Mercurial > thoughts

     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 

    92
author	Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu>
date	Fri, 27 Sep 2013 13:07:27 -0400
parents	df7950667f58
children