This is a review of two recently released books discussing hierarchical governance as seen through the lens of Chinese political philosophy, both modern and Confucian. It poses interesting...
This is a review of two recently released books discussing hierarchical governance as seen through the lens of Chinese political philosophy, both modern and Confucian.
It poses interesting questions, though with a slant calculated to avoid disturbing the current Chinese hierarchy:
Arguing for a need for a clear definition of the hierarchy between humans and machines, they suggest that Confucian thought should be used to reshape the ethical basis for artificial intelligence (AI). Writing about the development of driverless cars, they point out that many of the Silicon Valley assumptions about AI being able to “read” a car owner’s preferences simply extrapolate the current American assumption that the norm is individual automobile ownership. Chinese or Japanese drivers may be more accepting of collective ownership, and cars may be programmed in “Confucian” ways to emphasise lower speeds to allow traffic to flow constantly, creating a state-defined hierarchy where safety trumps individual desires to zoom to the edge of the speed limit.
Whether you agree or not (and anyone who has seen rush-hour drivers in Shanghai might doubt just how Confucian they are), Bell and Pei have identified a key issue: ethical use of AI, like all other types of ethics, will have to be culturally inflected in other societies by norms that may be very different from those of the US. This is an important debate that is only in its early stages.
This is a review of two recently released books discussing hierarchical governance as seen through the lens of Chinese political philosophy, both modern and Confucian.
It poses interesting questions, though with a slant calculated to avoid disturbing the current Chinese hierarchy: