Artificial Stupidity

A permanent human task is to fight against one's own stupidities. That is why it is so important to keep that sensor of consciousness very active, which is shame. One can surprise himself by snarling behind the wheel of a car, shouting barbarities and threatening to tear other drivers apart. It's a pretty common stupidity. If you have not activated the application of shame, you may end up in a catastrophic mess.

The most striking of some cases of corruption is to see how people of alert intelligence had completely disabled that application as simple and essential as shame. It is inexplicable how a person can ruin their moral patrimony by stealing creams or by paying the excursion to a hostess club with a public money card. Just as it is considered aggravating to use a disguise in the commission of a crime, shame should be punished. I think it would be an effective way to fight corruption: the sentence for "lack of shame." And what exemplary would be a resignation if the formula were given: "I resign by shame". Or better yet: "I resign ashamed of my own stupidity."

Artificial stupidity affects the behavior of each of us, so it is urgent to develop the technology of artificial shame. With the terminals, especially mobile, usually occurs what is seen with firearms and the effect "trigger easy". That is the trigger that ends up dominating the finger that shoots. It is the trigger that orders, instead of receiving orders. In the so-called "social networks", it is very easy to get stupidity. The keyboard, the drive of the shot, directs the mind that corresponds with apodictic messages: brief and high-sounding as stupid orders. It's the conclusion I've reached after experimenting with a Twitter account. Artificial stupidity has the first effect of damaging or neutralizing the sense of humor. It takes time to be aware of this deterioration, because artificial shame is still less developed than natural shame.

On a large scale, as a dangerous practice of large digital content companies and data agencies, artificial stupidity can become a plague in a world where the superstition of technological solutionism extends. I recently heard one of those cyber gurus proclaim in a providential tone: "In 10 years everything, everything, everything will be in the cloud!". The Black, by Baudelaire, came to mind, and those verses: "What do you love most, enigmatic foreigner? / I love the clouds ... the clouds that pass ... far away ... the wonderful clouds! " But this other great cloud is on its way to being a gigantic castle in the air to which we will entrust all digital production, the computing of souls. Only that the keys will be in the hands of the new digital oligarchy.

Artificial stupidity is a kind of syndrome coined by Frank Pasquale, professor of law at the University of Maryland, and author of the book The Black Box Society. In his essay End the traffic of personal data (Le Monde Diplomatique, May 2018), written in the wake of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica case, Pasquale argues that the "right of explanation" should be incorporated into fundamental human rights. What does it consist of? "That citizens can demand to know the logic of fully automated processes that make judgments about them."

Our data, all that can be obtained, and are increasingly, are being stored to be used and sold without our knowledge. Not only for political or commercial advertising. Also to mark us when looking for a job, a mortgage, an insurance. And predict our actions. Pasquale denounces that the opaque and "cybercriminal" traffic is still a taboo. Artificial stupidity could beat artificial intelligence. Unless shame, as an ethical warning, take action on the matter.