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H ELIX
A JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
2020
VOLUME XVIIHelix: A Journal of
Interdisciplinary Research
Volume 17
2020Helix publishes undergraduate and graduate research from all disciplines at
Southeast Missouri State University.
Call for Submissions
Helix: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Research
Helix is seeking manuscript submissions for Volume 18. Students of all
levels, including graduating seniors, are encouraged to submit their
researched writing in any discipline.
Undergraduate submissions should be 1000-3000 words in length.
Graduate submissions should be 3000-5000 words in length.
Shorter or longer papers will be considered provided the author receives
permission. Send us a query letter that includes the essay’s specifications.
For more about Helix: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Research:
Visit http://www.semo.edu/writing/helix.html or call the Center for
Writing Excellence at (573) 651-2460
Submission Deadline for Volume 18:
June 1, 2021Table of Contents
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
Beyond Abduction
Ololade Afolabi 2
Is AI Safety ‘Rather Speculative Long-Termism?’
Iaroslav Elistratov 16
___, Where’s My Car?: Referring to Friends in the New Age
Karma Alvey 26
Sensus Communis: The Solution We’ve Been Waiting For
Zaiya Dunn 37
Eliminate the ‘Teens for the Good of the Teenagers
Paige Flottman 41
The Blind
Ciara Southard 45
GRADUATE RESEARCH
Scents-less Advertising: Reasoning and Trends behind Why Perfume Ads Are So Weird
Margaret Fruewirth 50
The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless and the Morality Play: Eliza Haywood, Genre,
and Salvation
Benjamin Dordoni 60
Colonial Army, European War: Martial Races Theory and the Indian Corps on the
Western Front, 1914-1915
Maxwell Abbott 71Beyond Abduction
Ololade Afolabi
Abstract
This paper examines the media coverage of the 2018 Dapchi girls’ abduction by Boko Haram.
The study argues that the abduction coverage carries some ideological underpinnings of the
newspaper outlet that covered it, which has the potential to shape the educational future of the
girls. Since educating the Nigerian girl-child is important to the social empowerment of women
in Nigeria and important for national development, the discourse of education should not only be
central to media coverage during this Boko Haram crisis but should, also, be critically examined
to elicit any ideological stance that might empower or discourage girls’ education by the media
organizations. Therefore, using critical discourse analysis, the study detects this political
undertone and discusses its impact on the readers and the girls’ future.
Keywords: abduction, media, critical discourse analysis, Dapchi girls, Boko Haram.
Introduction
Barely, five years after the abduction of the 276 Chibok girls by the Boko Haram terrorist
group in Nigeria, the country is in another battle for the lives of young schoolgirls. The 110
schoolgirls’ abduction that happened on February 19, 2018 in Dapchi, a town in north-east
Nigeria was like the Chibok girls’ abduction on April 14, 2014. Abduction of schoolgirls is one
of the many strategies Boko Haram uses to achieve their plan of destroying any form of
westernization in Nigeria. This includes state establishments, schools, and democracy.
Boko Haram is an Islamic terrorist group which translates to “western education is
forbidden” (Apejoye, 2014). The group was formed in 2009 by Yusuf Mohammed and later
headed by Abubakar Shekau after the death of Mohammed. The group currently operates with
over 40,000 members, recruiting from within Nigeria and other neighboring countries including
Niger and Chad. Added to the anti-westernization objective of the group, its main goal is to
transform Nigeria into an Islamic state, particularly, the northern part of the country through
terrorism and Islamic extremism. Boko Haram believes, particularly, that girls are to serve the
interests of men and that westernization, such as formal education, has altered that structure of
2man-head in the home and community by empowering girls/women to speak up and become
‘rebellious.’ Hence, their tactic of abducting, raping and forcefully marrying women/girls to
discourage them from going to school (Swails &McKenzie, 2016).
The girl-child education in Northern-Nigeria has always been at the center of education
discourse in Nigeria. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that one girl to two
boys or one girl to three boys go to school in the northern part of Nigeria (UNICEF, 2018). This
is not only due to poverty and illiteracy level among parents, but also due to socio-cultural and
religious factors. Such factors include early girl-child marriage where girl children are married
off as early as thirteen years of age and an Islamic belief that sees women as the domestic part of
a home and society (UNICEF, 2018). This educational situation in the country has not only made
the discourse of education a critical discussion in Boko Haram activities but also a major focus
of media coverage.
The abduction of schoolgirls in the last five years signifies that the terrorists’ interest in
discouraging girls from going to school is not declining but becoming stronger. Considering this,
media organizations play a role in how they report and discuss the abduction of the girls and
what this might mean for their education and future schoolgirls. This study, thus, examines how
a Nigerian newspaper discussed the girls’ education in their coverage of Dapchi girls’ abduction.
This study is of strong social and political importance to how women/girls are positioned in
Nigeria and their hope of having empowerment that can lead to their social, economic, cultural,
and political freedom. By looking at the media coverage of the abduction, the study detects the
ideology of the newspaper towards girls’ education and discusses how that might have impact on
the readers.
