In which we are joined by Ezri of Swampside Chats, to continue our discussion of "Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgement to Calculation" by Joseph Weizenbaum.
Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation (1976) by Joseph Weizenbaum displays the author's ambivalence towards computer technology and lays out the case that while artificial intelligence may be possible, we should never allow computers to make important decisions because computers will always lack human qualities such as compassion and wisdom.
Weizenbaum makes the crucial distinction between deciding and choosing. Deciding is a computational activity, something that can ultimately be programmed. It is the capacity to choose that ultimately makes one a human being. Choice, however, is the product of judgment, not calculation. Comprehensive human judgment is able to include non-mathematical factors such as emotions. Judgment can compare apples and oranges, and can do so without quantifying each fruit type and then reductively quantifying each to factors necessary for mathematical comparison.
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057 - The Capitalocene, with Bob Neubauer, Part 3
056 - Socialist Labour Time Planning, with Tom O'Brien, Part 2
055 - Socialist Labour Time Planning, with Tom O'Brien, Part 1
054 - The Capitalocene, with Bob Neubauer, Part 2
053 - The Capitalocene, with Bob Neubauer, Part 1
052 - Down and to the Left, with Tom O'Brien
051 - Riding for Deliveroo, with Callum Cant
050 - Organizing for Power, Part 2
049 - Organizing for Power, Part 1
048 - Cooperative Self-Management, with Loomio
047 - Organisational Closure and Autopoiesis
046 - Eliza, Part 2
045 - Eliza, Part 1
044 - Digital Socialism, Part 2
043 - Digital Socialism, Part 1
042 - The Implausibility of Intelligence Explosion
041 - (Re)Designing Freedom, with Swampside Chats, Part 2
040 - (Re)Designing Freedom, with Swampside Chats, Part 1
039 - The Necessity of Extended Autopoiesis
038 - The Viable System Model
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