Will an IBM computer be your next mayor?

ragmondo wrote: post #3

I think the author accidentally a verb "Once you replace a skilled worker with a computer-controlled robot, it’s very to go back."

Thanks; fixed.

Re: Will an IBM computer be your next mayor?

#5

Post by maukdaddy » Fri, Apr 27, 2012, 12:45 PM UTC

throwaway64 wrote: post #2

following the principle of headlines ending in a question mark... No.

Seriously. We need to stop up voting any stories from ExtremeTech. What a bunch of garbage.

Re: Will an IBM computer be your next mayor?

#6

Post by metatronscube » Fri, Apr 27, 2012, 12:56 PM UTC

I think its worth exploring this concept. I wouldn't mind living under an AI controlled meritocracy ;). I don't care if an AI or a person is running a city as long as they are good at their job and they make sensible balanced decisions that are in the best interest of the people. If that's a machine intelligence then so be it, I for one welcome our IBM supercomputer super controller overlords.

Re: Will an IBM computer be your next mayor?

#7

Post by mjn » Fri, Apr 27, 2012, 1:25 PM UTC

The Mayor of Pasadena got a good laugh (and sparked some serious discussion to boot) at IJCAI 2009 (http://ijcai.org/~ijcai09/) when he proposed something like that. There's often an opening "I'm the mayor and thanks for bringing some convention dollars to our city" speech at large conferences, which is usually horribly boring and full of platitudes, but his was short and more or less said, welcome to California, I wish you all luck in developing artificial intelligence, because we're currently looking for a better government.

Re: Will an IBM computer be your next mayor?

#8

Post by rehack » Fri, Apr 27, 2012, 1:45 PM UTC

maukdaddy wrote: post #5

throwaway64 wrote: post #2

following the principle of headlines ending in a question mark... No.

Seriously. We need to stop up voting any stories from ExtremeTech. What a bunch of garbage.

I just find the idea very powerful - the idea that governments can be replaced by software. Voted it up, just for the title, which conveys that idea ... We folks perhaps don't need to read that article, as can imagine the possibilities.

Re: Will an IBM computer be your next mayor?

#9

Post by mseebach » Fri, Apr 27, 2012, 1:46 PM UTC

metatronscube wrote: post #6

I think its worth exploring this concept. I wouldn't mind living under an AI controlled meritocracy ;). I don't care if an AI or a person is running a city as long as they are good at their job and they make sensible balanced decisions that are in the best interest of the people. If that's a machine intelligence then so be it, I for one welcome our IBM supercomputer super controller overlords.

> as long as they are good[X] at their job[X] and they make sensible[X] balanced[X] decisions that are in the best interest[X] of the people[X]

Please objectively and exhaustively define the marked terms. That, not AI, is the real challenge to better government. Incidentally, it's also pretty much the definition of politics.

Re: Will an IBM computer be your next mayor?

#10

Post by FelixP » Fri, Apr 27, 2012, 2:12 PM UTC

Of course the answer is no. Far too many legal and social hurdles to cross (not to mention technological).

However, in the spirit of playing along, and in light of the fact that it's Friday, I'll throw in this quote from Deus Ex which I always found interesting:

> The checks and balances of democratic governments were invented because humans themselves realized how unfit they were to govern themselves. They needed a system, yes. An industrial age machine.

> Without the use of computing machines they had to arrange themselves in crude structures that formalized decision-making. A highly imperfect and unstable solution.