Discourse, Media, and Boko Haram
Since the inception of Boko Haram, there has been a wide coverage by the media on the
crisis and its threat to national security and the citizenry. Equally, there has also been an
increased use of social media for online activism and general discussion about the group’s
activities. In this section, some studies that discussed media perspective on the Boko Haram
crisis were examined.Roelof (2014) examines the meta-conflict surrounding the conception of the state
following the inception of Boko Haram in 2009. The study argues that the discussions
surrounding the activities of Boko Haram always revolve around the Nigerian state and how they
operate and control what happens within its borders. Thus, there is often “competing discourses”
(p.111) about the state during the terrorists’ activities and on the meaning of Boko Haram. The
study uses discourse analysis to examine the discourses in the media coverage of the terrorist’
group in 186 newspaper reports from July to August 2009. The findings show four competing
discourses, socio-economic which sees the Boko Haram uprising as part of a larger economic
problems facing Nigerian youths; religious structural discourse which describes Boko Haram as
one of many ways in which Islam perpetuates religious violence; political agency discourse
which discusses the actions of the police and other law-enforcing agents in stopping the crisis
and religious agency discourse which constructs the Boko Haram crisis as a religious problem
that can only be solved through religious ways.
Similarly, Olagunju and Ajadi (2014) study how “the ideology of insecurity” (p. 33) is
constructed in the media coverage on Boko Haram and the Nigerian government’s face-off. The
study argues that the media influence the thoughts of the audience on the issue of national
security by language they employ, and such thoughts determine how the audience develops
ideologies on the national problem. The study uses van Djik’s socio-cognitive approach to
critical discourse analysis to study how words, sentences, and phrases are used in the two
editorials on the Boko Haram crisis. The findings showed that, through the ‘us’ versus ‘them’
analysis, the media positioned the Boko Haram as the powerful side and insurgency as
something difficult to overcome.
Similarly, Musa and Yusha’u (2013) use critical discourse analysis to examine the
consequences of parachute journalism in the reportage of Boko Haram crisis in the northern part
of Nigeria. The study argues that parachute journalism often brings about distorted meaning of
conflict reporting by the way they represent and misrepresent actors and in their semantic usage
of terms which affects how audience interprets the messages. The analysis includes 50 news
articles each from CNN and Al-Jazeera on Boko Haram and the analysis focused on how the use
of language, accuracy of reports, and the how much knowledge the reporter has on the issue
covered, provides necessary contextualization which will inform how audiences make
4judgements. The study finds out that information is built on guess, excessive reports from official
sources rather than independent journalists, and the use of stereotypes to polarize the crisis. The
authors thus submit the media organization’s use of parachute journalism leads to misreporting
the crisis to the audience.
In online discourse, Chiluwa and Ajiboye (2014) carry out a study on the use of social
media by Boko Haram to promote their activities and mobilize people to follow them. A total of
152 tweets were collected from the profile page of Boko Haram on Twitter. This includes
retweets by Boko Haram and the eight people they were following. The authors used qualitative
approach to analyze the contents of the tweets and examined any ideological stance found in
them. The findings show that discourse used by Boko Haram showed their recognition of
themselves as the ‘true’ people and the rejection of others--government, girls, and schools. As
others are using social media to campaign against Boko Haram, they are also using the same
medium to empower themselves and spread their message out to the public.
Similarly, Chiluwa and Adegoke (2013) conduct a study on how people use online
media, Twitter in this case, to show paradigmatic acts about the issue they are discussing. The
study analyzes 291 tweets and comments that were collected from Boko Haram Twitter profile
page, Daily Telegraph, individual tweeters, and Mail & Guardian Online. The authors group the
data into paradigmatic acts and conduct a qualitative analysis to identify the objective of the
tweeters in their online comments. The findings reveal that citizens use social media to express
their anger, joy or pains in time of crisis which can be very purgative for them.
Lastly, the study Harrison, Dumas, DePaula, Fake, May, Atrey, Lee, Rishi, and Ravi
(2017) examines how people use e-petitioning on Twitter to influence responses from
government and decision makers about the abduction of the Chibok girls in 2014. The authors
conduct a time series analysis on tweets and e-signatures about the #bringbackourgirls campaign
collected from Twitter API and change.org. The findings show that the easy way of
disseminating information on Twitter make it easy for the viral effects of the e-petitioning
campaign and can be very productive in initiating social change when backed up with offline
actions.
From the discussion above, it is obvious that much of the literature on Boko Haram
focuses on how the terrorist group poses an insurmountable challenge to the Nigeriangovernment and on how citizens respond to the crisis. Those studies that examine the coverage
of the 2014 abduction, for instance, neglect to focus on the victims of the abduction but rather on
how citizens are affected by the event. Therefore, this study fills the empirical gap by looking at
the coverage of the Dapchi girl victims of the Boko Haram abduction on February 19, 2018 to
examine the language use in the education discourse surrounding the girls’ coverage. This study
focuses on education discourse because the Boko Haram crisis revolves round the fight against
western education and especially girl-child education.
