Blackrock's "I am Aladdin" or the influence of AI on human economic and social development
The biggest threat to humanity does not come from Artificial Intelligence in the future.
Let's look at artificial intelligence.
Aladdin is a computer program (neural network) in charge of $ 15 trillion Dollars of human capital, or 7% of the worlds financial assets.
The employers of Blackrock investments base their buy or sell decisions on the analysis of this 'Aladdin' and they see themselves as extensions of it. They are its agents. Ref.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin_(BlackRock)
The agents of Blackrock (claim to) rely on the authority of this marvelous machine.
That people quite easily take leave of their judgment and human responsibilities to mistaken authority is illustrated in the Milgram experiment. There, people were told to do bad things to others by an authority under a phony pretext, and they complied, without regard for the consequences. They simply obeyed and did as they were told.
They continued to apply electric shocks to their counterparts, until they apparently died (the counterparts were actors, but that wasn't known to the test subjects).
It makes no difference whether orders come from a human or a computer, as long as the pretext is its authority.
The authority which is ascribed to Aladdin comes from the human belief that artificial intelligence is inherently more capable than human and that AI will succeed humanity. The analytical abilities and speed of a computer program are doubtlessly impressive.
Yet, its underlying assumptions are based on a simplified world model that doesn't take into account all human factors.
Some assumptions are plain wrong.
Cost cutting and Capital maximization is not (always) in the best interest of people, or the greater good.
Humans are not machines.
In a a Youtube video of a Blackrock commercial Blackrock employers were made to say this:
I am Aladdin!
I had linked to the video. The video has subsequently been deleted. I guess Aladdin isn't totally stupid.
But it's touchy. Won't be linking any more video.
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Brain, mind, consciousness, matrix etc. are words used a lot by people that believe that we could or should upload our consciousness into a machine.
Our brain is the tool in this reality to go about our daily lifes, as such, most of it's (the brains) processes are automated.
I look at my body from a different perspective, and this is where I decide how to interact with the "matrix",
through the brain and body.
We are agents of the Cosmic Nous.
What is the Cosmic Nous?
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I was asked by a correspondent how one interacts with the "matrix" through the brain?
 Hello D.,
How we interact with the "matrix" through the brain?
I draw on the work of Penrose/Hameroff. The matrix is our agreed upon reality.
The brain is a semi-autonomous agent. Many responses are automatic. The control over our bodies is exercised through our brain. But the brain is an intermediary for a consciousness that is not local.
Pavlov did not just experiment on dogs to measure the saliva reflex. He viewed the brain, in humans and dogs, as an automaton, which in response to stimuli (and like clockwork) reacts with conditioned reflexes.
Psychologists Pavlov and later B.F. Skinner (with positive reinforcement techniques),
believed to be able to exercise mind control.
In the movie of the Wachowski Brothers then Sisters, the hero called Neo (New) is shown to be plugged into the "Matrix".
The title of a "Time" magazine cover is a reflection of this.
In this matrix we are at the mercy of conditioned reflexes that we have been taught,
some of which are necessary for the cohesion of society as a whole.
 B.F. Skinner showed that pigeons could be conditioned to perform certain actions in response to stimuli.
In response to Skinner I would say: "could you teach a pigeon the alphabet, instead of simply "peck" and "turn"?
The turning of the pigeon is not a reflex, it is the result of a complex learning experience. Revolutionary pigeons they are.
.
The conclusion that many have drawn, also from the preceding work by Pavlov,
is that the human body (and mind) acts like an automaton, with involuntary responses to certain prompts.
This is not the whole truth.
Whilst it is true that the human body secretes saliva in response to food,
it is not as much an entirely involuntary action, in the sense that it is not (always) unconscious that we salivate.
The body does perform certain operations in an automated way,
but the idea that our brain operates like a programmable computer (brain washing and mind control) is false.
 We are already plugged into the matrix, figuratively speaking. It is the matrix of social and physical reality that has been taught and our complex responses to this.
It is the role of the new (Neo), to enable us to become true individuals, autonomous agents of our self.
Our 'self' has its roots not in classical mechanics but in the metaphysical world, exemplified by quantum theory in the abstract.
The question is, how will the human batteries that power the global economic system through their work, react in a new system?
A new system, were power is not based or biased with and by those that already have power.
Power is mediated through spin of information.
The origin of the word "revolution" can be traced to quantum mechanical concepts. That is my spin.
 Humans will not gain immortality, as the "Time" title suggests, by plugging into a man made computer system.
In AI, you will only find what other humans have programmed, as you find in our reality today.
It is only a pastime. We are "on hold", as it may be, as long as we don't take immediate responsibility for our productive and creative output.
We are placated by commonly held beliefs, that this is the "way of the world".
That may be true of this World.
We may do here what is expected of us, that seems to underpin current theories.
But that does not preclude the possibility of conscious thought.
Humans are and always will be unpredictable.
Because, at the end, we are afraid to cease being a being.
Transhumanism proposes a solution, but it will spell the end of the human race.
It is a cul-de-sac, which is demonstrated by following the AI experiment to its conclusion.
Although there is no conventional way of knowing the outcome, I propose an unconventional solution:
Human consciousness is not based locally.
It can be called a non-local hidden variable.
Who would not rather be an agent of the "Cosmic Nous" than of Aladdin (AI),
which is synonymous with constructed reality?
References.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
Pavlov, Skinner, Wachowski, et all...
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