Guest Commentary: AI Alignment in a Divided or Holistic World View-Kate Kheel
Inspired by the works of Iain McGilchrist, Daniel Schmachtenberger, Nate Hagen, and Charles Eisenstein
Comment: As we approach Earth Day April 22, claims about AI, efficiency and sustainable growth are dominating the mainstream narrative (for example, via the World Economic Forum). Kate notes:
“1. AI feeds off of data. Gathering data, the fodder for AI, would be highly constrained in a world of wired connections. Wires can't trail people all day long, so vast amounts of data would be unaccessible for purposes of surveillance, the military, law enforcement and AI. In fact, I would argue, one of the primary reasons for the push to connect everywhere and everything to the internet via cell towers. Facial Recognition Technology, surveillance cameras, smart phones, etc. is precisely in support of AI and "homeland security" (in the event of a missile attack or such).
2. [] Tech/AI is not an isolated issue. Tech and AI are exponentializers increasing the scope, speed, and power of anything they are added to. As such, to infuse a world already in crisis and mentally "off base" would be absurd and only serve to increase violence, the lethality of war, and all the other problems we face.”
For those seeking commentary and inspiration for a more holistic view:
AI Alignment in a Divided or Holistic World View
By Kate Kheel of Safe Tech International
Technology and AI are different from other inventions such as the nuclear bomb or gene editing which are entities unto themselves. Tech and AI act on other systems increasing their scope, complexity, and speed. Whatever the endeavor at hand – be it good, bad, or values neutral – when integrated with tech and AI, it will grow exponentially. Energy from fossil fuels, though more a discovery than invention, also act on other systems by increasing their energy input and output by orders of magnitude.
On multiple accounts, we are on the brink of societal collapse: wars, talk of nuclear “exchange”, loss of biodiversity; pollutants that permeate our air, food, water, and soil; distrust in governments and institutions; a food system that promotes chronic disease, cancers, heart disease, and obesity while depleting the land. An ocean full of plastic, and bustling with infrastructure, sonar, mining, and debris; more animals incarcerated in CAFOS than remain in the wild; an epidemic of depression and loneliness, and a generation lost to tech addiction. Our current economic, political, social, environmental, and cultural state of affairs doesn’t bode well for a future with nearly all systems accelerated and exponentialized.
In considering how tech and AI will impact how (and if) the future unfolds, the question is often posed: Can we create AI to align with human values? But what exactly are human values?
What exactly are human values?
Values are subjective and vary greatly from person to person and culture to culture. Values-based choices are context and culture dependent. People can have vastly different framing around a given action being considered.
Values require long-term and full-picture thinking
Good human values must take into account the long-term effects of one’s actions and the negative externalities (often outsourced) that will be shouldered by other living beings, future generations, and/or the biosphere. Admittedly, it is difficult to predict externalities and to determine who is accountable in a given situation, as a single externality may not be problematic but when combined with other factors, there can be devastating synergistic effects.
Longterm and full-picture thinking are in short supply in our current economic system which is built on growth at all costs. A corporation that has a policy of being accountable for negative externalities they cause, would likely go under in our current system.
Even if well-intentioned, we humans are quite shortsighted
But let’s presume for a moment that by aligning AI with human values we do mean optimizing for the long-term and avoiding externalities. Does the breadth and depth of our vision stretch to all corners of the Earth and into the future indefinitely? We’re limited finite beings, quite shortsighted even when well-intentioned. Imperfection is part and parcel of the human condition.
We learned in high school geometry that two lines that diverge from a single point may differ only infinitesimally at the start, but further down the road, will be vastly far apart.
So too with values-based decisions translated into algorithms and extended exponentially into the future at speeds well beyond our ability to perceive, let alone control. An infinitesimal miscalculation in the original intention, value, or programing may result in future catastrophic eventualities or dystopias. So bottom line – we better get this right.
Iain McGilchrist, AI, and the supercharged left-brain
The 2009 treatise, The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist, discusses at length how the different world views of the left and right hemispheres of the brain impact us both individually and as a society.
The left sees the world in parts, is detailed oriented, and has a single-minded focus on achieving a given task. In Iain’s words, it favors, “manipulation – grabbing, getting and controlling” and is an inanimate universe. It’s like a map of the world which leaves out the sentience, flavors, and nuance of the actual world.