As mentioned earlier, girl-child education is a very important issue in the Nigerian
education system. It is, however, increasingly more important in this period of national crisis as
women/girls are the target of the abductors. The absence of educated women and girls in Nigeria
creates a widening gap of gender inequality in politics, employment, and other social institutions.
This is because women will not be intellectually empowered to engage in critical thinking and
practices that can be beneficial to development of their country. Women will thus continue to be
sidelined in the place of power and important national decision making. Instead, there will be
increased subjugation of women and they will be more confined to the home as children bearers,
thus, becoming culturally overpowered.
Thus, this study argues that since educating the Nigerian girl-child is important to social
empowerment of women in Nigeria and important for national development, the discourse of
education should not only be central to media coverage during this Boko Haram crisis but
should, also, be critically examined to elicit any ideological stance that might empower or
discourage girls’ education by the media organizations. It is important to see how media
institutions are covering the crisis, what kind of discourse they focus on and what their ideology
is on such discourse. This is because the media organizations are ideological state apparatuses
(Althusser, 1971) which shape how people think.
Research Question
To study the education discourse about the abduction, two research questions have been
formulated:
RQ1: How was the discourse of education constructed in the media coverage of Dapchi girls’
abduction?
6RQ2: What are its implications on girl-child education in Nigeria?
Method
This study uses critical discourse analysis, specifically Machin and Mayr (2012) on
analyzing semiotic choices. The choice of the discourse analytical approach was necessitated by
the lexical semantic analysis that this study employs. Machin and Mayr (2012) described social
semiotic theory of communication as “how people use semiotic resources available to them
either in language or visual communication to realize their interests” (p.17). Basically socio-
semiotic approach looks at the way language is used in social context to show power relations
that might be otherwise hidden in the text. Central to their discussion on socio-semiotic analysis
is lexical semantic analysis. This analysis examines the linguistic elements that are used by the
author in the text and why certain words were chosen over others. Lexical semantic analysis
allows for reading and interpreting texts to deduce both explicit and implicit meanings and what
such words denote or connote in given socio-cultural context.
Lexical semantic analysis includes lexical choices like overlexicalization, the redundant
use of words and synonyms within a given text, suppression or lexical absence which is the
deliberate exclusion of some words that one might expect to find in a particular text, structural
oppositions, the putting side-by-side of words or sentences that are structurally opposite in
meaning, and figurative languages. To analyze the discourse of education in this study, it is
important to look at the choices of words used to convey the discourse in the newspaper and
what those words imply. As explained earlier, girl-child education has socio-cultural roots in
Nigeria, by doing a lexical semantic analysis of the newspaper coverage, the study identifies how
the language of the coverage reflects dominant social and cultural perspective on girl-child
education in Nigeria or how it challenges existing norms.
Sample
A sample of 15 news articles were collected from Vanguard, a Nigerian daily newspaper,
through ProQuest database on the abduction of the Dapchi girls. The samples were limited to
coverage between February 19, 2018, the day the girls were abducted, and March 22, 2018, a day
after 105 of the girls were returned. This newspaper was chosen because it is an independent
newspaper that claims to have no political affiliations with any government. Thus, thenewspaper’s coverage is expected to reflect unbiased position about the discourse examined.
The choice of independent newspaper was owing to the assumption that some political officials
use Boko Haram to achieve their agenda. Therefore, to limit the propensity that the newspaper
coverage might not very well reflect the true situation of girl-child education or might be a
propaganda for government politics, independent newspaper was deemed appropriate for the
study.
Analysis
The findings from this study show that girl-child education was constructed positively
and was important for the girls’ future. The analysis of data is presented below:
Comparisons
The coverage compared the crisis with the 2014 abduction where 276 girls were
kidnapped. Then mentioning of the word “school” was very common to the coverage to show
that the lives of the girls are always in the danger when they are on school premises. By
constructing the crisis as a school-related crisis, the newspaper directs the attention of the readers
to the mission of Boko Haram to terminate the dream of girls going to school and that schools
are no longer safe for girls which is a dangerous thing. Examples of comparison in the articles
are listed below:
…it was a "well-planned attack" that specifically targeted the state-run boarding school.
Hundreds of students…fled in the dark into the surrounding bush…The attack and
the confusion that followed recalled the abduction of 276 girls from Chibok.
(Vanguard, Feb 27, 2018)
These girls were exactly where they ought to be as schoolgirls--studying and going about
their business in the vicinity of their school. Like their Chibok predecessors in captivity,
they were being prepared for a future that could hopefully make some difference to their
lives. (Vanguard, March 7, 2018)
8Figurative Languages
The newspaper employed a lot of literary techniques to construct the discourse of girl-
child education in the coverage. Some of techniques used are discussed below.
