the same planet, he has no possibility whatever of intercourse with the beings there similar to himself, unless he learns their language.
... in the common presences of these unfortunate beings the data in general for instinctive perception were long ago atrophied - becomes absolutely helpless and can neither ask for what he really needs, nor understand a word of what is said to him.
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Discussion
L said this was suggesting that at some point, human beings were more instinctively able to communicate, than at present.