The right hemisphere sees more holistically and senses our interconnectedness with all life. Iain explains, “[It] sees not the representation but the living presence.” The right brain understands that life is ever morphing and evolving, and experiences an animate universe of richness, complexity, potential, and imagination.
In principle, the two sides of the brain complement one another enabling us to go about our daily activities and accomplish necessary tasks (more left brain skillset), while still sensing we are part of a grander interconnected and integrated living system (a right brain skillset).
Iain opines that since the Enlightenment, our Western civilization has moved increasingly to the left (i.e. left-brained thinking), “…drunk on the belief that it knows everything and can fix everything.”
In a recent essay, Resist the Machine Apocalypse, Iain notes the similarity between the left brain and artificial intelligence-processing which he says can be seen as “replicating the functions of the left hemisphere at frightening speed across the entire globe.” But unfortunately, there’s no right hemisphere to complement and balance this exaggerated AI “perspective,” as a right-hemisphere holistic worldview, by its very nature, cannot be divided into data, bits, and algorithms. (NB, Iain refers to AI as artificial intelligence-processing since AI does not have actual intelligence.)
How the carbon pulse brought about a shift to the left
Energy is everywhere. All beings give and receive energy through actions, words, sounds, smells, thoughts, feelings, intentions etc. Even at death, there is an exchange of energy as our biomass is converted into nutrients that feed the Earth or nourish the ocean, in the case of marine life. Life is the interplay and flow of energy systems acting upon and through one another, weaving together and evolving into an infinitely complex and exquisite tapestry of ever-changing forms and happenings. The right hemisphere of the brain understands this implicitly and embraces the change, while the left hemisphere holds steadfast to its beliefs and a static world view.
The single most life-changing discovery that brought about our move to the left (left brain, not politic) since the enlightenment was the advent of fossil fuels. What Nate Hagen refers to as the carbon pulse is the ever-so-tiny moment in time we’re living through now. The discovery of fossil fuels has monumentally increased our available “manpower,” dramatically curtailing and interfering with the flow of natural more human-scale energy. The influx into our civilization of vast amounts of exogenous energy has altered our economy, way of life, values, and relationship to one another and Earth.
The carbon pulse and the evolution of consciousness
We have experienced much material wealth and comfort with the additional energy, and it has enabled extraordinary inventions and possibilities. But we are beginning to sense there’s been a profound tradeoff. The “story of separation” has come to permeate our world and has taken up residence within us. We have experienced the dire consequences of a world where true giving, receiving, and perceiving have been subplanted by more, faster, and growth at all costs; and tech and AI have made this loss yet more pronounced.
Thankfully, Earth’s supply of quality crude oil is finite and beginning to dwindle. And renewables, which are dependent on fossil fuels and other Earth elements, only serve to kick the can down the road.
The societal transformation the carbon pulse has brought about, has played a significant role in the evolution of our consciousness and has prepared us well for the denouement and sequel that will follow. We have learned first hand what happens when we veer too far to the left and lose touch with the wholeness of life.
How things will unfold is an unknown. But from what we’ve seen and experienced first-hand, it appears that exponentializing our current way of life would be absurd.
Control our appetite or redirect it?
Reining in our appetite for ever more would be a never-ending battle, as chasing physical pleasure, sensations, and “stuff” is a built-in feature of human nature…at least when we’re this far off course. What we desire seems never enough and to never last. And controlling desire feels like a hopelessly exhausting battle when we’re submerged in a world of perpetual growth decoupled from well-being and the biosphere, and further exponentialized by tech and AI.
If we are to steward Tech and AI with wisdom, so the world doesn’t become yet more left-brain lopsided, we must find another outlet for desire.
Redirecting desire toward expanding consciousness
Rather than waging a never-ending war to control our appetite, we can redirect our desire for expansion, and growth toward consciousness itself. With unending and ever-expanding more right-brained consciousness, we will no longer be a blight on Mother Earth and can begin to live as one with her.
What would inner expansion to a more enlightened value system entail?
