This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.
Big no-no for the followers of the God Emperor of Dune or 40k.
While humanism is often a non-religious philosophy or a worldview, federal courts have ruled that it qualifies as a religion.
Best part of the story
So you can't oppose outsourcing your brain power to a megacorp that will take zero responsibility for any consequence of its spicy autocorrect...
but you can oppose outsourcing your brain power to "the machine" because it's against your beliefs.
I mean, if it works, yeah sure, call it a religion.
Humanism is a religion.
I mean it's literally not, it's a philosophy, even the American Humanist Society states so
"Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind."
One religious exemption, please!
One Butlerian Jihad comming right up, Sir!
While I think most religious exemptions are stupidly and bullshit (looking at you, vaccine dodgers), this one can be considered to have actual theological merit. No graven images or creations. Also the fact the there are already cults of the AI. It’s still fighting bullshit with bullshit, but sometimes that’s all you have.
Oh FUUUUCK YES!
If Scientology can get a tax exception as a religious institution, then this guy can get title 9 coverage to not use AI at work as far as I am concerned.
If it was anywhere but a university I would have also expected him to be on the short list for layoffs next round for such a choice as well.
First of its kind
Pretty sure it isn't.
She won a religious exemption from using AI at work. The Pope's remarks could fuel similar appeals.
Yeah. Why isn't this higher. Or is it somehow different?
So they want me to use an AI to do my job. But at the same time they haven't fired me so presumably they understand that the AI can't be used exclusively to do the job. So doesn't that mean that they accept that I have better judgment than an AI and therefore my decision not to use said AI shouldn't be a problem for them.
I would love to see them actually try articulate exactly why the above is not true in an employment tribunal.
Humanism isnt really a religion. Its a non theistic philosophy.
The article points that out:
While humanism is often a non-religious philosophy or a worldview, federal courts have ruled that it qualifies as a religion.
I don't think religion itself has to be theistic.
It doesn't. Buddhism, for example does not require a belief in gods.
hold up. keep your torches lit.
It should be noted that while anyone can request a Title VII exemption, it will only be granted if the applicant has a deep moral conviction that could count as an article of faith. Aside from that, the law also states that the request should not place an “undue hardship on the employer’s business.” So, even though Durman is no longer personally required to use AI tools for his tasks, he is still expected to attend meetings and cooperate with colleagues who use AI or to submit materials to AI tools, as needed.
TLDR; this guy won, but you probably won't.
Probably won't stand up in the Supreme Court which only recognizes the religious rights of Christians to be bigots.
Freedom from religion is more important than freedom of religion.
Time to apply this to financial economics.
Though it's kinda funny that Humanism was the one to do it, it's literally atheism with extra steps
Not really. At least to me although it seems to be similar, it's less a focus on no god and more on being a good person and improving the lives of others. (You know, the things many religious folk think atheists are incapable of)
This reminds me of a quote from Star Trek Insurrection- "We Believe that when you build a machine to do the work of a man, you take something away from the man."
When I first saw the film, I rejected that. Seemed like backwards thinking, ignorant Luddite ideology ignoring the reality that when the machine does the man's work, you free up the man to do other things. When a man doesn't have to plow the field, he can focus on art and science and philosophy and music and poetry and otherwise taking his mind to the next level. At least that sounded good in my head.
Then I look at what we have now. We have built machines to create art and science and music and poetry, so the man is left to keep taking out the garbage. This is not an improvement. The Baku may not have been totally wrong.
I like Cory Doctorow's take on it differentiating the two different classes of machine:
In automation theory, a "centaur" is a person who is assisted by a machine. You're a human head being carried around on a tireless robot body. Driving a car makes you a centaur, and so does using autocomplete.
And obviously, a reverse centaur is a machine head on a human body, a person who is serving as a squishy meat appendage for an uncaring machine.
Obviously, it's nice to be a centaur, and it's horrible to be a reverse centaur.
The AI trend has been pushing all of us to be reverse centaurs which is the problem with machines you're talking about.
Imaginary religion gets exemption from imaginary technology within a society of religious privilege detached from reality.
Honestly I don't necessarily mind giving religious exceptions since it's part of culture which is the lifeblood of mankind, with the obvious asterisk that you shouldn't initiate harm on your fellow man. My problem is that secular elements of culture are oft ignored for some fucken reason. In this essay I will explain why I a bloodthirsty redneck should be allowed to scalp Elon Musk for entirely acceptable cultural reasons.
I was actually thinking about this wrt healthcare access earlier. I have a genuinely religious conviction against the intimate, personal details of my condition being processed by a machine and made available online. That is the business of myself and a professional caregiver, not a tech company and whatever "partners" they feel like sharing it with. You're supposed to be able to opt out, but practically that's almost never possible
Anyways I know it's in an entirely different field, but this felt like a hopeful precedent. Thanks for sharing :)