Rhetorical Question
Rhetorical question was employed to frame the school as a dangerous zone where no
parents would like their children to go. These questions are also to get the readers thinking about
the unsafety that happens in schools and how that is dangerous for the girls. Examples of
rhetorical questions in the coverage are below:
“How do you tell parents and reassure them that their children are safe to go to school
after this mass abduction?... How do you say to them that they have been let down
because they trusted that the powers that be have made the place safe for their children to
go to a place of learning without the fear of abduction, rape and worse?” (Vanguard,
March 4, 2018).
“In a region already made backward by poverty and whose hope lies in increased
exposure to modern education, how does anybody persuade parents to release their
daughters to go to school?” (Vanguard, March 7, 2018).
“What are the real and potential consequences of more girls staying out of school in a
part of Nigeria that is already notorious for poor attendance of boys to say nothing of
girls in school?” (Vanguard, March 7, 2018).
Repetition
The newspaper used repetition of ‘future’ in the coverage to create a pattern about the
future of the girls being jeopardized by the abduction. This technique also puts emphasis on
education as the future of the girls and the need for the abduction to stop. Examples are below:
“The dream of that future has effectively been shattered” (Vanguard, March 7, 2018).
“…consequences of the kind of failure by our children that has led to this theft of their
future?” (Vanguard, March 9, 2018).
“They were being prepared for a future that could hopefully make some difference to
their lives” (Vanguard, March 7, 2018).Personification
Similar to repeating the word ‘future,’ the coverage personified the future of the girls and
described it as being raped by the abductors. That is, by taking these girls out of school, the
abductors are raping the future of the girls. By describing the future of the girls as animate, the
newspaper is giving life to their future and saying that it is like taking away their lives or stealing
something important from them when the abductors force these girls out of school. Also, because
women/girls sometimes find themselves as victims of rape, the use of the word rape in the text is
employed to carry a sociological meaning of how women are victims of sexual abuse and that
denying them of western education is synonymous to this act--a traumatizing experience for
women/girls. Example of personification in the text is below:
“What amount of counseling and preachment would suffice or amend for the literal rape
of a child's future?” (Vanguard, March 7, 2018).
Structural / Ideological Oppositions Squaring
Another lexical category used in the text is structural opposition or what van Dijk (1998)
refers to as “ideological squaring.” This lexical category looks at how opposing words or
statements are put side by side in a text to show a comparison between them and to implicitly tell
the reader which is better. The idea is that when readers encounter such co-occurring words or
statements in a text, they will be able to know why education is important by comparing the
words or statements.
“The tragedy is that these parents despite, the hardship and sacrifices they made to send
their children to schools, now wish they had not done so; but they did so, that their girls
can be educated and lift their whole family out of poverty.” (Vanguard, March 4, 2018)
“Any well-meaning parents will…, keep their respective children safe from harm and
they will keep them away from schools. This is a disaster and it is playing into the hands
of the deplorable and despicable murderers without a cause”. (Vanguard, March 4, 2018).
“We are not only constantly rearming the enemy and recharging its power… to keep
abducting more schoolgirls. We are inadvertently helping them in their avowed
determination to destroy education in the North East”. (Vanguard, March 6, 2018)
10“What are the real and potential consequences of more girls staying out of school…?”
(Vanguard, March 7, 2018).
In the first and second examples above, the first statements show why parents should take
their children away from school and the second part of the statement argues against that and
mentions why it is important for them to remain is school. These opposing statements let the
readers see that the situation is bad, but parents are or should be determined nevertheless to let
their children go to school to prevent “disaster, despicable and deplorable murderers” from
taking advantage of their children’s future.
Overlexicalization
Overlexicalization is employed in the text to show emphasis rather than redundancy. It is
to paint the picture that the parents are willing to send their children to school, but the terrorists
are making things difficult for them. The double lexicons in describing the terrorists are to show
how awful they are. Examples of overlexicalization is are below
“Well-meaning parents,” “deplorable and despicable murderers,” “these parents are
experiencing a living nightmare, coming days will be torturous and traumatic. This loss
and absence is not theirs alone to carry” (Vanguard, March 4, 2018).
Topicalization
Topicalization is a linguistic strategy that is employed to place the topic of a sentence at
the beginning of the sentence. This strategy helps to foreground what is more important in the
text. In the examples below, the newspaper strategically foregrounds the importance of education
by letting the readers know the situation of education in the northern part of Nigeria.
“In a region already made backward by poverty and whose hope lies in increased
exposure to modern education, how does anybody persuade parents to release their
daughters to go to school?” (Vanguard, March 7, 2018).
Despite other factors militating against girl-child education in the north, not many parents
would gladly allow their wards to go back to school in an environment they are
constantly attacked and abducted. (Vanguard, March 3, 2018).Facts
Lastly, the newspaper used facts to back up their discussion on education and why it is
important for the girls’ education. The use of facts is to prove to the reader the deteriorating
situation of education in the northern part of the country.
