The Veil
Above, an AI generated rendition of how I visualize the below haiku. The woman, a veiled bride, symbolizes the utopian marriage of humanity and artificial intelligence. Generated with Canva’s Magic Media in Magic Studio.
Utopian life…
Rawls’ veil, draped bride
enter, Gemini
This haiku was inspired by The Atlantic’s interview with Google’s Senior Vice President of Research, Technology, and Society, James Manyika, for the 2023 magazine, Dialogues: On AI, society, and what comes next. Manyika discusses philosophy amongst other topics around society, human rights and “What it means to get AI right.”
Manyika references the 20th century philosopher, John Rawls and one of his most famous philosophical works deriving from the 1971 publication, A Theory of Justice. That is, Rawls’ “veil of ignorance,” which is a framework meant to remap a society that is fair and just. As the name suggests, imagining oneself behind a veil of ignorance to blind prejudices and inequalities. Imagining a world free of class, privilege, racism, sexism, ageism, etc. Such that humans would not exhibit biases around the operational functionality of society based on their life’s circumstances (rich, poor, educated, illiterate, female, male, white, BIPOC, etc.), and instead solely on their freedom, morals, and fair equality of opportunity.
Note, while Rawls’ was suggesting we change the rules of American society’s game by placing a veil on it, he wasn’t necessarily suggesting we blind society. Instead, pushing society to utilize other senses that have not previously been at the forefront of its decisions in prior generations. Thus, it seems today’s philosophers are exploring the possibility of a Rawlsian future through a contemporary great equalizer, artificial intelligence.
However, in the interview Manyika addresses the flaws in Rawls’ philosophy with relation to AI, they are, the “normative challenge” and the “plasticity challenge”. Normative: Everyone’s values are different and will change from person to person–negating what qualifies a true norm. Plasticity: The values and morals deemed fair and just today, may, and will likely, look very different in 75 years from now.
The Veil is an interpretation of hope and utopia that AI tools have the potential to achieve with and for humanity, no matter where you come from, what you look like, how you sound, or what you think.
References:
Dialogues: On AI, society, and what comes next, Google + Atlantic Re:think, 2023
Political Theory - John Rawls, The School of Life, 2015
A Theory of Justice, by John Rawls, Harvard University Press, 1971
The Veil Of Ignorance, BBC Radio 4, 2015
Veil of Ignorance, Ethics Unwrapped, The University of Texas at Austin
Generative AI Tools:
Gemini, 2024
Canva, Magic Studio: Magic Media