Thank you for your this essay. To bring in the inter-human inter-connectedness to the discussion is such an important thing to do. It is exactly right, human intelligence evolved because we connect with other humans. And we tell stories, as much as we read other humans' stories. We are very good at that, actually, so good we rarely even notice.
AI systems as we know them do not do anything even remotely like it. A good example are self-driving cars. As a human driver, I see a pedestrian, judge the persons' gate, posture, clothing, hair, movements, viewing direction, all in a split second. I get into the person's head and realise maybe she or he is a bit slow, maybe disoriented, or fast pacing in a hurry, not paying attention. Then I build a relationship between myself and the person and decide that it is maybe better to slow down, or put my foot on the break just in case.
So a self-driving car may be a car that drives, but there is no driver. It's just a machine. It may behave like a driver, but the understanding of self and other, the concept of danger, all that, are found outside of the self-driving car in the head of those who have designed the AI system at its core. So there is still human intelligence that underpins it, but it is absent at the moment the self-driving car operates. I think this is key. With AI, we still interact with other human being, but they are hidden behind the algorithms they created. If the self-driving car kills a pedestrian, which has happened, it was not the AI that did the killing, but the people who have designed the car.
Hey, Wolfgang, thank you so much for your thoughtful and illuminating comment!
Your reflection on the essence of inter-human interconnectedness is great. You've beautifully highlighted how our human intelligence and capacity for empathy play key roles in our ability to connect, observe, and interpret the stories and signals of the reality around us. This is a skill so finely woven into the fabric of our being that its presence is almost imperceptible, yet it fundamentally shapes our interactions and decisions.
Your example of the self-driving car versus the human driver is particularly well thought through. It vividly captures how entering into a relationship with reality allows us to navigate the world with a depth of understanding and consideration that machines probably cannot replicate. This distinction underlines the crucial point that while AI's efficiency and problem-solving are significant in some contexts, they cannot and should not replace the nuanced relationships and empathetic connections that define the human relationship with reality.
Thank you once again for sharing your perspective and for making such a beautiful example about the importance of entering into relationships with reality. I'm going to devote more time thinking and developing this point of relationship with things and people (what it's role, why we do it and why we need it).
It's discussions like these that motivate me to write more!
Hey Alberto! I am happy to connect. My background is in climate science and policy, and so I regularly write about that and sometimes related topics, but AI is something close to my heart that I don't write about normally. So it was great to share my thoughts here. Happy to contribute.
I think your project here on Substack is super valuable, because there is so much distortion around this topic where the most basic human factors virtually go under in much of the public sphere. It is so important to understand that human intelligence all circles around story telling, because that's what we've evolved to do and we are extremely good at. Stories that connect humans with non-humans, the outer world, the cosmos. You used just the right word here - empathy!
Algorithms are just a very tiny and very recent part of this storytelling skill we possess, and we handle algorithms also as stories to understand. AI works just the other way around, it starts from algorithms, and so far has not actually ventured beyond.
Actually, I am thinking now that the study of AI as opposed to human intelligence can teach us that empathy is a word that has too much of an ethical, psychological or religious ring to it. It is all of that, but it is also much simpler, much more fundamental. It is the basic building block of human intelligence. Anyone who's raised children can attest to that. This is how we learn to think, identify self and other, even abstract concepts. This is also why teachers and educators play such a crucial role. As children and adults, we always learn in relationship.
Thank you, yes, really interesting thoughts! Thanks for sharing and joining this chat. Great observation regarding children, learning in relationship. I speak a bit about it in my book. If you have time to read it, it’s quite short :) https://www.amazon.com/Ethics-AI-Facts-Fictions-Forecasts-ebook/dp/B09DFBRFCR
Thank you for your this essay. To bring in the inter-human inter-connectedness to the discussion is such an important thing to do. It is exactly right, human intelligence evolved because we connect with other humans. And we tell stories, as much as we read other humans' stories. We are very good at that, actually, so good we rarely even notice.
AI systems as we know them do not do anything even remotely like it. A good example are self-driving cars. As a human driver, I see a pedestrian, judge the persons' gate, posture, clothing, hair, movements, viewing direction, all in a split second. I get into the person's head and realise maybe she or he is a bit slow, maybe disoriented, or fast pacing in a hurry, not paying attention. Then I build a relationship between myself and the person and decide that it is maybe better to slow down, or put my foot on the break just in case.
So a self-driving car may be a car that drives, but there is no driver. It's just a machine. It may behave like a driver, but the understanding of self and other, the concept of danger, all that, are found outside of the self-driving car in the head of those who have designed the AI system at its core. So there is still human intelligence that underpins it, but it is absent at the moment the self-driving car operates. I think this is key. With AI, we still interact with other human being, but they are hidden behind the algorithms they created. If the self-driving car kills a pedestrian, which has happened, it was not the AI that did the killing, but the people who have designed the car.
Hey, Wolfgang, thank you so much for your thoughtful and illuminating comment!
Your reflection on the essence of inter-human interconnectedness is great. You've beautifully highlighted how our human intelligence and capacity for empathy play key roles in our ability to connect, observe, and interpret the stories and signals of the reality around us. This is a skill so finely woven into the fabric of our being that its presence is almost imperceptible, yet it fundamentally shapes our interactions and decisions.
Your example of the self-driving car versus the human driver is particularly well thought through. It vividly captures how entering into a relationship with reality allows us to navigate the world with a depth of understanding and consideration that machines probably cannot replicate. This distinction underlines the crucial point that while AI's efficiency and problem-solving are significant in some contexts, they cannot and should not replace the nuanced relationships and empathetic connections that define the human relationship with reality.
Thank you once again for sharing your perspective and for making such a beautiful example about the importance of entering into relationships with reality. I'm going to devote more time thinking and developing this point of relationship with things and people (what it's role, why we do it and why we need it).
It's discussions like these that motivate me to write more!
Best
--a
Hey Alberto! I am happy to connect. My background is in climate science and policy, and so I regularly write about that and sometimes related topics, but AI is something close to my heart that I don't write about normally. So it was great to share my thoughts here. Happy to contribute.
I think your project here on Substack is super valuable, because there is so much distortion around this topic where the most basic human factors virtually go under in much of the public sphere. It is so important to understand that human intelligence all circles around story telling, because that's what we've evolved to do and we are extremely good at. Stories that connect humans with non-humans, the outer world, the cosmos. You used just the right word here - empathy!
Algorithms are just a very tiny and very recent part of this storytelling skill we possess, and we handle algorithms also as stories to understand. AI works just the other way around, it starts from algorithms, and so far has not actually ventured beyond.
Actually, I am thinking now that the study of AI as opposed to human intelligence can teach us that empathy is a word that has too much of an ethical, psychological or religious ring to it. It is all of that, but it is also much simpler, much more fundamental. It is the basic building block of human intelligence. Anyone who's raised children can attest to that. This is how we learn to think, identify self and other, even abstract concepts. This is also why teachers and educators play such a crucial role. As children and adults, we always learn in relationship.
Thank you, yes, really interesting thoughts! Thanks for sharing and joining this chat. Great observation regarding children, learning in relationship. I speak a bit about it in my book. If you have time to read it, it’s quite short :) https://www.amazon.com/Ethics-AI-Facts-Fictions-Forecasts-ebook/dp/B09DFBRFCR