SX: Exploring trends of (de)humanization

[serious_fun]

(Originally posted in Social experience design chatroom.)

Real Dehumanization

An interesting essay about the meaning of the word “dehumanization”. Like so many important words the use of the word varies significantly with people. The author focuses more on the what I would say are extreme forms (he calls them demonizing dehumanization). But I think society is also plagued by softer forms that may not even be recognized as such. Its the objectifying kind, where people simply become numbers and are treated as numbers. Which in the digital age is almost by default: For the techie working in behavioral classification and influence algorithms in Meta, all of humanity is but a dataframe. They have no emotional connection with the individuals on the receiving end of their actions. Unfortunately one of the principal factors seems to be the sheer mismatch between our ability to internalize others as individuals just like us and the total number of “others”. This mismatch of course predates digital, it is a fundamental challenge towards reaching humane societies…

This soft dehumanization is so systemic and pervasive its completely normalized. Think e.g., about how companies (the overdominant pattern of organizing economic activity) report on their activities. There are hundreds of pages, numbers and classifications about all sorts of things, but the actual people - the very essence of the entity - are basically a summary cost figure. So many thousand warm bodies, costing so much. Before we had adtech dataframes we had spreadsheets , but the way we use whichever tools reflects the mental models of our condition, which can be extremely biased and limiting.

[aschrijver]

I only skimmed the article thus far (am info overloaded), but I see the focus is so much on the individual human and their characteristics/metrics of humanness. Where I think about “Humanity” I see it more like the ‘sauce’ that binds us, anchors us to our society. More about human-to-human connections, the relationships, and the qualities thereof. When looking at the level to which an individual person is ‘dehumanized’, that person becomes objectified in the process, made a study subject of the social scientist. Focusing on the connection network where human value is exchanged is what every person deals with every day. Makes things actionable. Under SX the concept of the Commons based value economy includes this value exchange. The intrinsic values of Humanity and Freedom are the currencies for service delivery and value exchange.

When looking at “Humanity” or the extent of “dehumanization”, then these concepts change significantly depending on scale. This is where SX Pyramid of Perspective brings all scales together, considers them simultaneously. Take the example of AI. “AI works great for me” and “AI is highly detrimental for society” can both be true at the same time. And they are/remain connected to each other, dynamically interacting. Knowing the detrimental effects at scale, can help inform the AI enthusiast to adopt better practices and beware pitfalls.

Now we come to CALM culture. Constructive activism-led movements. Much of the activism against AI is traditional in nature: “Make people aware, make people uncomfortable, call them out / be judgmental, and ask them for a sacrifice, or else…”. This activism outcome involves Reward, a person open to change be shown alternatives, receive help to improve. And it includes Punishment, which comes in the form of Exclusion, breaking human connection. “Don’t use this project: tainted, filthy”.

That kind of activism is needed and essential. But only when properly dosed, and part of a more strategical approach. The ultimate goal is to get people in concerted solution orientation collaborating together. The Punishment should not be doled out too easily, which - esp. in fediverse/FOSS circles - it currently is, imho. When that is the case, and there is no CALM culture, then the activism is likely to become ineffective or even backfires. You will lose the AI enthusiast and push them to the opposite camp, not help them improve their ways with AI, for instance.

TLDR… the Humanity is a sauce, dripped over society, working differently at different scales, and expresses itself in terms of the connections between human beings. Which influence how each individual experiences the world and interacts with it, from their own day to day personal social experience.