Technooptimism assumes that scientific and technological progress plays a key role in solving the many problems of humanity. However, it must be admitted that excessive enthusiasm has already become a source of imperfect designs that have made life difficult rather than easier. The pursuit of an all-encompassing digital future turns into techno-chauvinism. Technologies do not provide answers to all questions, and their implementation has certain boundaries. All this is in the book “Artificial Intelligence. The Limits of the Possible”(publishing house“Alpina Non-Fiction”), translated into Russian by Ekaterina Arie, says Meredith Broussard, data journalist and lecturer at the Arthur Carter Institute of Journalism. N + 1 invites its readers to read an excerpt,dedicated to the formation of the existing technoculture and the dangers of worshiping geniuses at the forefront of technological progress.
The ability to see through surface markers such as physical appearance is one of the remarkable features of the culture of mathematicians. And a disadvantage at the same time, especially when contempt for social norms leads to the fact that mathematical ability is valued above social life. Subjects such as mathematics, programming, and computer theory were tolerant of antisocial behavior, since the perpetrators were geniuses. This attitude forms the philosophical foundation of techno-chauvinism, which is characterized by the primacy of an effective code over human relationships.
The tech industry has also inherited a cult of genius worship from mathematicians. This cult has led to the formation of many myths; not only do they reinforce the boundaries of the industry itself, but they hide structural discrimination. Mathematicians are obsessed with genealogy.
There is a popular crowdsourced genealogical project on the Internet, a list of mathematicians, their “ancestors” and “descendants”, organized according to who and where their doctorate was obtained. Minsky's line of intellectual "inheritance" can be traced back to Gottfried Leibniz (1693). To understand why this is important, it is worth looking at the history of modern computers.
Abacus, as you probably remember from school, can be considered the first "computer". The abacus is a device based on a decimal system, because people have 10 fingers and toes. The abacus, a modern version of which is abacus, looks like a frame with a wire and 10 beads on it, and has been used for calculations for centuries.
The astrolabe, which was used for astronavigation at sea, was the next stage in the development of computing technology. This was followed by different kinds of clocks: water, spring and mechanical. Although they were all important and ingenious inventions, a major breakthrough in the design of computing devices occurred in 1673, when Gottfried Leibniz, a German lawyer and mathematician, created a device called a "step counter", now known as the Leibniz arithmometer. The adding machine contained a set of gears rotating with a crank. As soon as the gearwheel scrolled through the nine to the "zero" position, the neighboring one added one. Each gear was a "step" in increments of ten. This design was used to build calculating machines for the next 275 years.
Leibniz did not have time for arithmetic; he had to do much more serious calculations. After the invention of this mechanism, he uttered the famous phrase: "It is unworthy for a gifted person to spend, like a slave, hours on calculations, which, of course, could be entrusted to any peasant, if he used a machine."
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When Joseph Marie Jacquard introduced the punch card loom in 1801, it forced mathematicians to think differently about computing mechanisms. The jacquard loom worked on the basis of binary logic: the hole in the card meant one, its absence meant zero. The mechanism weaved its whimsical patterns on the basis of only whether there was a hole in the card or not.
It took several decades to comprehend before another breakthrough occurred in 1822 when the English scientist Charles Babbage began working on the difference engine. It was able to perform approximations using polynomials, that is, it allowed mathematicians to describe the relationship between different variables, such as distance and air pressure. The Difference Engine also made it possible to calculate the values of logarithmic and trigonometric functions, which are very unpleasant to calculate manually. Babbage worked on the mechanism for years. As a result, the car consisted of 25,000 elements and weighed almost 15 tons, but it never worked. In 1837, Babbage unveiled a new, better idea - a plan for an analytical engine. It was a design for a device capable of interpreting a programming language with conditional branching and loops. The analytical engine had properties that are well recognized in modern computers, such as the ability to perform arithmetic and logical operations, as well as the presence of memory. Ada Lovelace, considered the first programmer, was the author of the programs for this hypothetical mechanism. Unfortunately, the analytic engine project was so ahead of its time that it never really worked. Scientists were able to assemble it according to Babbage's designs only in 1991, and they found that the mechanism would work - with a number of other important components, such as electricity.the analytical engine project was so ahead of its time that it never really worked. Scientists were able to assemble it according to Babbage's designs only in 1991, and they found that the mechanism would work - with a number of other important components, such as electricity.the analytical engine project was so ahead of its time that it never really worked. Scientists were able to assemble it according to Babbage's designs only in 1991, and they found that the mechanism would work - with a number of other important components, such as electricity.
The next stage in the development of computing technology came in 1854, when the English mathematician and philosopher George Boole proposed the concept of Boolean algebra. Based on Leibniz's ideas, Boolean algebra is a logical system, where there are only two numbers - 0 and 1, and calculations are performed using two operations: AND or OR.
