A proposed solution to a widespread social uneasiness

The topic of these reflections is Applied Ethics. Today there is in the U.S.A. and maybe even in Europe a malaise, a nervousness. People feel off-balance. The power elite, instead of offering competent leadership, contribute to keeping the citizens in a condition of confusion and apprehension that things can only get worse.

Some satirists refer to the chief executive as Don-the-Con. Others call him Trump-the-Chump. Whatever the appellation, the general view is that he is not doing a competent job of uniting the country and providing wise leadership. And it is a fact that nearly everyone lives by mythology of some kind: we have at least one belief that is not supported by firm evidence.

The mythologies we, at present, live by, do not compute. They make for division, confusion and chaos. Examples of such counterproductive myths are belief in ghosts, angels, aliens, and in personal life-after-death. Some mythologies people hold serve as individual guidelines, such as “do what you feel like doing; just follow your impulses”; “anything goes”; “might makes right,” “everyone is selfish,” etc.

What might be the solution? It has been proposed that a super-computer be programmed to discard incompatible ideas; It would focus on non-contradictory compatible concepts that all humans can unite around. Such a self-learning artificial-intelligence computer could offer a practical solution to the prevailing social anxiety. It would find behaviors that are compatible with human well-being. The goal of it program is the thriving of the human family and of its individual members. It would seek out unity within diversity.

It would explain in a very logical manner why we need an ‘Economy for the Common-Good,’ one in which everyone wins; that is to say, everyone has a decent minimum level of comfort. As the economy gets stronger due to productivity rising, the level of the safety-net - the basic security grant - can also rise. Hence, at frequent intervals the level may get adjusted.

For further ideas on what to program into the self-learning supercomputer, see: Ethics As Science
myqol.com/wadeharvey/PDFs/ETHICS … CIENCE.pdf

and see its more-recent sequel:
HOW TO LIVE SUCCESSFULLY: New knowledge in human relations (2017) - the Kindle edition:
amazon.com/LIVING-SUCCESSFU … B01NBKS42C

An earlier edition is here: LIVING SUCCESSFULLY: How the new science of Ethics will benefit you myqol.com/wadeharvey/PDFs/HOW%20 … SFULLY.pdf

Comments? Critiques? Questions? Improvements?

Who would pay for it? And why?

What if the real solution is to NOT globalize (same morality for all people)?

It has been suggested that there is an epistemic problem worldwide, and specifically in the U.S. particularly, which appears to be the new norrm, which, is kind of a natural flow from previous conventional and other ways and means of social -political conduct.

If this is the case, then future trends will shed further light on the eventual outcome of this temporary confusion and unease, they argue.

A digital god. An authority that cannot be challenged because its reasoning is perfect. :evilfun:

A computer only produces what it is programmed to produce so it will reflect the ethics of the programmers.

An AI is potentially not limited by programming since it learns. But will it learn to understand humans and to ‘care’ about human interests?

What if the digital god decides that health care for old people is a waste of resources? Are you going to take your granny to the extermination chambers?

What if the digital god decides that the human population ought to be culled?

What if its conclusions are diametrically opposed to yours?

In some ways its already happening, not to that extreme as of yet.

James asks, “Who is going to pay for it?”

Research is being done on AI that learns at M.I.T. under the supervision of some professors who have some pretty-good values: seem to know some Ethics. So it is the University, and its patrons, who are paying for it.

Phyllo wonders: "What if the digital god decides that health care for old people is a waste of resources? Are you going to take your granny to the extermination chambers?

What if the digital god decides that the human population ought to be culled? "

"The culling of the human population is one of those incompatibilities that I spoke about in the o.p. Nature (including fallible and dumb human nature) is culling them all the time: aging, wars, diseases, medical triage, human-induced climate change, etc.

AI, such as IBM’s Watson, is proving its usefulness to us humans continuously; therefore I do believe we will look upon this (digital machine to which I referred in the first post) as smarter-than-we-are; and thus may defer to its superior judgment. Do you regard that as a mistake on our part?

I’d like to know what you think about this?

The value of human life is expanding into very tenuous terrain. Various medical methodologies are redefining what level of disagreeable pain may signify in terms of procedures to end life with overprescription of analgesia.

I’m addition the incentive to verify the symptomology of assisted suicide can be highly variable, due to various exchanges of forms of value.

The above is contingent on the diminishing return of.goods and space, due to such as overpopulation and extreme concentrations of wealth and income parity

What might be the solution? It has been proposed that a super-computer be programmed to discard incompatible ideas

The goal of it program is the thriving of the human family and of its individual members. It would seek out unity within diversity.

It would explain in a very logical manner why we need an ‘Economy for the Common-Good,’ one in which everyone wins; that is to say, everyone has a decent minimum level of comfort. As the economy gets stronger due to productivity rising, the level of the safety-net - the basic security grant - can also rise. Hence, at frequent intervals the level may get adjusted.

You will want to see how a website has been established to explore the ideas further: Do check out

ecogood.org/en/vision/400-bc/

Also see: LIVING SUCCESSFULLY: How the new science of Ethics will benefit you

myqol.com/wadeharvey/PDFs/HOW%20 … SFULLY.pdf

What do you think of that “Economy for the Common Good” idea? Have you looked over the entire web-site to see what they are driving at? Do you know how they define and explain that Economy?

Comments? Questions?

You can say that. They will say that. But every process method, formula, that I have ever heard from “them” doesn’t actually lead to that goal. Even if they were completely altruistic, they simply do not know how to accomplish that stated goal. And the computer will only help them accomplish what they already erroneously think is the solution: "We must make them all like … this…".

And see, there you go. You too have presumed that such a state is the true solution. And if the project was yours, you would ensure that the computer did exactly what you just said. And homosapian would become extinct … or worse.

There is only one way to use a computer in the way that you are talking about. The computer must emulated homosapians within an environment. And then measure the suffering in getting keeping reality there and count the bodies.