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A World of Views: A world of Interacting Posthuman Intelligences
Boekbijdrage - Hoofdstuk
1 Sociotechnological evolution
We interpret Singularity as a process of achieving an escape velocity
of intelligence expansion from the constraints of biology. This is the
most significant evolutionary transition we expect to take place in
the history of humanity and probably life on this planet.
1.1 A process rather than a singular event
Society is a complex interconnected network of agents which possesses organic characteristics such as self-organization, self-regulation,
coordination and adaptive behavior. This complex adaptive system is undergoing an accelerating evolution which drives humanity's
transition from a biological to a postbiological stage.
The dynamics of the sociotechnological system is identified in cybernetic evolutionary terms as the structural coupling of two sub-
processes affecting both the system and its environment: physical
modification and production of models. These two mutually rein-
forcing processes embody the accelerating expansion of intelligence.
Yet, myriad of non-linear amplifying effects involved in this dynamics have the effect of pushing the system towards unpredictability
and instability. Which kinds of instabilities are probable to develop
and whether they will take the system to the next evolutionary phase
or disintegration depends on the organization of the system and its
plasticity.
1.2 Beyond 'us and them'
Sociotechnological cybernetic evolution cannot be satisfactorily described in terms of a confrontation between 'us' (humans) and 'them'
(machines). This description is a naive oversimplification that does
not contribute to our understanding of the process. It is more ad-
equate to treat both as biological and post biological intelligent
agents. Agents in a complex adaptive system operate according to
their models of the whole system, other agents and themselves. Therefore, going beyond the 'us and them' narrative would decrease the
probability of conflict between humans and machines and increase
the probability of cooperation.
This perspective also supports a gradual convergence of humans and
machines as a more plausible and informative scenario which
to a certain degree has been taking place ever since the emergence
of humanity as a tool making civilization.
1.3 A network of heterogeneous actors
In this re-framing of the 'brink of Singularity' situation we follow
Latour's ontology of actants, networks and alliances of power as
determinants of reality. The network consists of humans and
technological artifacts with diverse degrees of autonomy, intelligence
and sentience, organizations combining humans and machines and
also models and narratives as agents exerting power in the system.
2 Sociotechnological evolution and diversity
We develop a guiding principle based on Taleb's concept of anti-
fragility and analysis of biological evolution for decreasing the
existential risks involved in such unstable transition.
Following this principle, failures within the system need to be localized while successes need to be distributed. Since agents derive
behaviors from their representations, diversity of their worldviews
and modeling approaches is supportive to the overall robustness and
anti-fragility of the sociotechnological system.
3 The shifting of systems of constraints
We introduce meta-evolutionary considerations arguing that the dynamics of the sociotechnological system will eventually transform the
selectors which drive its own evolutionary process.
Present sociotechnological development still follows the directives of
biological evolution i.e. it selects variations according to their capacity to ensure survival under conditions of limited resources. We
believe that circumstances of increasing abundance will exert selective pressures on the forces that propel the evolutionary process itself
and by that will become second order evolutionary drivers.
A novel system of selective forces based on resource abundance will
become dominant in guiding sociothechnological evolution. This sys-
tem of forces will be shaped by the need to meaningfully express the
freedom and uniqueness of intelligent agents after concerns of survival will have become redundant. The expression of these forces
will be primarily aesthetically oriented and not survival based, i.e.
shaping the environment to reflect choices of style and worldviews.
4 Distributed social governance
We propose distributed social governance as the paradigm for im-
plementing and facilitating the sociotechnological system outlined
above.
Distributed social governance is a collective use of social system design. This is an intellectual technology for a future-creating
disciplined inquiry by which alliances of intelligent agents seek realizations of their visions about the future.
The multiplicity of social system design processes will create an environment where all power alliances within the sociotechnological
system are engaged in the design of the future according to their
visions and dialogue with other alliances.
We next analyze distributed social governance in terms of two aspects: explicit organization comprised of overt social institutions and
implicit organization shaped by culture, social norms and world-
views. While the explicit aspect emphasizes planning, foresight and
downward causation, the implicit aspect highlights self-organization
and the bottom-up influences of individuals and their alliances. We
argue, that both aspects are tightly coupled and critically significant
to a healthy dynamics of the system.
A critical aspect of distributed social governance is an educational
ecosystem providing a diversity of worldviews and opportunities for
biological as well as post-biological intelligences. This educational
ecosystem would provide the unity of the otherwise diversified world
of views.
We interpret Singularity as a process of achieving an escape velocity
of intelligence expansion from the constraints of biology. This is the
most significant evolutionary transition we expect to take place in
the history of humanity and probably life on this planet.
