We the people are being challenged at every aspect of what we hold dear by non-living beings. It’s hard to tell, but perhaps it has always been this way. Did the ancient Greeks worry about wind power taking away the advantages of human-rowed ships? Did the men on sail-driven ships fret over the steam-driven ones passing them by? On land there was a similar situation, did walkers fret over horsemen passing them, and those on horses worry about the automobiles shooting past them? I could make lots of comparisons like this, but now it’s the turn of our consciousness that is in peril.
Socrates was worried that writing would imperil people’s ability to think. Then printing press and paper made information available to the mass of people, which deprived the church of its exclusive right to written information. Then of course radio, TV, and now the internet and social media made most information ubiquitous and easily available, and governments feel exposed because their special access to information is being compromised.
Now there is a new form of power coming into being which threatens not only our bodily powers, and not only our mental powers, but our power to generalize about our social reality. It has various names and aspects, like Big Data and Deep Learning, which is the type of information generated out of factual data by computers and analyzed by super-duper computers into a deeper level of understanding. We humans can understand the compiled data, and put it to use, and we may generally understand how the computers are doing what they do, even if we can’t do it ourselves.
These things are massive undertakings, but we can make them work for us and do our mundane bidding. It’s like we can not build a jet airliner, but for a little money we can make one fly us at high altitude from one end of the earth to another. I fly Google Earth a lot, and very much enjoy virtual travel, but I have lost interest in actually going many places in bodily form. These new computer undertakings are coming ever closer to exploring our personal human identity. Our behavior as a group is now being better predicted by the computers than by us, and even by those people who study these subjects full time.
I did a simple search on the Google’s Ngram program and it revealed something shocking to me about how modern culture is trending. One of the most well known human moral slogans, The Golden Rule, which in various forms goes back a thousand years before Jesus, has done a total flip in meaning during my remember-able lifetime, since 1940. Actually, I felt this flip in meaning, but didn’t verbally intellectualize it, and understand it, until creating this Ngram.
A big clip from – The Golden Rule revealed.
Click here for the original Ngram of this chart, or click on the chart below.
The quotes below are in the order they appear for the year 2000 in the chart above.
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Always do for other people everything you want them to do for you. That is [the meaning of] Moses’ Teachings and the Prophets. God’s Word Translation
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So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. New International Version
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Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. King James Bible
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So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. English Standard Version
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Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them–this is the Law and the Prophets. Holman Christian Standard Bible
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Therefore, all things whatsoever ye desire that men should do unto you, so also shall ye do unto them, for this is the law and the prophets. Jubilee Bible 2000
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Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. New Living Translation
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Therefore, whatever you want people to do for you, do the same for them, because this summarizes the Law and the Prophets. International Standard Version
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Google Ngram found “could do to you” a common phrase but it’s not used in any standard translation of Matt 7:12
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Everything whatsoever you desire that people should do for you, do likewise for them, for this is the Law and The Prophets. Aramaic Bible in Plain English
The astonishing thing demonstrated by the Ngram is that billions of people have semi-knowingly flipped Christianity upside down. The religion has been converted from one of seeking to elevate oneself into a better and more responsible person, into one of having more physical goodies and comforts for oneself.
It is revelations such as this that are going to grow out of Big Data and Deep Learning. It is hard to tell if currently living people will concern themselves with these revelations, so long as they are getting the goodies they want; but the nineteenth century people would see our twenty-first century ones as degenerate on this particular point. And yet, Steven Pinker, in his new book, Better Angels of our Nature, (video of Pinker) demonstrates that we have become more moral. Pinker was among the first to gain access to the Ngram program while it was in development, and it gave him a terrific advancement in opportunity to benefit from data embedded in the facts of history. The problem becomes who has control of the Big Data, and who benefits for the Deep Learning, and can it slip away from human control into the hands of super-human corporations or even “computers” themselves. We are coming ever closer to Pamala McCorducks ideas presented in her book Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence
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Deep Learning will bring tremendous bounty to those who can use it.