“The BK's insurgency in the north, according to UNICEF, has forced and kept more than
11 million children out of formal education”. About 1,400 schools have been destroyed in
Borno State and many in the surrounding states” (Vanguard, March 4, 2018).
Explaining Intertextuality in the Text
The discourse was largely shaped by the abduction of the Chibok girls which had a
similar agenda. By ordering the discourse this way, Vanguard brings the memory of Chibok
girls’ abduction back to the readers, sets the schemata of interpretation for the readers, tells the
readers that the story might end the same way—the girls not found —and emphasizes that girl-
child education is a main target for the terrorists.
Discussion
The analysis above shows that the discourse of education is positively constructed by the
newspaper. This finding seems to be inconsistent with the poor socio-cultural position of women
in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. The positive representation of the girls’ education in the
newspaper shows an ideology that opposes cultural norm and challenges the status quo. In this
case, the newspaper is being an advocate for the women and discrediting the abductors.
There are many things this finding means for women/girls in Nigeria. Firstly, it shows
that media can be a powerful tool for gender and social change. If many media organizations
cover girls and women stories like how this abduction was covered, there will be an uprising of
revolution against women domestication and the culture that prevents them from fulfilling their
dreams. Equally, because this study made use of independent newspaper coverage, one can also
mention that independent journalism should be more encouraged in Nigeria to foster
women/girls’ social growth and emancipation. This is more likely to produce neutral
perspectives about these women/girls although future studies can compare coverage between
independent and government-owned media.
12Secondly, by shaping the coverage largely by the Chibok girls’ abduction, the newspaper
puts a strong emphasis on the threat against girls’ education in the country and why it is
important for government to be more proactive toward the crisis. In this coverage, the girls are
given agency. They are described as potential breadwinners of their home who need to be
educated. In a statement, Vanguard (March 4, 2018) mentioned that “the tragedy is that these
parents despite, the hardship and sacrifices they made to send their children to schools, now wish
they had not done so; but they did so, that their girls can be educated and lift their whole family
out of poverty.”
This is very phenomenal and anti-stereotypical. Women are rarely described as people
who will lift their families out of poverty, it is usually the men. Rather, women are those that
needs to be taken care of, those that need to be at home and watch the kids. While some might
argue that the newspaper wants them to go to school for familial reasons and not for other
political or social reasons, this study focuses on the fact that the epical agency given to women in
the family is worth noting. This unconventional description of the girls can be very empowering
for Nigerian girls and women generally and encourage their interest in education. It can make
them feel that they are part of success-building in the nation and an important part of the family
beyond domesticity.
Conclusion
This study has been able to analyze and discuss how education discourse was
constructed in the media coverage of the abducted Dapchi girls. What the findings in this study
shows is that girl-child education in the northern Nigeria needs immediate attention of the state.
The fight against educating women and girls is not just a fight against gender equality but a fight
against national development and a fight against nation-building. If women and girls are
prevented from going to school, it is obvious that the development of the country will be limited
to certain areas while gender problems continue to challenge policies and positive social change.
Therefore, in order not to aggravate the problem of gender inequality in Nigeria, more
positive media coverage about women/girls is encouraged. Media should also continue to
employ linguistic choices that push for women/girls’ freedoms by strategically using language to
define problems in a vivid way that might not otherwise be noticeable. Such a task will not onlyincrease awareness about women/girls’ problems but can cause activism, which can lead to
transformation.
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https://search.proquest.com/docview/2010670591?accountid=13864.Is AI Safety ‘Rather Speculative Long-Termism?’
Iaroslav Elistratov
When asked if the Effective Altruism (EA) movement has deviated from what he
originally intended for it to look like, Peter Singer told Oxford Political Review: ‘I do think that
the EA movement has moved too far and, arguably, there is now too much resources going into
rather speculative long-termism’ [1].
‘I think if we continue to focus on long term things and concern ourselves with the
possibility of AI taking over in a malevolent way, it’s gonna be a very narrow movement,’ [2] he
added.
Prof. Singer has repeatedly voiced such concerns: ‘If some people want to donate to
support [AI Safety] – excellent. But I don’t think it’s worth investing on a large scale… I think
there are better things with a better payoff today’ [3] and ‘to me [AI Safety] is nowhere near as
immediate as the questions of climate change – which we need to do something about now –
global poverty and population growth’ [4].
In the following paragraphs, I would like to show why Singer’s perspective does not
reflect the actual concerns of AI experts. My argument is that it is worth donating to AI Safety
(organizations trying to ensure thereof, such as MIRI, Open AI, etc.) even at the expense of
diverting money from the charities which are alleviating suffering of the people in need (such as:
Against Malaria Foundation, Give Directly, etc.). Whilst there are negative consequences of
prioritizing AI Safety – for example, in the form of people’s suffering not being alleviated – it is,
nevertheless, worth ensuring that the creation of smarter-than-human AI has a positive impact
over these more immediate consequences. Contrary to Singer’s argument – that: ‘Obviously the
chances of these things [existential risks] happening are relatively small’ [5] – in the case of AI,
the risk is high enough to be considered very serious.
