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2019, Aufsatz Assistive systems, Culture, Cultured AI, Cultured technology, Ethics, Interactive systems, Manners, Objective spirit, Philosophy of technology, Social appropriateness

A Ulysses Pact with Artificial Systems

How to Deliberately Change the Objective Spirit with Cultured AI

Gransche, B.: A Ulysses Pact with Artificial Systems. How to Deliberately Change the Objective Spirit with Cultured AI, in: Wittkower, D. (Hg.): Computer Ethics – Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings “Risk and Cybersecurity” (2019), Art. 16.

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Der Artikel entstand aus dem Vortrag von Bruno Gransche auf der CEPE 2019

Der Artikel entstand aus dem Vortrag von Bruno Gransche auf der CEPE 2019

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Abstract

The article introduces a concept of cultured technology, i.e. intelligent systems capable of interacting with humans and showing (or simulating) manners, of following customs and of socio-sensitive considerations. Such technologies might, when deployed on a large scale, influence and change the realm of human customs, traditions, standards of acceptable behavior, etc. This realm is known as the “objective spirit” (Hegel), which usually is thought of as being historically changing but not subject to deliberate human design. The article investigates the question of whether the purposeful design of interactive technologies (as cultured technologies) could enable us to shape modes of human social behavior and thus to influence those customary standards that determine what is considered (in‑)appropriate. Which moral rules could (possibly) guide such interventions into the normative fabric of our human social relations? Would it, for example, be appropriate to design technology to exhibit (or simulate) cultured, polite, or moral behavior in order to educate (or nudge) individuals to socially desired behavior? This could be called “deception as a way to virtue” – a thought which can already be found in Kant.

Another way of utilizing technology to deliberately influence the social and individual dimension of human behavior would be what the article – inspired by an episode in Homer’s Ulysses – introduces as “Ulysses pacts”: Ulysses, the cunning hero, enters into a pact with his crew to tie him to the mast and disobey all orders while near the Sirens – a strategy of assisted self-constraint. Ulysses-pact technologies might be a means to force us to stick to our commitments by resisting giving in to our weakness of will at a future point in time so that we cannot revise earlier decisions and commitments. Do Ulysses-pact technologies support us, for example, in the autonomous achievement of desired behavior, thus helping us on a path to virtue, or are they but a ruse, devised to drill predictable consumers?

Link zum Artikel auf den Seiten der CEPE Proceedings, wo er auch kostenlos in Vollversion heruntergeladen werden kann
Link zum Vortrag von Bruno Gransche auf der CEPE 2019 über das Thema des Artikels

 Contracting with artificial assistants could get us into the position of a technosphere Ulysses with a crew of sassy assistants who assist – polymechanos-style – by denying assistance. Possible goals range from acquiring and surviving mantic truth to mastering passions through modesty with polite self-constraint. On an education level, this assistance would not mean delegating the performance of a task, but rather supporting the supervision and regulation of de- and upskilling processes for desired abilities such as navigating by map, organizing a wedding, or behaving in a socially appropriate, personally recognized way.

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