Picture the following scenario: you’re driving an autonomous car. It decides where to turn, how fast to go, when to turn on the lights. In short, you can sip your coffee and text your friends while the car is driving itself.
But then… a hasty kid jumps into the road chasing his ball. Now, the car has two options: take a hard right and bump into a wall, risking your life, or going for the emergency brake, which will keep you out of danger, while putting the kid’s life at high risk.
What should your autonomous car be programmed to do? Great minds, from AI researchers to moral philosophers, are trying to devise an answer as we speak.
Surely, our rational mind might consider preferring to save the life of a child over the life of an elderly person, but what if the child is growing up to be a dangerous criminal? To add to that, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the issue is even more complicated because a person’s spiritual potential should be taken into account as well.
The natural system, however, has a much simpler approach as opposed to our intellectual analysis.. From nature’s point of view, all human lives are equally important without exception: man or woman, young or old, black or white, religious or secular, conservative or liberal. And with regard to the spiritual system, we have no understanding or perception of how it orchestrates each and every person’s spiritual contribution to the entire system.
Therefore, for the time being, I recommend the engineers do their best to develop an algorithm that will work to save lives to the maximum extent: to identify and rank those who are at risk of being harmed and who is likely to be saved – and to fight for that life as if it were our own.
Posted on Facebook February 10th, 2018