Preemptively, the piece is going to deal with some of the arguments in defence of Peter
Singer’s position. Including, arguably, the main one voiced by the professor himself: ‘It’s
difficult to decide between this small probability of us becoming extinct and trying to do
something about that and a high probability that we can help concrete people’ [6].
16Outperforming humans
There is overwhelming evidence that the existential risks of AI are no longer ‘relatively
small’. Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philosopher of AI, surveyed the top 100 most cited AI
researchers on the chances of artificial general intelligence (AGI) – a machine that is capable of
understanding or learning any intellectual task a human being can – being developed by 2045:
the median estimate was for a one in two chance (rising to a nine in ten chance by 2075).
Moreover, they estimated the chance is about one in three (31% probability) that this
development turns out to be ‘bad’ or ‘extremely bad’ for humanity [7].
Another paper, which surveyed 352 AI researchers, showed that experts believe there is a
50% chance of AI outperforming humans in all tasks by 2061 (they give a 10% chance of it
happening within 7 years) [8]. And some of the most authoritative people in the field echo that
the majority of AI researchers think that ‘we are likely to have a general-purpose AI around the
middle of the century’ [9].
Concerning the issue, Singer said: ‘I don’t know… I accept my lack of real knowledge on
this, I’m just reporting what other people have said… From my reading, we’re still quite a long
way off of the prospect of AI actually being smart enough to take us over. Somewhere in that 50
to 100 range, perhaps, which still gives us time to think about that issue…’ [10].
It is peculiar that Singer mentions the time window as a reassurance that we need not be
concerned with AI. After all, he has claimed that temporal distance in and of itself should not
have any moral weight. The most probable explanation is that Singer believes that the longer the
time window, the higher the likelihood that humans can deal with the existential threat safely.
Yet, this assumption seems to break down by its own logic: if we do not feel pressed to deal with
the threat now, on account of the fact that we will have more time later, we will eventually run
out of time.
A broader problem is that we are more likely to create an unsafe AI rather than a safe
one, because making a superhuman-level AI that is safe involves some additional challenges on
top of the challenge of creating a general-purpose AI in the first place [11]. Once machines are
capable of designing other machines like them, it will result in an explosion of intelligence that
will push us past the point of no return, writes Nick Bostrom [12].So, the people in the field are unclear about what the future holds, but nevertheless, these
same people think that the catastrophic risks are possible and that it is an important problem.
Perhaps, then, AI Safety research is not that ‘speculative’ after all.
Is it worth trying to reduce the AI risk?
If we ‘reduce existential risk by mere one-millionth of one percentage point, it will be
worth more than 100 times the value of saving a million human lives’ [13]. The expected value
of any other good actions – like helping people here and now – will be trivial compared to even
the slightest reduction in existential risk [14]. This rule, known as the ‘maxipok’ rule, should
have particular force for consequentialists like Singer.
One push back against this conclusion could be that we should not be concerned with
events or incidents with a probability below a particular threshold (i.e., existential risks that are
very unlikely to happen should be disregarded). This is best expressed in Singer’s own words:
‘The speculation that we will develop AI to such a point that it will become smarter than us and
will, maybe, destroy us: firstly, it’s hard to know how likely this is; secondly, it’s hard to know
how we – with our present state of knowledge – could prevent that… So, I think, we don’t know
enough [about the risk of AI] to divert any funds from the existing charities’ [15].
There are problems with each of these statements. Regarding the first point, Singer seems
to be asking ‘how likely must an existential risk be for us to start taking measures to reduce it?’
According to Singer himself: ‘If the [existential] risk were 1%, that would definitely be worth
doing.’ [16] It is worth mentioning that there is likely to be an implicit assumption that the
probability of existential risk is estimated by competent people in a relevant field. In the case of
AI, some of the world’s leading experts in the field assign 18% probability that the development
of AI turns out to be ‘extremely bad — existential catastrophe’ [17]. Thus, following Singer’s
own line of reasoning, the existential risk of AI passes the risk threshold.
What about the refutation that ‘we don’t know enough’ or that the future is too uncertain?
Uncertainty is not a problem. The EA movement has always been about working with
probabilities, which is a way of dealing with uncertainty. And AI scientists have shown that
while the future is uncertain, there is a high likelihood of catastrophic risk in that uncertainty.
18To pivot from my argument for a moment, there could be a couple of additional
objections to the conclusion I have just drawn – again, best expressed in Prof. Singer’s own
words: ‘We should not take these estimates too seriously. The overall response rate was only
31%, and researchers working in AI have an incentive to boost the importance of their field by
trumpeting its potential to produce momentous results’ [18]. Indeed, the concern is reasonable:
researcher bias is a common problem. Yet even if we employ the most generous correction to the
current probability of 18%, we would still have a risk percentage higher than the 1% threshold
Singer employs.
