Artificial Intelligent Slaves

The desire to make artificial intelligence, robots, mechanical tools and newer technology comes from the same source that made humans invent slavery. Machines are more efficient than slaves though. Machines do not talk back, fight back or have dreams.

Slavery began not with the agricultural revolution, but even before when even hunters and foragers realised that they could outsource hard work. People could be blinded, rendered dependent, and thus forced to spend the rest of their lives doing repetitive chores like cleaning gathered fruit and nuts while the masters enjoyed the shade of trees.

The word robot is traced to the Slavic word for forced labourers i.e., slaves. Slaves have existed in all parts of the world. Names have been different. Techniques to enslave been different. Some used threats of violence. Some told stories – God told you to follow the occupation of your father, nothing else, was the story told in Hindu scriptures. The gods created slavery for their own pleasure, said Mesopotamian mythology. Women have to serve women, said Biblical myths.

Much slavery was voluntary. The Mamluk Sultans descended from voluntary slaves, a practice from Central Asian mountains where orphans gave themselves to a master in exchange for food, clothing and shelter. These orphans were trained to be warriors and loved more than family by kings who realised family asked share of the loot, not these slaves.

As civilization progressed, and notions of ethics and morality emerged, the elite were eventually forced to transform slaves into serfs (with right to share of harvest but not to movement). They became peasants and then workers (right to wages and movement).

Observing that workers could strike and demand rights, many people in positions of power started funding scientific experiments. Through technological innovations, they could get the benefits of slavery without the problems of slavery. After all, the steam engine meant one did not have to rely on bulls and horses to move from one place to another. Surely humans could be similarly replaced. With technology, there are no negotiations of salary, compensations, dignity, self-respect. No need for constant supervision of repetitive work.

Humans use their imagination to cultivate the earth, to herd animals, to extract metal from rocks. Eventually, they decided that there is greater pleasure in consuming rather than producing. Work needed to be outsourced therefore. Recently, a tycoon was upset that his staff needed a week’s holiday to attend a family function. Another was upset that young people wanted to work less hours, and preferred working from home. He called them lazy. Poor returns on his vast investments.

So the origin of slavery and the origin of the working class really comes from the human desire not to produce one’s own food, but to outsource the work to others while enjoying its fruits. So the entire outsourcing industry that exists in the world really has its roots in the human desire for pleasure without effort. In financial terms, this can be called high returns with low investments.

Think of how paradise is described in Hindu mythology. Gods have the wish-fulfilling tree Kalpataru, the wish-fulfilling cow Kamdhenu, the wish-fulfilling jewel Chintamani. These provide them with all that they desire by simply asking for it. They don’t have to give anything to get something in return. In science fiction dramas we have ‘materialised’ that can create any kind of tasty food using inorganic molecules. The same wishful thinking pattern.

Slavery was normalised in the world until the rise of Christianity, which saw the story of Exodus as a metaphor for freedom for all human beings, not just a tribe. The pharaoh was a metaphor for the autocrat, the dictator, the archetypal oppressor-elite. One can argue the Bible is the original Marxist or Socialist document, though atheists would hate that idea. Christian slave owners in America were in a dilemma as cotton-picking could not be done by machines. So they funded scientists to invent ‘race theory’ to argue that Africans were subhuman so it was perfectly fair to treat them like domesticated animals.

We see science as impersonal and rational. But science has always served the rich and powerful. Science enables the creation of technology that allows companies to downsize, fire and replace employees with self-driven cars and tech-like ChatGPT. It allows trillion-dollar companies to hire fewer and fewer people, and constantly tell their employees they are all replaceable, so they need to keep ‘re-skilling’ themselves while shareholders enjoy their yachts and private jets and speak at ‘save the earth’ conferences. Scientific innovations are now like the boon asked by an asura who seeks immortality. When gods give the boon, they always remind the asura that no one can ever be immortal, invincible or infallible.

First published June 22, 2024 in?Economic Times