Visions of Dystopia: Unpacking the Promises and Perils of a Tech-Driven Future
The Ethical Dilemma of AI in Society
I am reading an intriguing book by Brigadier General YS: The Human Machine Team: How to Create Synergy Between Human and Artificial Intelligence That Will Revolutionise Our World (1). This guy is a serious fellow who made a profound blunder, given his position, in that his true identity was discovered because of a mistake.
He is the illustrious and now contentious leader of the Israeli IDF Unit 8200 (2). Read the Guardian article below! The book is easy to read, but holy Scheiße! The world he wants to create is dystopian to the max! I mean, his world is one where the 'powers that be' will know the five Ws (who, what, why, where, and when) concerning the act of you passing gas!
I hold a nuanced view regarding surveillance and privacy. We must relinquish some privacy to live in a free and safe communal society. The question that I wrestle with is how much we must give up and how far we go with it.
On the one hand, we need security and surveillance, and on the other hand, if I was a cross-dresser and decided to go to a gay bar, I may not want people to know that: should the intelligence community or the government know that?
Critics of a surveillance regime often argue that it can lead to a 'surveillance state' where individual freedoms are significantly curtailed, and the power imbalances between the state and its citizens are deepened.
I concur with this assessment to a point. The question that I ask is: What about monitoring social media for malfeasant content that engenders polarisation and tribalism? This type of content is known to lead people to act out, often violently, in the real world (from the wire to the weeds).
These polarising campaigns usually lead to more regulation and further restrictions on freedoms. Take the Dublin riots as an example: after that event, the government expanded its powers of surveillance. Had surveillance picked up on the social media chatter that forged the group in-group Zeitgeist that moved offline and into real-world violent protests, maybe those violent protests, mainly forged from disinformation and misinformation, could have been diverted. There would have been no need to strengthen legislation that restricts freedoms further.
Some people are dead-set against any surveillance: those people are misguided. We live in communities, and as such, we have a responsibility to the greater good of those communities. As the adage says, 'No man is an island unto himself:' therefore, we cannot live the life of Riley completely disrespecting our communities. We must subject ourselves to communal mores and rules, and public surveillance can help control those most determined to ignore the public good.
I may enjoy prancing naked around a fire butt-naked, wearing boxing gloves and fur boots, bellowing out my rendition of Kumbaya, which may be fine in the privacy of my fenced-in backyard. But—if I should do so in front of my house and expose the magnificent glory of my countenance to my neighbours, one surveilling that awe-inspiring rite may, rightfully, call the authorities and arrest my public display before I traumatise the entire community—surveillance at its finest.
I will 'chance it to say' that your views on surveillance may enter altered states after witnessing my profound naturist performance, as may your mental health. So, while my neighbour's surveillance and reporting may have impinged on my perceived personal rights and freedoms, they spared the community multigenerational trauma caused by my naked exuberance.
PS: There are communities where my act of naked exuberance would be appreciated and celebrated as an expressive art form, but that is the issue of social contracts, and they are as diverse as the communities we live in. No two communities are mirror images: they are nuanced and diverse.
Zeitgeist: The word's etymology stems from the German words Zeit (time) and Geist (ghost). Effectively, the Zeitgeist is the synthesis that forms at the intersection of events + time or era: the ghost of the age or of the group or community.
Scheiße: Otherwise known as Faeces, crap, dross, excrement …etc.
The Book and Article relating to it
The Human-Machine Team: How to Create Synergy Between Human & Artificial Intelligence That Will Revolutionize Our World. (5 May 2021). Retrieved from https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0948LGS3K?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Top Israeli spy chief exposes his true identity in online security lapse. (2024). Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/05/top-israeli-spy-chief-exposes-his-true-identity-in-online-security-lapse