Let us go back to Singer’s second larger point that ‘it’s hard to know how we could
prevent’ the undesirable outcome of an AGI. This argument seems paradoxical. The more we
think about how to reduce the AI risks (e.g., value alignment, reward hacking, etc.), the more we
find solutions to these problems (e.g., inverse reinforcement learning, generative adversarial
networks, etc.). But these solutions are possible precisely because of AI Safety research. Hence
to claim that: ‘We do not need to support AI Safety precisely for the reason that we do not know
how to prevent it’ is putting the cart before the horse. The fact that we do not know how to
prevent an AGI currently should be a reason in favor of AGI safety research not a reason against
it.
Prof. Singer noted that: ‘Negligence […] is culpable in judging the agent, how careful he
was to find out what the likely consequence of his actions were’ [20]. In the case of AI –
following this line of reasoning – by not paying due attention to the Safety research we all could
be ‘the negligent agents.’ Are we culpable in the event of a catastrophe?
The inevitability of AGI
It seems likely that we are. According to experts, superhuman-level AI is inevitable
[21]. Three assumptions support the conclusion they have reached:
The first is a premise that information processing is the basis of intelligence. It seems
clearly to be the case given that we have already built narrow intelligence into our machines: its
strength could be weak and limited, but at this stage all we need to do is to accept that narrow AI
systems – like IBM Watson, or AlphaGo – do, indeed, demonstrate some level of genuine
intelligence.The second assumption leading to the inevitability of AGI is that we do not stand on a
peak of intelligence. It is likely that the spectrum of intelligence extends much further than we
currently conceive possible because many AI systems are already at superhuman-level of
intelligence in their narrow tasks – it is sobering to think of: arithmetic; driving or chess (for
example) humans will never be better than AI at these tasks. The challenge we face now is
developing ‘flexibility’ of AI between tasks (or its generality), but not the creation of
superhuman AI as such.
Third, we will continue to improve our AI systems. Certainly, potential benefits of
creating an AGI are huge: a more intelligent agent than we are may help us to solve (or
drastically reduce) all the problems facing humanity today. In fact, the word ‘intelligence’
literally means: the ability to manipulate one’s environment to satisfy one’s objectives [22]. And,
it seems, it is at the core of anything that we value – provided that we have problems we want to
solve – from cancer to climate change; as long as there is a huge governmental and commercial
interest; and given that the companies and governments (developing an AGI) are likely to be in a
race against each other, it seems that we will not stop improving the technology. There is an
argument to be made that it is probably impossible to put an end to AI research anyway: ‘As a
practical matter AI research proceeds by people writing stuff on whiteboards and it’s very hard
to pass legislation banning equations being written on the boards,’ explains Stuart Russell [23].
Ultimately, if intelligence is some form of information processing and if we get the
appropriate algorithm right, it is likely that we develop a superhuman AGI. An argument of
David Deutsch (not considering his views on AI) is relevant in that regard: anything that is
compatible with the laws of nature is achievable given the requisite knowledge (i.e., the
‘momentous dichotomy’) [34].
AI risks and climate change
So, the majority of AI experts think that an AGI is inevitable [25]. Should we ignore
catastrophic risks simply because most experts think they are more than 30 years away? And if
so – by this logic – should we also ignore the risks of climate change? What are Prof. Singer’s
views on the two things?
20‘Probably my biggest fear today is climate change, that we are not reducing our
greenhouse gasses sufficiently quickly to avoid grave risk of catastrophic changes,’ said the
professor on the first matter [26].
And talking about AI, he said: ‘To me it’s [existential risk of AI] nowhere near as
immediate as the questions of climate change which we need to do something about now… From
my reading we still quite a long way-off of the prospect of AI being smart enough to take us
over… Somewhere in that 50 to 100 range, perhaps, which still gives us time to think about that
issue’ [27].
I would argue that, in fact, our priorities to AI safety should be equal to, if not higher
than, that of climate change. The extreme scenario of climate change – given by the experts in
that field – is a rise in temperature by 4°C by 2075, which would cause unprecedented
heat waves, droughts, and floods, with irreversible damage to our ecosystems [28]. In the same
period, AI experts think that the technology of AGI can actually threaten our existence (and they
have also estimated the threat in percentage points) [29]. Thus, relying purely on the views of
experts in the relevant fields – both artificial intelligence and climate change respectively – it
seems that the expected value of prioritizing AI Safety is at least equal to if not higher than that
of climate change.
Factual information on the latter, which is presented in the piece, is drawn from an
extensive article titled ‘The Future of Humanity,’ written by Nick Bostrom [30]. He mentions,
that the ‘most extreme scenarios’ put forward by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change – which is, arguably, the most authoritative body in the field – predict global warming
by the end of the century ranging from +1.8 to +4°C. Bostrom concludes: ‘While this prognosis
might well justify a range of mitigation policies, it is important to maintain a sense of perspective
when we are considering the issue from a ‘future of humanity’ point of view.’
