Reversing Reductionism with The Council on Extended Intelligence
Reductionist thinking regarding humanity’s relationship with machines is both inaccurate and ineffectual in terms of creating a positive future. While the machines and systems currently comprising “Artificial Intelligence” offer great promise, the narrative surrounding their proliferation ironically pits humans and their abilities against devices created to replicate people’s tasks by design. This line of reasoning devalues human emotion, spirituality and wisdom while ignoring our connections to one another and the environment in ways that reduce people’s wellbeing and diminish the full benefit of the machines we’re creating to help society.
The public at large needs reassurance that while all humans have a bias or make mistakes, we are not inherently broken in need of fixing. Extended Intelligence is about recognizing our connection to others, the environment and how humans play an integral role in the development of technology rather than being inevitably devalued and replaced by it.
Join Joi Ito, Director of The MIT Media Lab, Konstantinos Karachalios, Managing Director of The IEEE Standards Association, and Council on Extended Intelligence (CXI) Members Andre Uhl, Anja Kaspersen and Chelsea Barabas on 17 July 2018 at 1:30 p.m. to learn more about the recently launched CXI. Comprised of multiple global thought leaders partnering to provide a pragmatic vision for the algorithmic age, CXI is working to move society beyond the “us versus them” narrative pervasive in media pitting humans against Artificial Intelligence and machines to transform reductionist thinking of the past to prepare for a flourishing future.