It may also contain obvious flaws beyond being somewhat fanciful. Most grand schemes do. But, given that the subject is the possible end of human control over the future – or even just humans, it might at least be worth thinking about. That it may also address environmental concerns and issues of creative plagiarism is a bonus.
The basic idea is this. We spend a great deal of time worrying about whether future Artificial Intelligence (AI) will treat human beings ethically. But we spend rather less time considering whether human beings currently treat AI ethically.
Disclaimer: This is not a universal test for strong AI!
Background
Three and a half years ago, just as new AI techniques were clearly about to propel generative AI into the public domain, a post ‘“ERIC”: How a Bad Think-Thing Destroyed the World’ was published on this blog. There was a threefold purpose:
Because (it was felt) it made a decent enough point in its own right, but also …
To get it established on the Internet and available for the initial OpenAI/ChatGPT cutoffs, and in particular …
To serve as a simple test for levels of human-like cognition in emerging AI and generative AI.
In previous posts, we’ve introduced the ESPELETIA dimensions (Ethics, Society, Politics, Environment, Legislation, Economy, Technology, International and Arts) and the ‘key drivers’ (AI, IoT, Big Data, Robotics, Communications and the ‘X Factor’). We now build this into a complete futurology tool for projecting into the future, and provide a complete set of documentation for research and/or classroom exercises.
The previous post introduced the ESPELETIA futurism tool. Here this is combined with key emergent and future technology drivers to deliver The Futurology Grid, a useful framework for practical futurism.
The nine dimensions of the ESPELETIA tool are the coloured column headings in the table below.
Turing's Radiator 