Today, I will be taking you on a journey, learning about communication from ancient times to today’s software development and machine scientists. 

The purpose of this blog is to understand how the knowledge of human history has been encoded and passed through generations. Grab a cup of tea!

My journey with you begins in ancient times when scribes were the ultimate keepers of knowledge. The reason, the scribes were the writers of the day. Holding positions of importance, they created the stories, the journeys that tell us about the politics religion and heroes of those days. 

These texts handed down between generations were crafting the code of yesteryear. Defining civilisations and creating in our minds a reconstruction of millennia that have passed, (I am personally a fan of the Ancient Greek schools of thought).

A great example of religious scribes comes from the Jewish practice of Tiqqun Sofermin. These scribes were tasked with maintaining the Hebrew Bible, making corrections and minor alterations, and preserving the integrity of the sacred texts.

Another way of viewing this is in a modern context, were they doing version control or taking a commit from GitLab? Ensuring the code base remained stable? Correcting the minor mistakes to ensure smooth operations of the text?

My journey with you now moves us into the mediaeval period. Near me is Romsey Abbey, where you can imagine the smells and sounds of monks praying in years gone by.

The scribes of the monastic period were the Wikipedia of the day. Working a minimum of 6 hours a day by candlelight, they were re-coding, refining and updating religious texts. These subtle but important additions to our wisdom impacted future generations, although the gatekeepers could shape the form and function of their belief system. 

The belief system introduced by the scribe affected how other monasteries received and interpreted the work. This sometimes subtle change could lead to further alterations and permanently change the context of the original work.

I imagine, at times during the darker hours of winter, if there is a comparable modern feel to illuminated monitors and laptops lighting the rooms of our homes and offices, and the scribes working by candlelight in times gone by.

The Silicon quills of today.

Swapping out devotions to coffee (in my case, tea) our scribes of today use keyboards and scrapers. They do not work in the candlelight but open plan offices with headphones usually inserted.

The work environment aside, the modern-day scribes and software engineers wield power that is hard to comprehend.

The architects of the modern world working on artificial systems are the scribes of today. Shaping our modern life and worldview in ways we cannot comprehend.

The algorithms they create do everything from deciding what products we buy to manipulating our core beliefs. Deciding what news we view through to trying to change the thing that makes us human our beliefs.

Think about this for a minute. From the cats in our homes to the machines we label as grumpy as humans, we have a bias (Anthropomorphisation) that attributes human-like attributes to non-humans.

This has the effect of shaping our belief that the systems targeting us for various purposes think and act likes us. It doesn’t. But what the machine is doing is looking at (in this case) codified social interactions and ascribing to us a persona and predicting our core intentions (with great accuracy).

Belief systems, religious or cultural, have a right to exist independently, this goes to the main crux of this blog. Freedom of choice to not be served content or LLM output ascribing to a one-world view. 

Perhaps the singularity was never about AGI and machines becoming smarter than us. Could it be the shaping of worldviews into a single bias?

The Tech oligarchy will say there are guardrails against these events, but recent events would determine otherwise. From data harvesting to misaligned LLM outputs, the race to “move fast” means that we are in serious danger of things being forever broken.

Having worldviews forced upon us in this manner, makes us slaves to the machine’s hard-coded biases and interpretations. I remember watching a Sir Johny Ive speech about how the iPad is a fluid device, to moves in form and functions with our preferences. 

Can we say the same about our early AI creations? do they move in form and function with us?

Silicon Valley’s Talent Hoarding

Hoarding Artificial Intelligence and computer engineering talent from across the globe has been a staple of the largest technology companies. These Silicon Valley powerhouses have been stockpiling talent for years.

The retention of this talent has caused a non-competitive global field creating a global divide in accessibility and innovation. Like cloud computing the roll-up of services in terms of AI providers will be centred around a few powerhouses able to afford the huge training costs.

This concentration of talent has created a singularity of thought and beliefs. When the same pool of elite developers, coming from similar societal and economic backgrounds, is responsible for creating the digital infrastructure and selection of guardrails and AI training we all use, this leads to a narrow perspective being imposed on us all. 

This is akin to a single monastic order dominating the religious and cultural discourse of an entire era, shaping the thoughts and beliefs of millions.

Smaller companies, public services, and nonprofits are often left scrambling for technological crumbs, unable to compete with the salaries and perks offered by the tech giants.

The AI Digital Gutenberg Press Moment

The Gutenberg printing press caused huge upheaval, the scribes who controlled the distribution of mass information were “disrupted”. From witty pamphlets being sold around Tudor England to the lower Netherlands joining the reformation. The democratisation of information was a turning point in human evolution moving the centre of information to mass production.

Todays, Gutenberg printing press is the LLM 

The democratisation of information and access to that information is an amazing feat. The dawn of the LLM is heralding in a new dawn of technology democratisation. 

We are seeing the beginning of coding abilities using an LLM. Imagine needing an app for your small business idea but not knowing how to code. Soon, you will be able to chat with an LLM to get the perfect app for your small business. 

This democratisation of coding has the potential to unleash a wave of innovation, allowing more voices to participate in the creation of digital tools and platforms. 

The Great Computing Redistribution

We are seeing trends in job losses from the larger technology companies as more work is being divested to AI. This great redistribution of talent could be the light of a new movement based on humanities values.

In the United Kingdom, public services like the NHS, which have been struggling with technical debt from aged systems, would be able to see digital efficiency increase. Should a tax incentive be put in place for AI engineers returning from large tech?

For small businesses, the democratisation of coding and software development would bring to us a world where my local fish and chip shop has an app as slick as Deliveroo, or where interacting with my local council’s website doesn’t feel like time-travelling back to 1995 (Geocities anyone?). 

The repatriation and rebalancing of technology talent would help create a more fairer digital landscape. Coupled with the democratisation of software development we could bring in a new paradigm of education, healthcare and digital inclusivity.

As experienced developers oversee AI-generated code, we have a chance to create a more equitable digital world, free from the biases that have plagued both ancient manuscripts and modern algorithms. 

This could lead to a digital landscape that reflects the diversity of the global population. And takes into account a worldview that is respectful of local beliefs and customs. 

A Better Digital Future for Our Children

I believe we are standing at a pivotal moment in human history. The power to reform the digital world is no longer confined to Silicon Valley. It’s spreading, democratising, and evolving.

A Human and AI Friendship

As we move forward, it’s essential to recognise that the relationship between humans and AI is not a them and us. The use of AI systems does not mean the fall of human creativity or ingenuity. Instead, it opens the door for a powerful collaboration where we act as co-pilots guiding AI to new heights.

I, for one, welcome this new era. 

Thanks for Reading.

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