Personhood and Human Flourishing in a Technological World

Abstract

Abstract In response to the question posed by the scholars of the Human Flourishing in a Technological World project, ‘What is a person such that a person could flourish?,’ computer scientist and philosopher of technology Jaron Lanier argues that a person is a mystery or, as Lanier himself puts it, a ‘leap of faith.’ That is, the person is defined primarily by the capability for future-oriented creativity and invention. Lanier notes that the especially historically uncommon notion that human beings are replaceable is being propagated powerfully by tech-based media. This idea is based on the tacit assumption that human beings are merely machines—machines ultimately inferior to and therefore replaceable by presently implemented and ascendant Artificial Intelligence. In order to generate profit, the tech industry uses AI-driven social media to harvest consumer data for manipulating user habits through postings and advertising that appeal to our most primitive human instincts like greed and anger. Moreover, AI also threatens to replace human labor. But Lanier offers a different path forward, suggesting that technology like robots, sophisticated algorithms, and what we call Artificial Intelligence can be harnessed to assist human creativity and to improve labor conditions to help workers flourish rather than displacing them from work altogether.