Flynn Coleman - A Human Algorithm: How Artificial Intelligence Is Redefining Who We Are

Table of Contents

P ublishing a book is a team sport. Any inspiration you take away from these pages is due to the dedication of a vibrant community that worked on this project with me. I stand on the shoulders of friends and collaborators, and I owe much to their voicespast, present, and future. Any errors are mine alone.

To the team at Counterpoint Press: Im humbled to be in your pantheon of authors, and Im so proud my book found a home with your press. To Dan Smetanka: working together to complete this project was a joy. We edited, we laughed, and we edited again. Thank you for believing in me and in this book. To Jenn Kovitz, Becky Kraemer, and Katie Boland, along with Sarah Jean Grimm, Megan Fishmann, Dustin Kurtz, Miyako Singer, and the entire crew: Im honored to work with such a powerhouse group, and Im incredibly grateful for your guidance and support. To Nicole Caputo and Sarah Brody for bringing this dream to undulating, artistic life with your stunning cover design. To the exquisite editors who saw the sculpture in the marble: Jordan Koluch, Katherine Kiger, Jenefer Shute, and Laura Grow-Nyberg. To Meg Whiteford, whose fact-checking, research, and collaboration have been essential. To Hoai Nam Pham, whose imaginative designs light up the pages of this book. Thank you.

To Kevin OConnor: thank you for being my first ally in the publishing world. To the team at Sheedy Lit, helmed by Charlotte Sheedy: thank you for being a champion of literary magic, social justice, diversity, and inclusion. Its a great honor to be part of your world and to help carry the flame. To Laurie Dolphin, for believing in this idea from the start, and to Stuart Shapiro, who has known me since I was little, for supporting my literary dreams.

To my teachers and mentors: thank you for showing me who I want to be and who I am still becoming. I hope to always make you proud. To my students, who challenge and inspire me every day. Its a true gift to watch you thrive. You give me such hope in the future.

To the keepers of libraries, bookstores, and literary places far and wide, who provide sanctuary and solace for so many: thank you for keeping the light and kettle on for us writers and dreamers. To those whose courage and resilience has helped me to see the essence of the human spirit and the humanity within us all: thank you for leading the way. To the many brilliant people whose source material fills the endnotes of this book: you are a teeming well of wisdom and a record of who we are. To the innovators, inventors, and visionaries who transport us: thank you for seeing what is not yet here, but could be. To all the living beings we share our planet with: Ive tried to listen to your calls and be your advocate in this book. I hope it has helped in some small way to turn your suffering into light.

To my dream team: Genevieve Casey, you are the conscience of this book. With you Im in the finest book club I could ever hope to join. To the early readers of this book, who provided critical feedback and expertise that made it better: John Garnett, Joe Cirincione, and Dana Rubin. Thank you. To my sister, for a mind unlike any other. To my beloved family and friends, you light a candle when it feels dark. Thank you for helping me find my song. Especially to Shauna Brittenham Reiter, Vidya Satchit, and Steven Morrison. I love you forever.

To my mom: for your imaginative spirit unlike anyone else on Earth. For your artistic vision, for reading early drafts, and for laughing with me through this process and through life. Lets keep evolving.

And to my dad: I wouldnt want to do this without you, and without you none of this would be possible. You are the greatest father this planet has ever known. I share this with you.

Finally, to the future generations, the torchbearers, the poets, the makers, the rule breakers, the change makers, the guardians, the world builders, the scribblers, the lovers, the rebels, our children, and our childrens children who will be: take care of one another, all the creatures with whom we share our home, and all those who will come after you.

See you in the stars.

Jorge Estuardo de Len

FLYNN COLEMAN is a writer, international human rights attorney, public speaker, professor, and social innovator. She has worked with the United Nations, the United States federal government, and international corporations and human rights organizations around the world. Coleman has written extensively on issues of global citizenship, the future of work and purpose, political reconciliation, war crimes, genocide, human and civil rights, humanitarian issues, innovation and design for social impact, and improving access to justice and education. A Human Algorithm is her first book. She lives in New York City. Find out more at flynncoleman.community.

T wo thousand years ago, in first-century Roman Alexandria, there lived a mathematician and engineer named Heron Alexandrinus, known as Hero.

One of the few surviving Arabic manuscripts from the period is The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria. It details a design Hero created for a simple radial steam turbine. He envisioned fire heating pipes, with the resulting steam lifting an engine, causing it to spin and generate torque, which would then power the opening of the heavy doors that guarded the citys temples.

Hero, an inveterate tinkerer who also invented the vending machine and stand-alone fountain, With this invention, factories no longer had to be next to rivers (which they had needed for hydropower). This new industrial mobility and flexibility, and all the tangential benefits of steam power, engendered an enormous impact on production, transportation, and exploration.

The steam engine is now considered the single most important invention of the Industrial Revolution. Heros story is a reminder that many of humanitys most significant technological achievements have occurred over long periods of time, as the slow domino effect of the collective knowledge of generations became apparent. Some even suggest that another of Heros inventions, a system of pegs, ropes, and axles using weight to move a device across a stage by itself, should be considered the first programmable robotmore evidence of this curious, creative generalists influence on us today.

Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition, and myth frame our response.

ARTHUR SCHLESINGER

Humans do not live long enough to gain perspective on our own history. However, as we embark on our latest technological journey, it is essential that we push ourselves to view our past through a wider lens. To understand where we are going, we need to look back. To know who we are, we need know who we were.

Today, when we think about technology, we tend to think of cool gadgets and inventions in the digital realm. But technology is any tool that allows us to innovate and to solve problems. Fire is technology. Language is technology. Other species, like birds and primates, also deploy complex and clever skills for practical and survival purposes. However, humans have the apparently unique ability to record our communications for others benefit across time, and to cooperate in numbers large and disparate enough to build skyscrapers, bridges, and computers. Technology, specifically information technologywhich is any system, infrastructure, network, device, or other means of creating, storing, or exchanging informationcan provide populations with agency, access, and opportunity when not being manipulated or controlled.