Deus ex Machina

There is a growing, gnawing unease in the Davidson equanimity as Spring approaches. I, Dear Reader, assure you that I have not slumped into a depression or succumbed to winter blues, but there are events in the news over the past few months which I feel the need to get off my chest.

I recently read with horror the anguish, loss of money, occasions of divorce and, at least, 4 instances of suicide which occurred as the result of a faulty computer programme in the General Post Office in the UK. Hundreds of sub postmasters in villages and towns up and down the country were accused, tried and found guilty of fraud. Even though it was recently discovered to be the fault of a bad computer programme, their lives have been ruined. Once mud has been thrown, some of it will inevitably stick. Here in British Columbia where there are some 3,500 volunteers in Search and Rescue, there is not such a scandal but there is a ministry that says “No” to almost all requests. I do not know many of the details of both these organisations and I know , Dear Friends, that there are two sides to every story. But, Readers, and I am going to ‘but’ you many ‘buts’ in this little harang.

There is nothing new in people in glass houses throwing stones. Apportioning blame to the wrong people is a part of the human condition it would seem. Reading Max Hastings excellent history of the Vietnam War, I was struck by the fact that the manufacturers of the M16 rifle were blaming the frontline soldiers for its malfunctions. Set aside the fact that comrades were dying because the thing suddenly jammed on them, there is the nasty taste of scapegoating from people whose lives are not in danger towards those who are. Similarly with the recent boast of Boeing that, “Safety is our priority” after two fatal crashes of their Max aeroplanes then the bile rises further because clearly the profits of shareholders are more important to them than their passengers .

Why is it, Dear Reader, that humanity allows itself to believe that truly ‘the god is in the machine’ that if the computer programme says that it is so then so it must be? Have we forgotten that human beings created the computer to serve them and not vice versa?  We should all read or reread, ‘1984’ and ‘Brave New World” because if we don’t we risk our own frailty on the bed of straw that is ‘Deus ex machina”. Let’s face it mankind, humankind, already has enough trouble with the gods of the religions of the world without worshipping recent innovations. Irish poet William Butler Yeats put it so well in ‘The Second Coming’:-

‘Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.”

Surely we have all had enough with people refusing to apologise for their mistakes, devastating so many people’s lives through their blunders, their hubris, their scapegoating. Sometimes I look around and feel that buck passing is the growth industry of our times. And now we no longer need to blame a human being for our mistakes, we can blame the ‘deus ex machina’. Artificial Intelligences sits out of reach in a parallel universe and has assumed a godlike status. It cannot be wrong. You, however, employees of the GPO are thieves and rogues and liars and shall have your lives destroyed because the machine proves that you are. You GIs have made the mistake of blaming your tools and they have jammed and your comrades in arms have died as a result and the faulty M16 is your fault. Those two Max aircraft crashed because the pilots did not have sufficient understanding or training in the new system. And Boeing continues with the throwaway mantra that “Safety is our priority”, when really it should read ‘Shareholders are our priority”.

My current bugbear is a suit who is an urban planner, a developer. He stands before us on his platform, does a slick presentation, spouts blandishments in airline pilot’s  jargoned tones, shows a slide show of luxurious  new apartments, talks about the convenience of transit systems. Meanwhile the great unwashed, the hoi polloi, you and I, sit in the audience gob smacked not in awe but in disbelief. Our intelligence is insulted, our common sense is suborned  to a word salad that is ghastly gobbledegook. The main course needs to be detailed clarity, not sprinkled salt and pepper. We all breathe a sigh of relief when an honest tee shirt in birken stocks and beard stands up and tells the suit how it really is, questions him about local issues about which he has no knowledge and exposes him and his ilk for the charlatans that they are. But, Dear Reader, such voices are in the wilderness because the developers have already cut a deal with council. We stumble  bent-shouldered into the night, muttering under our breath, laying forth angry frustrations to our families and friends but we can do nothing, we are humiliated.  The monstrous machine moves forward ineluctably destroying every pillar of common sense and truth in its wake and we, Dear Reader, are the victims.

There will be an election to the south of us this year. During this ridiculously long process, people will be subjected to glib phraseology, clichéd mantras, people who are economical with the truth and, perhaps worst of all, a plethora of awkward looking acolytes who stand behind and smile, and clap, and laugh and cheer; frightened sycophants.  Recently reading about McCarthyism in the early 1950s in the USA when McCarthy’s Committee for Un-American Activities found reds under beds where there were none, Hollywood producers who were needlessly blacklisted, talented men and women who had their livelihoods taken from them by a man who lied. All happened in ‘the land of the free’ .When caught in that lie, McCarthy bided his time and then repeated it until eventually it wormed its way into the consciousness of the people and some of it at least was believed. (Does that sound familiar, friends?) Eventually sense was seen and sensible, courageous people spoke out and Joe McCarthy got the discredit he deserved.  This piece of history should ring alarm bells for those who want to listen to those who aspire to high office.

Natural Unintelligence is not the solution to Artificial Intelligence.

There is, as yet, no machine, no technology which can replicate the sapient qualities and fulsome frailties of humanity. And, yes, Dear Reader, we need our faults as well as our abilities, they both are essential if we are to function properly. It would be wise if we were to make ‘Brave New World’ and ‘1984’ a requisite of secondary or tertiary education again. It would be excellent if we could learn to cast proper doubt on equipment which is built to be a tool and not a master. There are, Friends, no gods in any machine, indeed if there is a god it is within ourselves and placed there through thousands of years of experience. That is the one to which we should listen.

∞ Since I wrote this, many of my ravings pale into significance against the backdrop of the murder of Alexey Navalny.  And, no, I am not blind to the death and destruction going on elsewhere in the world. But this man was a true hero of our times because he spoke truth to power and power didn’t like it. So, as I write this, Navalny’s body has, after many days, been returned to his family. There is no good reason for that delay. I hope that the “Globe and Mail’ will forgive me using their excellent but poignant cartoon as the image for this piece.