There is a fundamental question related to the Homo Extensus paradigm: will the enhancement of human intelligence, enabled by AI, only affect positive characteristics or also negative ones?
Of course, it would be a problem if we find ourselves dealing with masses of criminals, mercenaries or scammers with capabilities extended by Artificial Intelligence.
In some ways and to some extent however, this will be inevitable: it is part of the risks related to any technological invention, which can serve any man indiscriminately.
But has the spread of cognitive technologies in the past made man better?
In the essay “The Decline of Violence,” Steven Pinker observes that as humanity has progressed through history, it has seen a progressive reduction in violence, both at individuals and state levels. Violent manifestations such as enslavement, torture, the death penalty, mistreatment of women, children and even animals have been progressively banned or reduced in an increasing number of nations. Pinker points out an interesting effect of literacy that has produced the progressive reduction of the most brutal forms of violence in the history of civilizations: “An interesting question is what inflated the empathy circle. And a good candidate is the expansion of literacy. Reading is a technology for perspective-taking. When someone else’s thoughts are in your head, you are observing the world from that person’s vantage point.”
The ethical, pedagogical, and political management of Artificial Intelligence will be crucial for its effect to be an improvement in “humanity”, meaning also a spirit of constructive cooperation among humans. We need to organize a new educational community that will counter the isolation of the individual in the face of the influence of an artificial intelligence created to achieve the purposes of digital corporations.
Italiano