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add thoughts on mind's eye
author Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu>
date Fri, 27 Sep 2013 13:06:26 -0400
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1 #+title: Ethics of Mind's Eye
2 #+author: Robert McIntyre
3 #+email: rlm@mit.edu
4 #+description:
5 #+keywords:
6 #+SETUPFILE: ../../aurellem/org/setup.org
7 #+INCLUDE: ../../aurellem/org/level-0.org
8 #+babel: :mkdirp yes :noweb yes :exports both
9
10 * COMMENT Ethical Considerations Regarding DARPA's Mind's Eye Program
11
12 As scientists and engineers, it is our sacred duty to explore the
13 boundaries of human knowledge in a responsible way. We are part of the
14 larger organism of humanity, and tasked with discovering new things
15 that help the race first, and all life second.
16
17 While knowledge and non-sentient technology is neither morally good or
18 evil, the things we discover are embedded in a wider cultural context,
19 and in many cases it is possible to foresee possible uses and abuses
20 our new technology will enable.
21
22 It is naive to think that the government or any group of humans is
23 either wholly good or evil, but by reasoning from the
24 motivations/power of such groups, we can try to infer whether a
25 technology will improve the lot of humanity or not.
26
27 It is possible to give and institution/culture a technology that they
28 will enthusiastically accept, but which will greatly diminish their
29 quality of life.
30
31 Some examples:
32
33 PGP -- an encryption suite that can help individuals to send messages
34
35
36
37 * Questions
38
39 - What should our ethical place be in deciding whether or not to
40 pursue research?
41
42 - Follow orders, assume our overall culture will use things
43 responsibly, and leave the ethical considerations to the
44 government/people.
45
46 - Many scientists who worked on the atomic bomb later questioned
47 their decisions.
48 - Yet, an advanced society /should/ have atomic weapons, if for
49 nothing else than to defend themselves from meteors, blow shit
50 up, etc.
51
52 - We are each morally responsible for the things we help create. We
53 are responsible for the misuses of technology we develop and the
54 pain and suffering it causes. Ultimately our contributions to
55 society will be judged by whether our technology did more good
56 than bad.
57
58 - If we decide that we *are* morally responsible for the technology we
59 develop, then is the Mind's Eye project in particular something we
60 should be doing?
61
62 - Here are some things you can build with Mind's Eye tech:
63
64 - System to monitor single humans living alone and call for help
65 in the case of emergencies (such as a fall)
66
67 - Same system for hospitals and nursing homes (of course, this
68 also makes them even more impersonal)
69
70 - The equivalent of a FBI special agent watching everything you do
71 from the moment you step out your door to the moment you go back
72 to your house to sleep, building a dossier of every move you
73 make, everyone you talk to, where you shop, etc.
74
75 - A concentration camp / prison that is ABSOLUTELY impossible to
76 escape from.
77
78 - Many other countries that don't care as much about human rights
79 as America will use this technology to monitor their citizens
80 24/7.
81
82 - Protection from surveillance in you own home does not apply
83 unless you *own* your house. Say goodbye to privacy in school
84 dorms, apartments, rented houses, etc.
85
86 - People are OK with current surveillance because it is
87 *dumb*. Mostly people only use security camera footage in the case
88 of crimes, and it is a painstaking process because it requires
89 manual human intervention. With AI, this will soon not be the
90 case.
91