Many of us have heard of the story from the pen of Washington Irving entitled Rip Van Wrinkle. For those of you who have forgotten, or those who are too young to even know, I’ll recap the story for you. One day, Rip wanders off into the woods to escape his nagging wife. The part of the fable that most of us remember is that he went up the mountain and fell asleep for twenty years. But another poignant point that is even more relevant and often completely overlooked is what happened while Rip was asleep? What did he miss out on. Legend says that when Rip went up the mountain to escape his grumbling wife, he passed a sign that had a picture of King George III of England.
When he came down the mountain, twenty years later, the same sign had a picture of George Washington, the 1st President of the United States.
When Rip looked at the picture – He was amazed and completely lost….He knew not who he was.
The most striking thing wasn’t that he had fallen asleep for 20 years but that he slept through a revolution. While Rip was restfully and peacefully snoring up on the mountain top – a revolution was taking place down in his beloved country – One that would radically change the course of history and Rip knew nothing about it – He was asleep. He actually slept through a revolution.
There can be nothing more tragic that one to sleep through a revolution. We are currently in the midst of both a technological and humans right revolution. The issue wasn’t that he fell asleep – I mean, who doesn’t enjoy a nice long relaxing nap – But Rip actually slept through a revolution. From start to Finish. From Crispus Attucks (a Black Man), who was the first person shot and killed with two bullets in the chest in the historic event that became known as The Boston Massacre —To the final battle of General Cornwallis, who was surrounded and forced to surrender the British position at Yorktown, Virginia. He slept through it all. The intersection of technologies like artificial intelligence and social justice threatens to redirect our moral compass.
AI gives intelligent machines the ability to “think” and act in a way that previously only humans could. This means they can interpret the world around them, digest and learn from information, make decisions based on what they’ve learned, and then take appropriate action – often without human intervention. More times than not without any ethical considerations or limitations.
Like Rip Van Winkle, those of us who are commissioned to be the caretakers of the technology are often asleep at the wheel. Like Rip Van Winkle, we peacefully rest while the collision of technology and the lack human oversight effectuate a revolution. In the fields of history and political science, a revolution is a radical change in the established order, usually the established government and social institutions. Why did Rip sleep so long? What cause him to go into that 20-year hiatus? Was it a sleeping disorder? Was it sleeping pills? For those of us who are the Rip Van Winkles of the 21st century, Martin Luther King Jr warned us against developing a spirit of “unwelcome satisfaction or a willingness to accept the status quo”.
This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
Otherwise, when we finally awaken from our deep sleep, we won’t know ourselves or the world that will be before us. Many of us are void of both the mental attitude and the mental response that this new revolutionary situation demands. We are fascinated by the amazing gifts that technologies like AI affords us, but we aren’t willing to take a stand to ensure that it is used ethically and responsibly. We often willingly chose profit over social responsibility. In his book, Hidden In White Sight, Calvin Lawrence a Distinguished Engineer at IBM shows the dangers and effects of algorithms on communities of color when we trust them blindly – or more tragically when we Fall Asleep at the Wheel.