Aligning ourselves with more enlightened values will involve settling back into the true infrastructure of life – the natural world. It will entail disconnecting from our current hyper-technologized and super-charged pace of life, and slowing down to experience more. We can begin to partake of and live from the substance and richness of our inner world where enough is truly and generously enough.
As we settle into a more peaceful rhythm, we will find a world of simplicity and subtlety inviting us ever deeper into the gentle vibrations of being. Where the finest murmurings of life can be experienced directly in their true essence and vibrancy and where the voice of our intuition is at long last heard and heeded.
Noticing the taste, textures, feel, colors of a single grape can awaken gratitude within us, which itself is a gift. The touch of Earth beneath our feet as we open ourselves to the songs of life and the scents and caresses of springtime. Discovering a portal through which we can enter and walk in the garden of satiation – a garden of just enough, and no more. We may find our souls nostalgically weeping tears of joy as we taste the sweet point of satiation we lost so long ago.
As this expanding consciousness joyously spreads her wings and begins to dance freely from person to person, traveling on the waves of light-filled eyes and open hearts, accompanied by the music of laughter and held aloft by the flowering of deeds of kindness, neighborhoods will begin to bustle with farmer’s markets, festivals, music, art, dance, friendship, and a thriving sharing economy.
In Iain’s words, we’ll need “spontaneity, openness to risk, and trust in our intuition in order to exercise imagination and creativity—and in order to be alive and truly present.”
Each one of us will unharness our unique soul and set it free to find its way Home.
As we re-engage with the right side of our brains and this more sentient wholistic view of life, we may no longer be constrained by the broad-brushed strokes of the spoken language; and our more enlightened consciousness may spread through the fabric of life at lightning-fast speeds. Thought by thought, intention by intention, and deed by deed. Faster even than the speed of the AI rollout.
Addendum:
In Chassidus – the more mystical teachings of the Torah – the “good” and “bad” inclinations are often seen to be in a tug-of-war within each of us. The good inclination, aka the Godly soul, urges us to do what’s right; and the bad inclination, or more instinctual soul, tempts us to give into our baser instincts. The Godly soul is sometimes likened to a pure Still Small Light; and the more instinctual soul, to a raging fire. Ultimately, these seeming opposites will come together, and the fire of the instinctual soul will intensify the light, power, and passion of the Divine soul.
Perhaps that’s where we are now in our grand journey through time and consciousness. The seemingly endless parade of wars, violence, greed, and corruption along with our insatiable appetite for ever more resources and control – our collective “instinctual soul” – can serve as fuel to ignite our love and reverence for Life. … As the brief carbon pulse dissolves and we feel our way into a new civilization where we understand – with all our heart, soul, and might – we are One.
See Also:
Nate Hagen
https://www.natehagens.com/
https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/about
Daniel Schmachtenberger
Podcasts: Soulfire Session 1: With Daniel Schmachtenberger
The Psychological Drivers of the Metacrisis | John Vervaeke, Iain McGilchrist, Daniel Schmachtenberger
"Artificial Intelligence and the Super Organism" | An interview by Nate Hagen.
Websites: https://civilizationresearchinstitute.org/
https://civilizationemerging.com/dharma-inquiry/
Charles Eisenstein
Machines Will Not Replace Us
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Hope Begins in the Unknown
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Lovely and sharp overview of the left-right brain model in relation to AI. I have worked with the L-R brain paradigm in education (specifically I'm a math learning specialist) for decades and am now also a serious student of our current world trajectory, also using Schmachtenberger, Eisenstein as part of my guidance system. I also head up C.L.E.A.R., Citizen League Encouraging Awareness of Radiation, so am reminded of AI costs by seeing this article's and others' treatment of AI as regressive in amplifying data stream and electrical power use. There seems no limit to the multiple ways our current technological path takes us not toward utopia but closer to our demise. Thanks, Patricia!
You wrote, "There seems to be no limit to the multiple ways our current technological path takes us not toward utopia but closer to our demise." Agreed. It's definitely discouraging.
What keeps my hopes up is the possibility there'll be little uptake of AI and robots. I sense that although industries are excited about AI, most of the rest of us are saturated to wazoo with clumsy, cumbersome, mechanical, technologized stuff. There are likely a few good uses for AI such as researching a specific disease or such, but beyond that, prayerfully, sanity and real life will prevail.