IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2020 - 34

influential techno s-olutionism is the
idea that we can "fix" the environment by applying AI or technology
to very specific aspects of environmental decline without taking into
consideration the systems level
effect of all that we do. Also, many
times emerging technology is not as
important to address certain issues
directly (for instance, widescale
global infrastructure failings) as it is
to see how these amazing tools can
complement humans already in
jobs working to restore environmental sustainability.
Earth-Friendly AI also -m irrors
this focus on systems thinking,

Competition is not working for the
long-term sustainability of human
and environmental well-being.
where there is a recognition for
instance about the carbon footprint
the digital sector produces while
ironically being applied to tackle
climate change. Here it's critical to
note that good intentions may still
cause harm, and ignorance of systems thinking is as dangerous in
some respects as is the malicious
avoidance of caring for our planet.

Recommendation Two:
Protect Children's Lives,
Future, and Data
It is of seminal importance to note
that the statistical metrics galvanized in the GDP eight decades ago
were not designed to include caregiving or the environment. Stemming largely as a reaction to the Second World War, the value of rebuilding infrastructure and economies
laying in ruin made sense. However,
eight decades ago attitudes towards

The Five New Words

women, education, youth, and the
environment were also highly different than they are now. If society
today is asking about biases in the
datasets or AI g
- overning our lives,
perhaps the greatest assumptions
along these lines still causing harm
involve the decades-old attitudes
embodied in the GDP as a measure
of societal success.
In other words, until we prioritize
the rights of our children in how their
data is tracked and shared, their identity and agency will be manipulated
in ways that will cause them and
their loved ones harm. Our children
are not just our future - they're
our present. They are being
harmed now because single bottom line metrics
don't prioritize the specific
guardrails about caregiving
(such as a government factoring a parent's time who
stays home with their children into GDP calculations)
that would not only protect
them but would provide
specific and pragmatic steps businesses and governments can take
to put kids first.

In the midst of living through
COVID-19, we must move beyond the
status quo of words or metrics or ideals that only maximize exponential
growth. Competition is not working in
terms of the long-term sustainability
of human well-being and environmental flourishing. By using the
examples of how to change behavior
brought about by this pandemic, we
can make a focus on human and
planetary well-being as contagious as
the awareness brought about by
panic and fear. We can shift to an
ideal of Social Flourishing based on
putting kids, our mental health, and
our relationship of equality to the
environment above nonstop, exclusively fiscal growth.
As we make this shift, let's embrace
five new words that reflect this positive focus:
We will save our world.

Acknowledgment
These thoughts represent the author's
views and not those of the IEEE.

Author Information
John C. Havens is Director, Emerging
Technology and Strategic Development, The IEEE Standards Association.

Recommendation Three:
Maximize New Metrics
As I've already touched on in the previous two recommendations, it's
only by prioritizing new indicators
and metrics of societal prosperity
that we can shift from the current
status quo. This is already happening with metrics like the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD)'s Better Life
Index or the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN
SDGs). Furthermore, organizations
like B-Corp in the U.S. are helping
businesses change their legal structures to honor the values of their
brand and stakeholders in ways
that manifest beyond intentions to
actual actions.
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

References
[1] The IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, Ethically Aligned
Design: A Vision for Prioritizing Human Well-being
with Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, 1st
ed., 2019; https://standards.ieee.org/content/ieee
-standards/en/industry-connections/ec/autonomous
-systems.html.
[2] K. Karachalios, N. Stern, and J.C. Havens,
"Measuring what matters in the era of global
warming and the age of algorithmic promises,"
IEEE Standards Association, 2019; https://
standards.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-standards/
standards/web/documents/other/ec-measuring
-what-matters.pdf?utm_medium=undefined&utm_
source=undefined&utm_campaign=undefined
&utm_content=undefined&utm_term=undefined.
[3] New Climate Economy: Unlocking the Inclusive Growth Story of the 21st Century: Accelerating Climate Action in Urgent Times. Global
Commission on Economy and Climates, 2018.

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JUNE 2020

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2020

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