2:42 a.m.
Hi advisore. Sorry for the time it took to reply. I have been traveling.
Congratulations Garth, this is definitely a feather in your cap. Lots of
excellent reading on this topic in this extensive collection. I do
encourage all to take a quick look at some of the summary info. Editors
did some quantitative surveys among authors about potential impacts
which does skew towards negative in many categories.
Re: Garth's quote below about potential impact of large tech companies:
In focusing their attention on AI’s essence as a consumer artifact, their development of
agency in AI risks making agency serve corporate ends and therefore become parasitic and
dehumanizing. ...
Right. This was exactly the battle in early days of the Internet as
activists looked for ways to avoid the Internet as consumer artifact.
Battle lost, unfortunately, to these same corporate titans who are now
developing AI. AI has taken a back seat at the moment to what is
happening politically. I am wondering which of these developments will
have a larger impact.
Marita
Marita
On 2025-04-02 8:15 p.m., Garth Graham wrote:
> In a report published today ……
>
> Janna Anderson, Lee Rainie. “Expert Views on the Impact of AI on the Essence of Being
Human.” Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center. April 2, 2025.
https://imaginingthedigitalfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Being-Hu...
>
> ……. I am pleased to find my essay response published in full:
>
> Garth Graham. Relational Systems of Individuals + Synthetic Agents Can Extend the
Cognitive Boundaries of Collective Consciousness, Enhancing Its Resilience – But Only If
Humans Have Agency. Pp 96 – 101.
>
> I am gratified to still be included in the Center’s database of 2,000 “experts” on
imagining the Internet’s future and the potential impact of digital change. Many of the
experts quoted in this report have a far higher profile than I do, but there I am!
>
> In this survey, they asked an open-ended essay question. “Over the next decade, what
is likely to be the impact of AI advances on the experience of being human? How might the
expanding interactions between humans and AI affect what many people view today as ‘core
human traits and behaviors’?” Of over 300 responses, nearly 200 of the experts wrote
full-length essay responses to that qualitative query. Their insights are featured on 228
pages of the report directly following the introductory sections. My essay is included in
Part I, where the authors here focused mostly on how individuals’ native operating systems
might change.
>
> Also, in Section 7, on “Experts’ views on change in humans' individual agency and
the ability to act independently in the world,” contains a quote, page 21, extracted from
my paper
>
> “Maintaining humanity while extending consciousness requires ownership of that
which simulates the individual’s being in the world. The world’s largest tech companies
are fixated on AI as a commercial product. In focusing their attention on AI’s essence as
a consumer artifact, their development of agency in AI risks making agency serve corporate
ends and therefore become parasitic and dehumanizing. ... When we can act collaboratively
with a trusted AI simulation of our self, we will be experiencing extended cognition with
joint responsibility for collective action. Agency without responsibility is malignant. We
prompt and inform our AI and our AI prompts and informs us. Having the individual, not
corporations, in control of action is the key to remaining human as extended consciousness
reframes our realities.” - Garth Graham,
>
> GG
> _______________________________________________
> Advisors mailing list -- advisors(a)tc.ca
> To unsubscribe send an email to advisors-leave(a)tc.ca