Page 127 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons

The Universal Human Interface

Yet the bombs are alive and well, and the reactors are begging to be
replaced by nuclear fusion—if it can be generated. Maybe the best
warnings we have are already out there in the culture: letting the cat
out of the bag, Pandora’s box, or the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
‘Monkey see—monkey do’ is another condemnable characteristic of
our hard-wired heritage. The anti-entropic energy required to limit
or reverse the spread of any mechanism unthinkingly adopted for
its immediate usefulness is great enough to appear unachievable. So
my desire for such a story would be an exposition of a practical
means of not throwing the baby out with the bath water. If that
trick is more unbelievable than the all-or-nothing battle between
primitive Man and all-powerful system interface, then that may
reflect the insolubility of our most pressing problems. Too bad, we
could use a UHI! Well, I have no suggestion: this is a real-world
problem desperately in need of a solution. Runaway invention.
Whatever can be done, will be done. Would it be the ironic
intervention of a deus ex machina to halt the machina ex homo?”
“Hey, Perversity!” Brad Razeberry was outraged. “You brought
up the ‘Planetary Steward’ idea. If this is in the zeitgeist, then your
readers would be ready to entertain any way out of a global
entrepreneurial train wreck, no matter how fanciful. I think your
best bet, Leith, is to expose an inherent flaw. The emperor’s new
clothes failed not because they were illusory, but because the
illusion was imperfect. I would explore ways in which our society is
successful precisely because communication is imperfect. Ambiguity
permits compromise where complete clarity might trigger
unnecessary conflict. And are there necessary illusions based on
linguistically concealing unpleasant realities? I think so. Exposure of
bald facts and bare truths might not reduce friction, as the makers
of the UHI hope. Their fatal error might be failing to consult
experts in psychology, anthropology and game theory. Maybe
someone from those soft sciences could be the hero, warning
everybody who will listen about the dangers of perfect
understanding. Could he succeed? That would be your decision.”

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