Throughout the XIX century. adding machines became more complex. William Seward Burroughs (grandfather of the writer William S. Burroughs) made a fortune on a counting machine he patented in 1888. With the advent of Edison's first light bulb, electricity became widely available and contributed to a revolution in mechanics. From now on, the advancement of electromechanics meant that anyone could add, subtract, multiply, and divide with adding machines. However, for this it was necessary to quickly press buttons - a very time-consuming job. Human calculators were still a key element of higher mathematics.
Human computing people are employees, a type of clerk who were hired specifically to perform calculations. It was they who made calculations for collections of mathematical tables. Statisticians, astronomers, navigators, bankers, ballistics specialists - in general, everyone who had to perform complex calculations could not do without these tables. After all, it is difficult and cumbersome "on the run" to multiply or divide large numbers, or raise x to some degree, or extract a root from a large number. It was easier to see the result in a pre-calculated table. This system has worked great for years. The Egyptian mathematician Ptolemy used mathematical tables in the 2nd century. BC e., in 1758, French astronomers using the same tables and the human mind predicted the appearance of Halley's comet.
However, with the advent of the industrial revolution, it became clear that the lack of calculators was becoming a significant obstacle to progress and a major nuisance for nineteenth-century mathematicians. If today it occurred to someone to hire a calculator, gender choices would be unlimited. In the XIX century. only men could be hired. And only a small number of women had a sufficient education in mathematics, of which only a few could find work outside the home. In those days in the United States, women did not have the right to vote. The Seneca Falls conference was the starting point for a movement for women's rights that could not have been thought of until 1848. However, until 1920, the amendment to the US Constitution was not adopted. The suffragette movement found support from many men, but mathematicians have never been politically active. In the book Sufragents:how women used men to get the vote.”(The Suff ragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote) My colleague Brooke Krueger has been able to perpetuate men who have fostered equality. Some of them were professors - of history, literature, philosophy. True, there was not a single professor of mathematics.
XIX century. in the United States marked by the shameful stigma of slavery. Black men and women could work as calculators, become an efficient part of the workforce, and are instead forced into slaves. Slaves could not receive education, they were beaten, raped and killed. During the XIX century. the country's colored population was widely expelled from higher educational institutions and thus deprived of the opportunity to become part of the intellectual elite. Slavery existed until the end of the century: in 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and in 1865 the 13th Amendment was adopted. However, access to education was still limited for decades, and many said there was still a long way to go before achieving fair, equitable and integrated education across the country.
Regardless of whether mathematicians realized it or not, they and other scientists of the XIX century. there was a choice. It consisted of getting involved in social change (in the processes of emancipation, equalizing voting rights, breaking class barriers) and promoting the development of the workforce through access to education and training for those who were not white men from the elite. Another option is to build machines that can do routine jobs.
They made machines.
In truth, they will always create machines. This is what they are really interested in, and what - in fact - is the vector of development of their professional activity. Indeed, then the whole world was swept by the invention of new devices that would take advantage of steam engines, electricity and other amazing advances. It would probably be unfair to expect mathematicians to also become economists (no matter how close these areas seem) and human rights activists (there was no such term in those days). In high school, I had to use math tables in trigonometry class; it was really hard, and I totally agree that machines make complex everyday computing easier. All of this shows how deeply ingrained the stereotype of the white male really is in the tech industry. Faced with the opportunity to diversify and saturate the sphere of employment of people, mathematicians of the XIX century. followed the path of creating machines that replaced man - with a large profit for capital.
Looking back into the era of Minsky, one can see how the emerging discipline of computer science inherits the stereotypes of the mathematical community of that time. As incredibly resourceful as Minsky and his colleagues were, they crystallized technoculture as a male brotherhood of billionaires. Mathematics, physics, and other "hard" sciences have never been hospitable to women and non-whites, technology is following this trend.
The story that physicist Stefan Wolfram tells about Minsky demonstrates the subtle gender sentiments of the community:
The Marvin I knew combined seriousness with eccentricity. On almost every topic he had his own - often extravagant - opinion. Sometimes it was really interesting, and sometimes it was just unusual. I remembered the early 1980s, when I arrived in Boston and rented an apartment from Marvin's daughter Margaret (she herself was then in Japan). She had a large and well-groomed collection of plants, and one day I noticed that some of them had nasty spots on the leaves.
Since I didn’t understand this (and there was no Internet where I could find out what was wrong), I called Marvin and asked what to do. And then a long discussion followed about the possibility of creating microrobots capable of driving away parasites. It was, of course, an amazing idea, but at the end of the conversation I still had to ask: "What should I do with Margaret's plants?" “Oh, I think you should talk to my wife,” Marvin replied.
Imagine this touching conversation: two famous scientists discussing nanobots, designed to destroy bacteria. Although the thought does not leave my head that these two had no idea how to take care of flowers. Instead, the responsibility of caring fell on Minsky's wife and daughter. Moreover, both were quite successful women: his wife Gloria Rudish was a successful pediatrician, and his daughter Margaret received her doctorate from MIT and ran several software development companies. However, women were also expected to take care of the plants - an invisible responsibility that men don't care about.
