Humanist Response Guides
The purpose behind our Humanist Response Guides [HRGs] is to help people ‘think for themselves’ and better understand some of the difficult conundrums that society is facing as a result of recent advances in information technology and the evolution of social media, coupled with growing inequality, rising inter-state tensions and climate breakdown — and the collapse of the rules based international order. We are focused in particular on four areas:
1) Living Worthwhile & Fulfilling Lives in Challenging Times
2) Outing Fake News, Misinformation & Lies & Curbing its Reach
3) Aligning Artificial Intelligence with Humanist Values
4) Fulfilling Our Duty of Care to Humanity & the Natural World.
The problems associated with each of the above are summarised below and this is followed by links to our growing list of HRGs. Most of these Guides are in two formats, an overview and a longer presentation with links and a list of actions we would encourage people to consider.
[The HRG initiative is new and we very much welcome comments and suggestions. Buttons in red should work; those in grey are notional. The titles of the units are illustrative and the numbering is provisional.]
1 Living Worthwhile & Fulfilling Lives in Challenging Times
Trying to live a 'good life' in these difficult and fast-changing times is not easy given the level of social polarisation and growing tension in the world. Moreover, many of the issues we are facing are fiendishly complex and it’s not always obvious how best to respond to the threat they pose. And whilst much has been written about the topic of living an ethical and fulfilling life this invariably seems to focus on the theory rather than practice, and it’s the latter that’s our primary concern.
2 Outing Fake News, Misinformation & Lies & Curbing its Reach
‘Bad information’ — unfounded conspiracy theories, ‘fake news’, half-truths and lies — polarises opinion and erodes trust in authority, the media and democracy; it also undermines social cohesion and the integrity of our knowledge base. Deepfake images and AI-generated content are of particular concern as they are becoming increasingly difficult to detect and platform business models / algorithms are facilitating and turbo-charging their spread.
3 Aligning Aritificial Intelligence with Humanist Values
A number of humanist values — truth, human rights and social justice in particular — are directly threatened by developments in AI, for example, hallucinating chatbots and the spread of Al slop. Another concern is the impact of AI on society and what it means to be ‘human’ — some people are already asking if AI is making us dumber with our ability to think critically and use language creatively, "slipping away" as we "sit back and let AI do the dirty work for us". Ingratiating ‘personal assistants’ and 'digital delusion' are of particular concern, along with 'digital twinning'. [1]
We would like to see AI bots clearly labelled and deceptive impersonation outlawed whilst making sure to protect satire and humour, and legitimate situations where anonymity is important.
4 Fulfilling Our Duty of Care to Humanity & the Natural World
Humankind has shown itself to be incapable of dealing effectively with the degradation and wholesale destruction of many of our world’s most important ecosystems and tackling biodiversity loss and controlling greenhouse gas emissions.[2] Indeed, global warming is leading to growing climate instability, loss of productive land, livelihoods and lives, with unprecedented heat, wind and rain leading to increasing population displacement.
Footnotes
1] Digital twinning involves producing a digital replica of someone (often the Chair or CEO of a company) that can ‘think’ and write like they do and stand in for them. It will have been trained on the totality of their correspondence and presentations...
2] Major contributory factors to this situation include short-term thinking and the interference of vested interests, not least those associated with the fossil fuel industries.
