The guardianship of the computer
The first steps in the development of an "ethicosphere" have already been made
Before I begin with the matter to which I would like to dedicate this essay, I would like to point out in retrospect that I have sometimes succeeded, including in the works of "fantastic" science fiction, future inventions and discoveries, or their future influence on the earthly Foreseeing civilization, but I have sometimes, as I will show the example of the "ethicosphere", also erred and hit like a shooter, but not exactly the black, but just next to it. The phantasmagoria portrayed as narratives and fables should not normally be literary prophecies. I have not sought to unveil any "true" future, but merely to try to imagine what civilization, which reaches a higher level of development, can do, so that it does not freeze and destroy itself.
Whatever I could think of, it was the result of a search for possible solutions in the technical field, and it was very important to me that I could understand their feasibility myself. Even if at the moment they should appear like a fairytale overcoming of society-threatening conflicts that can be defeated with traditional methods as well as how the police together with the military can stop a volcanic eruption or an earthquake and render it harmless.
Part of the great global dangers is known to be actively caused by technological civilization. For example, chemical fumes heat the climate, resulting in the melting of glaciers and dangerous changes in large areas of the atmosphere. It is also known that there are plans against the harmful technologies that are to be combated by "rescue technologies". However, since the cost of the latter would burden the owners of the former, no one is in any great hurry to implement such saving stabilization measures.
I did not think that big deeds entail big costs but wrongly underestimated this obvious link between investment in innovation and capital investment.
I suppose that humanity would not be indifferent to those processes which threaten its existence. Since someone hungry and eating an apple-roasted duck does not swallow either fork or knife, I thought the same would apply to the largest global scale. However, if my duck consumption is indirectly related to my neighbor having to swallow knives or, less metaphorically, knowing that the agony of geese in rearing does not spoil the appetite for goose liver soaked by a painful fattening, then the matter may uncomfortably complicated. The rule: "What you do not want to be done to you, that does not add to any other", is then no longer true.
However, that was just a side note as I wanted to show how I came up with a technological project beneficial to society and how it began to materialize in our own time. I just add that the Chinese - like children who fly kites - had no idea of the air pressure acting on the kite during gliding and also allowed intercontinental flights of several hundred passengers. Sometimes theory advances practice - especially a game practice - and sometimes theory, as in the case of the hydrogen bomb.
In the novel "Der Lokaltermin", which I started writing in 1970 and published in 1982, you can find the following section:
"Any community that appropriates the forces of nature is beset by dramatic shocks, the desired wealth brings with it undesirable consequences, violence and coercion acquire new forms and reinforcements in the new techniques, and the following relationship seems to arise: the greater the power over the Nature becomes, the greater the social degeneration - and indeed it is so - to a certain limit, which results even from the order of discoveries, that is, from the fact that it is simpler, from nature, its destructive power than its friendly (...) The potential for destruction is becoming a value that can be acquired - this is a new historic threat ... "
The fictitious heroes of my book, the Entians, have begun to use their planet to use nanotechnology to enhance the environment to become their perfectly safe protector.
"With us," says a learned Entian, "there has been a synthesis of the new solids and the new forms of their surveillance, the two pillars of our civilization, we call their union the ethicosphere."
It's about the "molecules of good," that is, "intelligent molecules" that work in such a way that no one could do anything to his neighbor that would be uncomfortable to him, such as driving someone down the street, hitting someone, but killing himself, crushing his vehicle on a concrete pillar, etc. But let's let the Entian continue:
"The saving change is the creation of a system of knowledge that is accessible in its entirety - but not for living beings, since none of them would be able to carry this immense size." (I would add that this is the vision of an Internet containing all the information.) "None of the speckles (the" intelligent molecules ") are single, taken in isolation, universal, but taken altogether are universal. (Protective, SL) Universalism is accessible to everyone, if necessary, these powers can be invoked at any time like a jinn in a fairy tale, but no one can do it directly, because that can only provide 'intelligent molecules' do not use this invisible colossus against another ... "
The "intelligent molecules" are in the book, so to speak, a kind of extension of the universal laws of nature. You can not gain energy out of nothing and you can not exceed the speed of light. The "ethicosphere", on the other hand, means that you can not torment, murder and detain your fellow man against his will. You can not do that to any people on the planet. The "intelligent molecules" even try to resist the forces of nature, eg during a flood. The novel portrays many attempts to outwit "the intelligent molecules" so that they can be abducted, killed or terrorized. But enough here now about "Lokaltermin". If someone wants to know more about the ethics' action methodology, he should use the book himself.
Of course, there is no ethicosphere under the rule of Bill Gates and his empire (Microsoft). These narratives are pure fantasy. But approaches can already be found today. The first flight across the English Channel was ended with a landing in the water, but not quite a hundred years later, the globe could be turned around in one fell swoop. Although the ethicosphere itself hides dangers that are difficult to eliminate completely, the first examples of such "rescue technologies," the first pioneers of the "ethicosphere" and the "intelligently refined environment," appear on the scene. In what shape?
In real shape, for example, as placed on the edges of the highway, computer-controlled systems that send oncoming cars signals that are invisible to the driver and unnoticeable by small onboard computers in the car (which would be just as obligatory as the brake system would be) received, so no vehicle to exceed the speed set for that section of the road. Lawning and overtaking would be impossible, and if an unseen commandment commanded to drive at walking pace, the car would obey, even if the driver ate the steering wheel. Police and emergency vehicles would, of course, be exempt.