And since mankind has accumulated quite a lot of experience in dealing with various kinds of plants throughout history, it seems that we observe learned helplessness in both scientists. In the 1980s. it was easy to diagnose plant disease even without internet. One could just go to a local florist and describe the spots. You could go to the nearest hardware store and discuss the problem. Or you could call the local office of the agricultural education center. In any of these places, there would be a person knowledgeable in the field of floriculture. You can get rid of parasites by adding a little soap to an irrigation bottle and treating the diseased plant. Using bots on plants is, of course, a fun, but completely inappropriate idea.
I understand that it is more interesting to discuss stupid ideas, and not gender policy. This was true then, and it works today. Unfortunately, wacky ideas have taken over the public discourse about technology everywhere and the discussion of important social issues has disappeared from the agenda for years. A lot of similar ideas came from Silicon Valley, for example: buying islands in New Zealand and preparing for Judgment Day; systeding, that is, the construction of islands from decommissioned containers in order to create a paradise on earth without state power and taxes; freezing of corpses so that the consciousness of the deceased can be transplanted into an artificial body in the future; design of giant airships; the invention of a powdered meal replacement named after the sci-fi movie Soylent Green, or the manufacture of flying cars. All these ideasdefinitely creative; it is also important in life to leave room for dreams, just as important as not to take crazy ideas seriously. You need to be careful. The fact that someone has made a breakthrough in mathematics or made a lot of money does not mean at all that we should listen to them when they convince us that aliens are real or say that it will be possible to revive people in the future, therefore it is necessary to store the brains of smart people in huge refrigerators like the ones in which are vegetables in Costco stores. (Minsky was on the scientific and expert council of Alcor Cryonics, a fund for wealthy and true adherents of "transhumanism," which has a freezer in Arizona where bodies and brains are stored. The fund's multimillion-dollar security guarantees a stable supply of electricity.)leaving room for dreams is important in life, as important as not taking crazy ideas seriously. You need to be careful. The fact that someone made a breakthrough in mathematics or made a lot of money does not mean at all that we should listen to them when they convince us that aliens are real or they say that it will be possible to revive people in the future, so it is necessary to store the brains of smart people in huge refrigerators like the ones in which are vegetables in Costco stores. (Minsky was on the scientific and expert council of Alcor Cryonics, a fund for wealthy and true adherents of "transhumanism," which has a freezer in Arizona where bodies and brains are stored. The fund's multimillion-dollar security guarantees a stable supply of electricity.)leaving room for dreams is important in life, as important as not taking crazy ideas seriously. You need to be careful. The fact that someone made a breakthrough in mathematics or made a lot of money does not mean at all that we should listen to them when they convince us that aliens are real or they say that it will be possible to revive people in the future, so it is necessary to store the brains of smart people in huge refrigerators like the ones in which are vegetables in Costco stores. (Minsky was on the scientific and expert council of Alcor Cryonics, a fund for wealthy and true adherents of "transhumanism," which has a freezer in Arizona where bodies and brains are stored. The fund's multimillion-dollar security guarantees a stable supply of electricity.)that someone made a breakthrough in mathematics or made a lot of money does not mean at all that we should listen to them when they convince us that aliens are real or say that in the future it will be possible to animate people, therefore it is necessary to store the brains of smart people in huge refrigerators like the ones that have vegetables in Costco stores. (Minsky was on the scientific and expert council of Alcor Cryonics, a fund for wealthy and true adherents of "transhumanism," which has a freezer in Arizona where bodies and brains are stored. The fund's multimillion-dollar security guarantees a stable supply of electricity.)that someone made a breakthrough in mathematics or made a lot of money does not mean at all that we should listen to them when they convince us that aliens are real or say that in the future it will be possible to animate people, therefore it is necessary to store the brains of smart people in huge refrigerators like the ones that have vegetables in Costco stores. (Minsky was on the scientific and expert council of Alcor Cryonics, a fund for wealthy and true adherents of "transhumanism," which has a freezer in Arizona where bodies and brains are stored. The fund's multimillion-dollar security guarantees a stable supply of electricity.)therefore, it is necessary to store the brains of smart people in huge refrigerators, like those in which vegetables are in Costco stores. (Minsky was on the scientific and expert council of Alcor Cryonics, a fund for wealthy and true adherents of "transhumanism," which has a freezer in Arizona where bodies and brains are stored. The fund's multimillion-dollar security guarantees a stable supply of electricity.)therefore, it is necessary to store the brains of smart people in huge refrigerators, like those in which vegetables are in Costco stores. (Minsky was on the scientific and expert council of Alcor Cryonics, a fund for wealthy and true adherents of "transhumanism," which has a freezer in Arizona where bodies and brains are stored. The fund's multimillion-dollar security guarantees a stable supply of electricity.)
