Information Science is Changing our Worldview

Information Science has not penetrated our cultural responses in a way that acknowledges the change to its equal status with Physics, in determining our understanding of life and culture.  Psi - for me anyway - is one of these areas.  Psi can be addressed as a natural outcome of how minds work.

The reality of information and how it drives mental and cultural evolution is dealt with in a new book.
https://semiengineering.com/re-engineering-humanity/

 The book identifies some of the things that we need to be doing as technology creators. We are a relatively small group of people, and yet we hold the advancement of humanity in our hands. That is a big responsibility that none of us should take lightly. Have you thought about the implications of what you are doing and asked if it benefits humanity? Or is it purely about making money?

Technology always has moved faster than laws, but it should not move faster than our ability to reason about ethics, to consider ways of maintaining dignity for those displaced, and to ensure that we are not willfully or even inadvertently advancing discrimination. I have seen many cases recently where large corporations are doing things that introduce bias and discrimination. An example is the mandatory usage of a cell phone for dual-factor authentication. What does that do to people who cannot afford a cell phone, or those who live in rural areas without cell phone coverage?

[Laird]

An example is the mandatory usage of a cell phone for dual-factor authentication. What does that do to people who cannot afford a cell phone, or those who live in rural areas without cell phone coverage?

Totally on board with this criticism. It's not just cost, but preference. For many years I consciously chose not to connect a mobile phone - it was only when I went travelling that I found the "need" for one.

Have you thought about the implications of what you are doing and asked if it benefits humanity? Or is it purely about making money?

Agreed, these are key and crucial questions.

Have you read it Stephen?

I have only read the article (link came to me from Circuitnet.com) and the Amazon book review.
https://www.amazon.com/Re-Engineering-Hu...d8183db602

I am more focused on the "how" of what is happening, and not so much the social engineering and ethics.  I searched thru the pages Amazon lets you read, and found this point that jumps out.  In discussing the "outsourcing" of our mental work to "technical devices systems and applications"; it points out the trade-off of productivity for less direct personal involvement.

....decreased agency – We participate in less of the process than we would if we preformed it ourselves.    Less effort results in a corresponding reduction in our experience of the action itself.  Our behavior becomes less intentional, and some measure of control is lost.

The loss of intentionality in the experiences of living life is the important measurable factor.  I see the world thru some of the lens of A. N. Whitehead and his "actual occasions".  I believe that the input and output of these actual experiences are measurable in information science terms, as to the work minds achieve.

Mental work changes actual real-world probabilities and is active in the mental evolution of living things.  When we, as thinking people, use someones else's algorithms to leverage information processing - we don't get the benefit of our own rationality.  We structure the informational relationships in our environments without handling the actual meaningful components.  We lose touch.

I would also put the statement about the loss of control in the context of Norbert Wiener's iconic work: The Human Use Of Human Beings: Cybernetics And Society.  Command and control from feedback - is what is measured by the science aspects of Cybernetics.  If we are not watching AI and its negative influence; the algorithms can run us, instead of us running them.  Our personal agency is diminished, in proportion to our lowered contact with the complex meanings of any real-world situation.

https://www.amazon.com/Human-Use-Beings-...0306803208

I wasn’t quite sure what it was about, as it’s just been published, the very few reviews and preface give an unclear picture of the content to me... sounded topical and of the moment... but a couple of reviews suggested it might go deeper.

The overall cultural effect of the paradigm change information science applications are making is a big sociological issue.  Maybe the biggest issue of our times.

My methodological approach to the issue is to try to present a simple top-level model of how living things process information, as formal language as and bytes AND as their associated semantic meanings; thru the use of the term information objects.  The simple reality of informational objects being as actual and casual in science - as are physical objects - has little or no traction in the worldview of modern thinking.  However, it is a simple fact easily accessible once embraced and exemplified.

A definition of agency is essential to that end.  And a basic understanding of how AI agency compares and contrasts with animal cunning and information processing achieved by even viruses and single celled organisms.