Most of this blog was researched and written over the last five years, before the worldwide virus emergency. Although today we have more urgent issues to face, I believe that the issues it discusses will still have a relevance when the time comes to rebuild our world.
What is the blog about? Today we begin to understand what we mean by machine intelligences and artificial intelligence. We can see that they are already beginning to improve human life. I want to suggest that our enthusiasm for the cultures of machine and artificial intelligence risks creating a particular way of thinking and and decision-making that not only diminishes what it means to be human, but also prevents us from thinking about how human intelligence can work most successfully with machine intelligence.
The first post in this blog gives a justification for characterising our culture of performance management and decision-making as Artificial Stupidity. The next posts trace its origins and evolution, and will examine how we came to accept it. Later posts will use the testimonies of people involved in education, the health services and policing to explore how the blind application of Artificial Stupidity works to the detriment of society. I hope that this rather methodical approach will suggest ways of structuring partnerships of human intelligence and machine algorithms to work together for the benefit of all.
When I was asked for whom was I writing this blog, my first response was, "For a general audience." But of course, this answer dodges the question. In reality, we are each of us specialists in our own varied fields. But wherever or however we work in this society, quite reasonably we tend to be asked to account for what we do and to hold others to account.
I am writing this to start a dialogue with that facet of any of us who has ever been asked to account for their work or who has asked others to do so.
You can read the posts in any order, of course. But I'm writing them to flow in a sequence:
- Cheating at the Turing Test
- Why this blog?
- The target culture – origins (1)
- The problem with problems
- The target culture - origins (2)
- Thatcher and the rise of New Public Management
- The Target Culture: Evidence Based Management
- New Public Management Applied: the NHS
- Measure for measure: New Public Management and the police
- New Public Management and Education
- From evidence-base policy to irrational dogma
It would be a kindness, and in the spirit of dialogue, if readers were to add their comments to move the dialogue on.
