Good for People, but What Kind of People?

Google AI Blog

There are many kinds of people in the world, and we need to make some effort at classifying them - especially ethically.

Ethics, or Morality, has been badly damaged in the last few hundred years. And for most people, it is not as important as Power. Power gets them what they want - more of everything! And they cannot see Ethics gives them anything.

For them - if they cannot see it, touch it, smell it, or taste it - it does not exist! Or, looking at it another way - if other people don't want it, they do not want it either.

They live in a world populated by people like them. People who do not think, but act without thinking. And they are certain, this is the right way to be.

Practical, not Ethical.

Ethics Does Not Apply in the Digital Marketplace

I learned this, somewhat to my surprise, by buying on Amazon.

Amazon's first policy, was to dominate the online retail market, by selling the most of everything - even it that meant a loss of profits, at first. This was backed up by the most innovative Internet Site ever built - and equally innovative Server Software, behind it.

Online software is composed of two parts - what the User sees, and interacts with - and the Business Logic, safely out of sight, somewhere in the Cloud, that does everything else. And I mean everything else.

Amazon has the best of both. Because it works closely with Google. These are separate companies, but they work together extremely well. In a way never seen before.

The EU has freaked out over this, and claims this amounts to a monopoly. And is slapping big fines on everyone. They don't understand what is going on.

What they should be interested in - is Ethics. Something that goes on under their Radar Screen. And they would probably be challenged to spell it.

Everything that goes on in the Computer Economy - the World's largest Economy -  is not Ethical.

They will say they are, and say they are, until they are blue in the face.

But they lie.

Ethics and Business

In the Industrial Era, that culminated in the 19th Century, business was unethical - and that was considered a virtue. And indeed, this worked - the Industrial countries became rich! They also started on a series of wars, culminating in WWII, and the Holocaust.

These were so destructive, they were never repeated - but were replaced by many smaller wars, that were destructive to the small countries involved, but actually improved the economy of the larger countries, because they could sell them arms!

Two radically different technologies happened next - Television and the Computer. And most people thought they were the same. However, the Computer, with its Internet and Cellular networks - built a Global Economy, a process sometimes called Globalization.

People. whether they wanted to or not - had to get along with everyone else. Because what everyone did, affected everyone else!

Did people accept this? Absolutely not! They went completely crazy instead, and formed Trade Agreements, made by the Rich and Powerful, in the countries involved. That made everyone poorer.

I worked for 20 years, in the Eighties and Nineties, in the Computer Industry. In that time, I never worked for a single ethical company - or on a single successful project. The two are related - to be successful technically, you have to be ethical.

You can see this in Software Development - an successful ecosystem (as they call it) that rewards Developers who help other Developers. In this small (but profitable) world - things work right!

Most People

I am hardly the world's most intelligent person - but my feeble intelligence can detect a basic fact about the world, that most prefer to ignore: that most people are not very impressive creatures - and have no idea what is going on in their world. And since they are the vast majority (perhaps 99 percent of the population) this means the world is in bad shape. And is close to a total collapse.

They are soaking up the world's resources, and providing little in return. And this, they think - is very clever of them. Thinking is hard work, and they don't want to do any of it.

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Consider one of my allegations - that the world is close to a total collapse. Close to an economic collapse, that is. This is shown by the Financial Crisis of 2008 - that we have never fully recovered from. Some clever people saw how they could raid the world's economy - and get away with it. Every time the Economy recovers, and makes some money - they grab this for themselves.

It doesn't take a genius to see where this is leading to. Some abuse of power always happens - but when too much happens, bad things happen.

The trick is telling when too much happens. We have no way of predicting this - and can only detect when too much has been taken, after the fact - when a collapse has already happened.

We were lucky the last time, in 2008 - only a partial collapse happened, and this pattern may continue. But a partial collapse, that continues - is not good news.

People are Both Good and Bad - and They Cannot be Made Perfect

This should be obvious - but it is not to some people. They will even go to the extreme of believing they will become perfect - so the rest of the world can see that it can be done!

I have known some of these people, and knew they are not perfect - but also knew it was best to say nothing about this to them.

Adam Smith on Foreign Policy

I am reading The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought where Smith says something everyone agrees with - but few practice:

The only world that will work has to be good for everyone.

Smith made the same point in regard to colonies. They were good for the nation insofar as they extended the market, making a more productive division of labor possible. But to grant British merchants a monopoly on trade with the colonies benefited merchants at the expense of the nation, an expense that was aggravated by the military costs of maintaining such monopolies by force. 

Such companies, which established military control over foreign regions in order to maintain their own trade monopoly, were detrimental to the home country and ruinous to the subject nations, Smith maintained. The consumers of the home country suffered all the disadvantages that came from an exclusive supplier unrestrained by the forces of competition and free to undersupply the market and thus raise prices for imported goods.

This not only applies to trade with foreign countries, it also applies to the home market. Consumers should not be considered fair game, open to exploitation by any provider - but equals, that must be protected, so that everything works properly.

I am speaking of Ethics here, that every company (and every organization) gives plenty of lip-service to - but little else.