Abstract
At a time we are experiencing the overspread deployment of artificial intelligent systems in all domains of life, the present paper addresses the topic of human condition questioning both the universal existential circumstances that human beings share with all the other life forms and those circumstances that are human specific, claiming, in this case, that the capacity for work, in all its tangible and non-tangible forms, is a unique essential human attribute, responsible for the evolution of humankind as a species and for the development of their world. Being intrinsically human and not the result of a temporary condition or state, [work], i.e. [productive goal-driven action] has been, throughout times, enhanced and augmented by the creation, at first, of rudimentary and then of progressively more and more sophisticated man-made tools. In the course of this developmental narrative contemporary societies have become hybrid environments, this means environments where the physical is permeated by the digital, where human interaction is mediated by advanced forms of virtual communication, where non-embodied and also embodied forms of artificial intelligence coexist with natural intelligence where ultimately [work] in its intrinsic humaness is being replaced in many sectors by task performing and decision-making per artificial intelligent systems. This present context and its predictable development in the near future demand the emergence of a deep awareness on the part of different stakeholders: research and development institutions, policy makers and governance, business and on the part of society in general, so that intelligent technology remains a human tool for enhancing and augmenting work, respecting its fundamental twofold dimension as: (1) a generative endowment for the creation of human reality (2) a means for the fulfilment and existential satisfaction of every human being.
Who are we if not or when not productive?
Hanna Arendt
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Notes
- 1.
We do not endorse here the distinction [labour]/[work] and their multiple interpretations throughout historical times and different ideological frameworks (c.f. Adam Smith, Marx, Arendt, among others) and refer in all circumstances only to [work].
- 2.
Those that are permanently or frequently tormented with these thoughts are diagnosed as having a mental condition that requires treatment.
- 3.
Nasa’s Perseverance landed on the 18th of February 2021 on Mars.
- 4.
cf. [1].
- 5.
cf. [20] and Magritte (1935).
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
To Ref. [1] the distinctive characteristic of human existence, its conditions, can be classified into two groups. The first group of human conditions consists of basic conditions under which life on earth has been given to man, and these are: life itself, worldliness, plurality, natality and mortality, and the earth itself. The second group of human conditions consists of conditions made by the men themselves, and these are man-made things and relations. Whatever enters the human world of its own accord or is drawn into it by human effort becomes part of human condition.
- 10.
The interaction ability, in fact, subsumes either (2) or (3). We make the distinction for purely analytical purposes.
- 11.
Greenfield [13].
- 12.
- 13.
Ref. [15].
- 14.
The definition of the concept of [tool] has been subject to different versions by researchers studying animal behavior. Ref. [16] defines [tool] as an object that has been modified to fit a purpose or an inanimate object that one uses or modifies in some way to cause a change in the environment, thereby facilitating one's achievement of a target goal.
- 15.
Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary. Collins Publishers. University of Birmingham 1988 (1st edition).
- 16.
Emphases mine.
- 17.
It is particularly interesting how some technological tools are sometimes presented as extensions of the physical body. I recall on this purpose the sentence that opened up a small video that performed when I started my laptop computer produced by Texas Instruments in the early 90s—“Texas Extensa, an Extension of yourself”.
- 18.
According to [32] the two fundamental human handgrips, first identified by J. R. Napier, and named ‘precision grip’ and ‘power grip’, represent a throwing grip and a clubbing grip, thereby providing an evolutionary explanation for the two unique grips, and the extensive anatomical remodelling of the hand that made them possible.
- 19.
cf. Ferreira [7].
- 20.
We recall on this purpose the particular attachment a hairdresser revealed towards her set of high specialized scissors, which she had acquired when becoming a professional and uses in her daily practice or the attachment and care a professional musician dedicates to his violin.
- 21.
- 22.
- 23.
In “Is identity more than a name?” In On Meaning: Individuation and Identity, [6] refers that the construction of a psycho-social identity reinforces the already granted individual biological uniqueness. According to this author, identity formation starts at early infancy and develops throughout the individual’s lifetime in a process identical to the formation of pearls. Beginning in the restricted early family circle it develops successively along other spheres of life- the enlarged circle of family and friends, the school and education circle, the work domain, giving this way substance to an identity that is generally actualized by a first name followed by a family name.
- 24.
Ref. [22].
- 25.
Laborem Exercens 1981.
- 26.
- 27.
My translation.
- 28.
Andy Haldane, chief economist at the Bank of England. Predicted, in 2015, that 15 million jobs in the UK, roughly half of all jobs, were under threat from automation. He pointed out that the first industrial revolution had occurred in the middle of the eighteenth century and the second in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The third industrial evolution—the era of information technology—appeared to have resulted in an intensification of trends seen in the first two: “a hollowing-out of employment, a widening distribution of wages and a fall in labour’s income share”.
- 29.
cf. for instance the work going on at OEDE.AI observatory, GPAI working group on the Future of work. The Work of the Future. Report November 2020. Available at https://workofthefuture.mit.edu/.
- 30.
- 31.
e.g., (i) involving all the stakeholders in this process of change, identifying the distinct needs determined by their respective functional contexts and tailoring technological solutions according to those specificities. (ii) Legally framing the hybrid working settings legislating in order to preserve not only the physical security, but also the mental health, the emotional stability of those working there; Last but probably first of all (iii) providing massive digital literacy and an ethical background that allows for a critical perspective on the new state of affairs and provides guidelines for human behaviour when acting/interaction with intelligent systems.
- 32.
- 33.
- 34.
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Ferreira, M.I.A. (2022). On Human Condition: The Status of Work. In: Aldinhas Ferreira, M.I., Fletcher, S.R. (eds) The 21st Century Industrial Robot: When Tools Become Collaborators. Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering, vol 81. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78513-0_1
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