That’s a highly condensed form of an idea that began with this thought: You have no business making decisions about the deployment of technology if you can’t keep people on the dance floor for three sets on a weekday night. There are a lot of assumptions packed into that statement. The crucial point, however, is the juxtaposition of keeping people dancing (the groove) with making decisions about technology (the machine).
What did I have in mind? I was specifically thinking about the decisions currently being made about the development and deployment of artificial intelligence and the hype driving those decisions. In particular I was thinking about pouring billions of dollars in developing the infrastructure to support AI. The most prominent example is the Stargate project, introduced by President Trump in the presence of executives Larry Ellison, Masayoshi Son and Sam Altman:
Really? Color me skeptical.
What bothers me is that these decisions are being made by a relatively small group of billionaire technology executives, but the resulting technology commitments will affect us all. What do these people know or care about human happiness? How does that figure into their decisions? Is it really true that more wealth for the technology sector, means more wealth and happiness for all of us?
That’s where keeping people on the dance floor comes in. Speaking as a musician with considerable experience, I know that that is not easy. I also know that, when it works, it’s the best feeling in the world. This, or something like it, is a real question.
Of course, not everyone is a musician. To satisfy that condition you might demonstrate your ability to deliver a tight 10 minutes in a (local) comedy club and get laughs. Or you might be a moderately skilled salsa dancer. For that matter, keeping a 6-month-old baby entertained for half an hour or an hour might fulfill the requirement as well. Basically, can you, do you, make yourself happy by making others happy?
First, the groove. When you can groove, then, and only then, should you be allowed to use the machine.
“Are you really serious?” you might ask, “Do you really think being able to jump for joy is a prerequisite for making decisions about the development and deployment of technology?” I am afraid that, in the society we live in, the answer to that question is: “Nothing, nothing at all.” Or, at any rate, very damn little.
I suspect, though I’m not prepared to argue the point here and now, I suspect that we’re on the verge of creating technology which would all, facilitate, the transmission of wants, desires, fears, and hopes, to transmit those things from individual moments through the social web in a way that enhances life for all, enhances happiness. But this isn’t going to happen as long as that technology is in the hands of greedy self-regarding billionaires. That last is no doubt something of a fiction, for reality is more complex, but still, I’m going with the fiction for the moment. Whatever, whoever, is running the world, they know little and could care less about happiness. I’m willing to pin that on President Trump, Larry Ellison, Masayoshi Son, Sam Altman, and the rest of them.
For example, Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, venture capitalist, and AI executive as well, is one of the better ones. He’s recently published Superagency: What Could Possibly Right with Our AI Future. I recently bought a copy and discovered, lo and behold! that I was entitled to a custom cover. All I had to do was fill out an online form and upload a picture of myself.
The fact of the matter is, I don’t happen to have many head-shots lying around, so that requirement was a bit inconvenient. Yes, I’m a photographer, so why not take a headshot of myself? Aside from the fact that I didn’t want a photo on MY CUSTOM COVER, at that time I was having tech problems that made it impossible for me to transfer photos from my cameras to my computer for upload. So, I looked around for a head shot. It had to meet some simple criteria (above).
It turns out that those guidelines proved to be impossible for me. I tried several photos, but none of them were acceptable. Here’s three out of about a dozen:
Well, I didn’t particularly like any of them either. One got rejected because it was a side view, though by the third criterion listed above, front view isn’t required. In the third case it couldn’t distinguish my hair from the seat-back. OK, I can see that, but what am I to do about it? When I tried it again, it told me there were two faces in the picture. What? I wasted fifteen or twenty minutes trying to come up with a photo that satisfied some minion’s idea about what would make a good custom cover for me. I finally gave up. Instead, I submitted the photo of some third person that satisfied the AI minion. I’ve not yet received my custom cover, but I do have an email saying it’s on the way.
Now, you might be inclined to say that that’s a minor matter and I should just ignore it. What’s a custom cover anyway? And, you know, I’d like to agree, I really would.
But I can’t. Why not? Because Reid Hoffman is an AI evangelist trying to show me how wonderful an AI-enhanced world will be. To do that he’s sending me, absolutely free of charge, a custom cover for my copy of his book. “You see,” he’s telling me, “This is what AI will be able to do for us. Customize everything to our exact expectations.” The message I got, the message in the manner, however, was quite different, “You will, little man, meet our specifications of what’s good for you.” That, frankly, is not a world I want to see.
As I said, Reid Hoffman is one of the good ones. If that’s how the good ones act in the world, what about the rest of them?
No, don’t sell your soul to the machine. Groove first, then drive the machine. Otherwise, the machine will drive you.
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