Abstract

This paper combines the good regulator theorem with the law of requisite variety and seven other requisites that are necessary and sufficient for a cybernetic regulator to be effective and ethical. The ethical regulator theorem provides a basis for systematically evaluating and improving the adequacy of existing or proposed designs for systems that make decisions that can have ethical consequences; regardless of whether the regulators are humans, machines, cyberanthropic hybrids, organizations, or government institutions. The theorem is used to define an ethical design process that has potentially far-reaching implications for society. A six-level framework is proposed for classifying cybernetic and superintelligent systems, which highlights the existence of a possibility-space bifurcation in our future time-line. The implementation of “super-ethical” systems is identified as an urgent imperative for humanity to avoid the danger that superintelligent machines might lead to a technological dystopia. It is proposed to define third-order cybernetics as the cybernetics of ethical systems. Concrete actions, a grand challenge, and a vision of a super-ethical society are proposed to help steer the future of the human race and our wonderful planet towards a realistically achievable minimum viable cyberanthropic utopia.

Highlights

  • The goal of this research is to develop a theoretical basis and a practical systematic process for designing systems that behave ethically; even under non-ideal or hostile conditions.The human race has become very good at designing systems that are effective, but we are very bad at designing systems that are reliably ethical

  • It is proposed to define third-order cybernetics as the cybernetics of ethical systems

  • The effectiveness function must be modified because the effect of behaving ethically is that it reduces the variety of options that are available, by removing all possibilities that are unethical

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Summary

Introduction

The goal of this research is to develop a theoretical basis and a practical systematic process for designing systems that behave ethically; even under non-ideal or hostile conditions.The human race has become very good at designing systems that are effective, but we are very bad at designing systems that are reliably ethical. The goal of this research is to develop a theoretical basis and a practical systematic process for designing systems that behave ethically; even under non-ideal or hostile conditions. The majority of our social and computer-based systems are ethically fragile, lacking resilience under non-ideal conditions, and are generally vulnerable to abuse and manipulation. We have to rely on the ad hoc skills of an ethically motivated designer to somehow specify a system that is hopefully ethical, despite the constant pressure from corporate executives to do things cheaper and faster. This is not a satisfactory solution to a problem that so urgently needs to be solved

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