It, which must be obeyed!

Coded Bias (Netflix Documentary, 2020)
Director: Shalini Kantayya

If passing the Turing test marks the acceptance of an automaton as a legitimate thinking body, we must also have a test to ascertain whether we have enough intelligence to be identified as a full-bodied homosapien at all. We think we are wise, but we repeatedly fall prey to sweet talks and indulgences in a single minute's pleasure, only to brood it all the morning after. We give away all our personal and intimate information willingly, only to realise much later that it has been used against us by the powerful. In the name of the country and doing good deeds, we surrender, only to be led to the slaughter.

Even when it comes to sending someone to the guillotine, there is discrimination. This, an MIT computer scientist, Joey Buolamwini, found it the hard way. When working on a facial identification device, she increasingly realised that machines repeatedly falter in identifying black and brown faces. When she wore a white mask over her face, she did not encounter such problems. With this startling discovery, together with other data scientists, mathematicians, human rights lawyers and other watchdog groups, she went on a crusade of exposing discrimination by algorithms. 

A recent fiasco involving the UK A-level examination is testimony to this. After being cooped at home with frequent disruption in their studies, the Education Department decided to use AI to churn out students' final results based on specific preset parameters. That opened the floodgates of discontent amongst public school students and their parents from the not-so-affluent side of town and the minority groups. It also showed private school students performing significantly better. The algorithm-based results proved to be biased against students from poorer backgrounds.

Replica of Maschinenmensh 
(Human Machine) @ Maria
in Metropolis (1929)

Technology evolves. We cannot do anything about it. The problem is that these new technologies - facial recognition information, algorithms, smart devices, social platforms - all collect data, sometimes clandestinely and sometimes hidden in jargon, to sell it to the most significant bidder.

The big conglomerates which can afford to pay for this enormous amount of data can streamline their business strategies to meet their self-serving ambitions. Algorithms use the information from data to stereotype females, non-whites and the marginalised to give a bad deal in resumês, job applications, eligibility for loans, and suspects in criminal activities. Men and fair-skinned individuals always fared favourably via algorithm selection.

The problem with the whole thing is that the person at the short end of the stick has no means to appeal his rejection. His plea for reconsideration is only met with chatbots or individuals who are powerless in changing anything. The algorithm's choices are worshipped as if they are God-sent decrees cast on stones. Are these unquestionable orders made by 'She-who-must-be-obeyed' the fictitious Mrs Hilda Rumpole in John Mortimer's 'Rumpole on the Bailey'? We have not learned from 'Frankenstein' and 'Maschinenmensh' (Metropolis 1929) that man-made creations invariably go berserk or against their creators.

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Automatons, are we?

 Kardashians - fiz-x.com

This post was spurred with someone mentioning how the whole Government machinery has suddenly found new vigour to streamline all its dealings. At a wink of an eye, civil servants who all this while had not been civil enough to show the gratitude to the salary that the taxpayers paid them, have found rejuvenated zest to right their wrong of so many decades. Have they really turned over a new leaf? Have they had their wings clipped or hand tied that prevented them from doing what they were yearning to do all these while - to serve? Are these moves just reactionary to the change in the tide of the time?

My thoughts were cradled back to a time in our recent past. The mantra of the day then was that we were to become an industrialised and advanced country by 2020. Wealth and money were then the new God. The yardstick to gauge the advancement of a society was the material things, not civic-mindedness, positive human values or culture. Megalomania was an accepted and revered trait. At that time, the obsession to become rich, if possible overnight, was on everyone's mind. To be rich was being successful, being poor a failure.

Why was that so? The leader then said so.

Syed Qutb - Wiki

That is the psyche of an average man. He is so fickled. He needs a hero figure that he looks up to for guidance. The nearest superhero icon to him is the leader that leads that bring their tribe/nation/congregation through their daily dealings. This must have been the case of the Hindu mythology that put King Rama at the status of a demi-god or even of that of an avatar of God himself. His conduct and decisions in life-changing situations became the foundation of how life on Earth should be lived.

In the present times, this vacuum must surely be filled up by rock stars, pop artists and icons who do nothing like Kendall Jenner and the rest of the Kardashians.

Realising this, Syed Qutb, one of the critical conspirators in extremist Islamism, had posited that people, in general, do not know what they want. They just thread through life like sheep grazing in the field just following the herd. The shepherd needs to guide the passage of flock; to the grassland or the abattoir. The entrepreneur Steve Job, on working to come up with the next generation handheld communication device had been heard to have said when criticised about the acceptability of his new gadget, "People don't know what they want. We'll show them what they want!"

patriotretort.com

Something can go so wrong unchecked under our very eyes for so long with us realising. We are only jolted to reality with a hard jolt that occurs occasionally. We are easily swayed with rhetorics and hero-worship. We follow blindly without thinking. The thinkings ones are too much cowed into submission by the voice of the majority. The occasional scream of realisation by the minority for sense and equity to prevail is cast aside as elitists.

In a way, we are all ignorant children mesmerised to the tune of day to be led blindly into our destruction. Some would call it the lure of the Evil, Satan's mischiefs, negativity or the Dark Forces. I would call it our ignorance. The only way to combat this innocence is to peel open the inner eyes of awareness and enrich our treasure cove of knowledge. 

Reference: The Fish stinks from the Head.

 https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.