IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019 - 32

goals tilts the scale heavily in the direction of across
the board human replacement, of AI, not human
enhancing IA.

Epilogue
The key to getting a handle on the parasitic extraction
and transfer of human mental, physical, and social
order into the technosphere, lies in popping the
sorcerer's apprentice fantasy by recognizing that
advancing technology is the leading edge of the thermodynamic imperative to dissipate gradients. That
awareness is crucial to not giving the Second Law the
maximum entropy production that it wants, to tilting
the scales towards a more just distribution of technology's freeing-up fruits. Recognizing our common future
conundrum, including the string-pulling role of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, tracing back to the origins of order in the universe, including life, along with
the driven-out-of-whack, primal urge to preserve food
energy by letting technology do more and more of the
work, is a key move in the direction of not serving as
entropy's puppets. (Figure 1). That awareness must
include the sobering caveat that the always-waiting-forslip-up Second Law, is a stealthy, slippery sloping, cliff
for a recidivist, tipping point precipitating, tragedy of
the commons, fine print redacting, whack-a-mole foe.
On a real-reality scale, locking and latching a techno-literate, efficiency for what? efficiency for whom?
enhancement not replacement, human centric IA
agenda that adds significant friction into the gears of
the parasitic modus operandi - will encounter huge
resistance. Since we are, claims Shoshana Zuboff,
"objects of a technologically advanced and increasingly inescapable raw material extraction operation"

[28, p. 10], not unexpectedly, then, there are enormously powerful vested interests that do not want
any critical thinking engagement threats to their
ongoing behavior mining operations; they do not
want their users, they do not want children, they do
not want adolescents, they do not want parents, they
do not want teachers asking what they're being sold
is doing to them and to their charges behind the efficient, profit-driven seamless masquerade of symbiosis. Yet, without scaled-up critical brain, "system 2",
recognition overruling sucker for convenience, "system 1," the sapping of brain, body, and bond will
carry on faster and faster to no good human end
[41]. 5 As Matt Simon summarily puts it, "[while] the
human brain is vastly more complicated than that of
an ant... all brains, no matter their complexity, follow
the same physical laws of nature... The [parasites']
victims get their minds snatched because something
figured out the code - something put a key in a lock
and turned it, complexity of the brain be damned.
Which means the zombifiers can conquer us too
[3, pp. 193-194]." In other words, "If we're not careful," writes Yuval Noah Harari in his latest book,
21 Lessons for the 21st Century, "we will end up with
downgraded humans misusing upgraded computers to
wreak havoc on themselves and on the world" [43].
So then are we doomed? Is the dark side of human
extinction to be our fate? Or even the grey side, as
NLH put it, as the boiling frog scenario of everincreasing helplessness sans increasingly powerful
techno-props? Will our brains, bodies, and face-toface social relationship skills be the tragedy of the
commons eviscerated resource, the result of players'
all out racing to gain a competitive edge in the AI
game? Stay tuned.

Acknowledgment
An earlier version of this article was presented at the
2018 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and
Society [42].

Author Information
Jeff Robbins is with Rutgers University, New Brunswick,
NJ. Email: jeff.robbins@rutgers.edu.

References

[1] T. Wu, "The tyranny of convenience," NYTimes, Feb. 18, 2018;
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/opinion/sunday/tyrannyconvenience.html; accessed Apr. 9, 2019.

FIGURE 1. Modus Operandi of the Second Law. (For the original
metaphor, see [45].)

According to Kahneman, "A general 'Law of Least Effort' applies to cognitive
as well as physical exertion. The law asserts that if there are several ways of
achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of skill is driven by the balance of benefits and costs. Laziness is built
deep into our nature." See also [42].

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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SEPTEMBER 2019

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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019

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