1.1 A process rather than a singular event
Society is a complex interconnected network of agents which possesses organic characteristics such as self-organization, self-regulation,
coordination and adaptive behavior. This complex adaptive system is undergoing an accelerating evolution which drives humanity's
transition from a biological to a postbiological stage.
The dynamics of the sociotechnological system is identified in cybernetic evolutionary terms as the structural coupling of two sub-
processes affecting both the system and its environment: physical
modification and production of models. These two mutually rein-
forcing processes embody the accelerating expansion of intelligence.
Yet, myriad of non-linear amplifying effects involved in this dynamics have the effect of pushing the system towards unpredictability
and instability. Which kinds of instabilities are probable to develop
and whether they will take the system to the next evolutionary phase
or disintegration depends on the organization of the system and its
plasticity.
1.2 Beyond 'us and them'
Sociotechnological cybernetic evolution cannot be satisfactorily described in terms of a confrontation between 'us' (humans) and 'them'
(machines). This description is a naive oversimplification that does
not contribute to our understanding of the process. It is more ad-
equate to treat both as biological and post biological intelligent
agents. Agents in a complex adaptive system operate according to
their models of the whole system, other agents and themselves. Therefore, going beyond the 'us and them' narrative would decrease the
probability of conflict between humans and machines and increase
the probability of cooperation.
This perspective also supports a gradual convergence of humans and
machines as a more plausible and informative scenario which
to a certain degree has been taking place ever since the emergence
of humanity as a tool making civilization.
1.3 A network of heterogeneous actors
In this re-framing of the 'brink of Singularity' situation we follow
Latour's ontology of actants, networks and alliances of power as
determinants of reality. The network consists of humans and
technological artifacts with diverse degrees of autonomy, intelligence
and sentience, organizations combining humans and machines and
also models and narratives as agents exerting power in the system.
2 Sociotechnological evolution and diversity
We develop a guiding principle based on Taleb's concept of anti-
fragility and analysis of biological evolution for decreasing the
existential risks involved in such unstable transition.
Following this principle, failures within the system need to be localized while successes need to be distributed. Since agents derive
behaviors from their representations, diversity of their worldviews
and modeling approaches is supportive to the overall robustness and
anti-fragility of the sociotechnological system.
3 The shifting of systems of constraints
We introduce meta-evolutionary considerations arguing that the dynamics of the sociotechnological system will eventually transform the
selectors which drive its own evolutionary process.
Present sociotechnological development still follows the directives of
biological evolution i.e. it selects variations according to their capacity to ensure survival under conditions of limited resources. We
believe that circumstances of increasing abundance will exert selective pressures on the forces that propel the evolutionary process itself
and by that will become second order evolutionary drivers.
A novel system of selective forces based on resource abundance will
become dominant in guiding sociothechnological evolution. This sys-
tem of forces will be shaped by the need to meaningfully express the
freedom and uniqueness of intelligent agents after concerns of survival will have become redundant. The expression of these forces
will be primarily aesthetically oriented and not survival based, i.e.
shaping the environment to reflect choices of style and worldviews.
4 Distributed social governance
We propose distributed social governance as the paradigm for im-
plementing and facilitating the sociotechnological system outlined
above.
Distributed social governance is a collective use of social system design. This is an intellectual technology for a future-creating
disciplined inquiry by which alliances of intelligent agents seek realizations of their visions about the future.
The multiplicity of social system design processes will create an environment where all power alliances within the sociotechnological
system are engaged in the design of the future according to their
visions and dialogue with other alliances.
We next analyze distributed social governance in terms of two aspects: explicit organization comprised of overt social institutions and
implicit organization shaped by culture, social norms and world-
views. While the explicit aspect emphasizes planning, foresight and
downward causation, the implicit aspect highlights self-organization
and the bottom-up influences of individuals and their alliances. We
argue, that both aspects are tightly coupled and critically significant
to a healthy dynamics of the system.
A critical aspect of distributed social governance is an educational
ecosystem providing a diversity of worldviews and opportunities for
biological as well as post-biological intelligences. This educational
ecosystem would provide the unity of the otherwise diversified world
of views.
Boek: The End of the Beginning: Life, Society and Economy on the Brink of the Singularity
Pagina's: 373-427
Aantal pagina's: 54
ISBN:978-0692457665
Jaar van publicatie:2015
Trefwoorden:Fragility, Antifragility, Sociotechnological evolution, Worldview, Abundance, distributed govenance, Cybernetics, reflexivity, Accelerating change, diversity, openess, Singularity