There are already devices that determine whether the driver is sober or if he has alcohol in his blood, but the equipment of the vehicles is not compulsory for manufacturers. Similarly, thermal sensors operate in buildings that set fire sprinklers in motion when it becomes alarmingly hot due to the outbreak of a fire. It has also come up with sensors that monitor whether the driver is not drowsy. With the control to observe the eyelids, a corresponding mini computer is busy, which steers the car with the dormant driver on the edge strip and stops. There are many types of immobilizers, but anyone can know how to develop a method, as thieves and experts know. In Saudi Arabia, there has been a heightened level of theft by radically separating the thieves from one hand, which has allegedly helped. I emphasize that I do not advise, but only want to notice that an audible alarm in the car can yell until the battery is empty. A car can be towed backward in a blockage of the transmission stick.
If such passive methods of car protection turn out to be in vain, then active protection arises - single examples for it can be found also in my "Lokaltermin". For example, if a stranger tries to start the car, it can be filled with a milky, opaque smoke. A phone booth will give the one who tries to rob them a neat one on the pear. Incidentally, I do not intend to multiply these actions here, because then it would be about "molecules of beating," that is, "libel," not "intelligent molecules," atoms of ethics that prolong the continuity of the laws of nature.
Similar protections are now proliferating since the network communications of banks, brokers, stock exchanges, corporations, or corporations have devoured billions in investment, and it has since become clear that an Anglo-Saxon rascal "playing" with millions of dollars across continents is destroying an entire consortium can drive. Here you would need programs that work on the well-known Lenin principle: "Trust is good, but control is better." Of course, the software would have to be secure, and in our vale of misery and scandals, it would quickly turn out that we would then enter into a regressus ad infinitum of ever higher control systems. Incidentally, I was by no means only positive sides of the environment improving "Ethikosphäre" demonstrated in the "Lokaltermin". It also has to bring significant negative innovations. If there were no safes, there would be no safe corkers. Even a small child understands that.
I had a comrade in my Lviv grammar school, an athletically trained repetitee, who benefited from our breakfast by always grabbing the best, like the ham or the fruit. So I took a big red apple that I extracted from my father's syringe as far as I could and replaced it with a solution of kitchen soap. During the break, I could watch as the schoolmate flushed foam from his mouth under the tap. Obviously, the idea of protecting food from such attacks already tormented me at that time. I mention this not only as a mere gimmick, as it comes in addition to abductions or death threats to kidnappers, for example in Germany more often attempts to blackmail millions under threat of poisoning of foods (mayonnaise, spices, juices, etc.) in supermarkets. Tiny little objects that cause a loud alarm when someone tries to carry some garment out of the store have been in use for many years, but even counting these alarming elements as "pre-intelligent molecules" is problematic.
There are now chains in use that can not be removed by a convict. The place where he is right now is always visible on the police computer. The human technoethical ingenuity must struggle with human meanness because otherwise there is no solution. Nevertheless, one can already observe today the first approaches, the individual "feelers" of the world under surveillance, supervision, and care of a plethora of computers. At the moment, there is no "computer-craze", that is, a government-machine machine (machine à gouverner) that the Dominican Father Dubarle had derived from Viennese cybernetics as a possibility in 1948 in "Le Monde". Also, there is not yet the Nanobots (Nanoknirpse of Drexler), who are dedicated to the employment of doing good things everywhere.
But let's wait. Intel is already working on the production of chip prototypes that are 100 times smaller than the smallest today and have a bit capacity that is 1,000 times greater. The computing power should be subject to a sudden increase, which would make Deep Blue something of a scooter compared to a Formula 1 car. In addition, the power of Bill Gates has already been endangered by some consortia. The point is, Gates wanted about 40% of the US-equipped households and companies connected to the network using modems to go without their computers. They represent the most expensive part needed to surf the net. Everyone would just have a keyboard and a modem with them. He would have access to computers and operating programs on the network.
The idea is this: not everyone has their own power plant, as it is enough to have a connection to the mains. I have my own small power plant, ie a generator in the garden because the Krakow power plant is rather unreliable. And if you have a lot of devices that are powered by electrical energy, a power-generating device is necessary. For me, the reason is that many overseas television crews come to my house to do interviews, and sometimes the electricity is suddenly "gone." So on this principle, Bill Gates wanted to cheapen the use of the network. However, it was countered with an even cheaper in the implementation idea. After Bill is still a monitor required, but his competitors said: Not necessarily! More than 60% of households in the US have televisions that turn their screens into Internet monitors, and instead of a keyboard, a small console with just a few buttons is enough.The TV screen shows links for programs (banks, travel agencies, etc.) and the user will click on what he needs with a cheap mouse. You would probably need to buy a modem or just borrow it. The difference in costs would amount to a few hundred dollars. These battles in the electronic services market, however, leave me cold: I know that my computer will soon be outdated, because the innovative trend is so fast at the moment. In any case, I think that you can already follow the sprouts of the ethicosphere.
Why do I dare to introduce the external speed limiters (which are the administrative imperatives of road traffic engineering), the weapons smuggling "defeaters" (security entrances) at airports or the "driving inhibitors" of the drunk drivers as the groundbreaking beginnings of the "ethicosphere"?Because we are surrounded by more and more devices that monitor us and that reduce personal freedom and thus the extent of individual responsibility for our actions. We are slowly coming under the tutelage of computer systems that seemingly increase our space of freedom, but in reality - supposedly for our benefit - reduce it.
Written in October 1997
