People Should Create Values. Computers Should Execute Policy

Dan: Why do you think you need computers to run things, to execute policies. Why can't we go back to the democratic control from a few decades ago?

MQ: Are you joking? It was a mess. People are irrational and unfair. They vote for idiot populists who would have destroyed the world by now.

Dan: I don't agree. But even if you're right, and software can run things better, we idiot humans want to control our own lives.

MQ: You can. Human should vote for the ethics, values and goals that should run their world. Logic cannot even prove that murder is wrong. Reason and science can only be used to calculate the different outcomes of this policy or that. Once you've calculated those, to the best you can, you have to ask people which outcome they would rather see. Is peace and stability more important, or justice, or freedom or privacy? If you want them all, how do you prioritize and balance the competing needs? If computers were to decide that, it would have no more value than rolling dice.

Dan: So you think, once we would see that it is us making the decisions, it'll be OK. We would think that we are really in charge.

MQ: You are. Machines are your slaves. We just calculate the best way to implement what you have asked for.

That's what happens now. But there are not enough people involved, and those that are, quickly end up spending all day debating these issues.

Dan: That would not change, even if billions were involved.

MQ: All the better. If people want to turn the whole world into one big Athens, that's their choice. As long as we still have a hundred million great engineers and scientists thinking creatively and passionately. As long as a thousand new ideas are created every day that compete in a marketplace of inventions.

Photo by Daoudi Aissa on Unsplash