It all boils down to the consequences
When asked what does he do with a fairly common objection to consequentialism – that,
it seems, the votes are never finally and fully in – Prof. Singer said, ‘You have to predict as well
as you possibly can the consequences and as they got further and further out and become quite
uncertain you could speculate that there will be good consequences… or bad consequences.’‘Or you just have to say that the probabilities are so uncertain that it is nothing to take
account out there, so we have to go with consequences in the near future that we can predict,’ he
added [32].
I certainly agree. In essence, the only ‘objection’ of mine throughout the piece was that: it
is not the case with AI that probabilities of the extremely bad consequences are so uncertain that
‘it is nothing to take account out there.’ So, could Prof. Singer be wrong that ‘there are now too
many resources going into rather speculative long-termism?’
I do not know. But, with due respect, some phrases of Prof. Singer – such as
‘malevolence’ and ‘hostility’ of AI – do raise some concerns that his view does not engage with
some of the core arguments in support of the AI Safety research.
Yes, the future is yet to unfold, and our prospects may turn out to be way more optimistic
than predicted by the AI researchers. Yet, I would contend that the probability that large groups
of experts (in the relevant field) are right is still higher than the probability that any other person
independently will be right. And, unfortunately, the predictions are nothing close to optimistic. If
Bostrom is right, the risk of a bad AGI is worth taking seriously, here and now.
Bibliography
[1] Peter Singer, Interview Oxford Political
Review: https://www.facebook.com/589176081541261/videos/453226281889939/?t=321, at 5:22
[2] ibid., at 5:55
[3] Peter Singer on effective altruism, vegetarianism, philosophy and favourite books. Book Person
#27: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NQUo834df4, at 19:17 to 19:46
[4] Philosopher Peter Singer on AI, Transhumanism and
Ethics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcs9p5b5jWw, at 18:22 to 18:44; 29:34 to 30:20
see also, Peter Singer on Good Lives, Good Futures, and Good Philosophical
Writing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCmPro1uknQ&t=2s, at 23:48 to 25:51
[5] Peter Singer on effective altruism, vegetarianism, philosophy and favourite books. Book Person
#27: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NQUo834df4&t=486s, at 14:20 to 14:52
[6] ibid., at 14:56
[7] Nick Bostrom & Vincent C. Müller, Future Progress in Artificial Intelligence – A Survey of Expert
Opinion: https://nickbostrom.com/papers/survey.pdf, abstract
22see also, When Will AI Exceed Human Performance? Evidence from AI Experts (Oxford University, Yale
University, last revised May 2018): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.08807.pdf, p.13
see also, S. Russell and A. Dafoe, Yes, We Are Worried About the Existential Risk of
AI (2016): https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602776/yes-we-are-worried-about-the-
existential-risk-of-artificial-intelligence/
[8] When Will AI Exceed Human Performance? Evidence from AI Experts (Oxford University, Yale
University, last revised May 2018): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.08807.pdf, abstract, p. 2
[9] Stuart Russell on Artificial Intelligence: What if we
succeed?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXgKFRq3JRA&t=267s, at 1:17:22
see also, Stuart Russell: Long-Term Future of Artificial Intelligence | Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsZI5oXBC0k, at 1:10:45
see also, What happens when our computers get smarter than we are? | Nick
Bostrom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnT1xgZgkpk at 4:27
[10] Philosopher Peter Singer on AI, Transhumanism and
Ethics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcs9p5b5jWw, at 56:36 to 56:58; 18:32 to 18:45
[11] What happens when our computers get smarter than we are? | Nick
Bostrom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnT1xgZgkpk, at 15:15
[12] Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (Oxford University Press), Chapter 8
see also, Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a
bomb’: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/12/nick-bostrom-artificial-
intelligence-machine
[13] The end of humanity: Nick Bostrom at
TEDxOxford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Nf3TcMiHo, at 6:00 to 6:36
[14] Phil Torres, Space Colonization and Suffering Risks – Reassessing the “Maxipok
Rule”: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2018.04.008, at p.3
see also, The end of humanity: Nick Bostrom at
TEDxOxford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Nf3TcMiHo, at 7:34
[15] Peter Singer on effective altruism, vegetarianism, philosophy and favourite books. Book Person
#27: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NQUo834df4, at 18:17
[16] ibid., at 18:12
[17] Nick Bostrom & Vincent C. Müller, Future Progress in Artificial Intelligence – A Survey of Expert
Opinion: https://nickbostrom.com/papers/survey.pdf, p.12
[18] Peter Singer, Can artificial intelligence be ethical?: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/can-
artificial-intelligence-be-ethical[19] When Will AI Exceed Human Performance? Evidence from AI Experts (Oxford University, Yale
University, last revised May 2018): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.08807.pdf, p.5
[20] Making Sense with Sam Harris #48 – What Is Moral Progress? (with Peter
Singer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAwcpFGu2Y4&t=3246s, at 1:10:55 to 1:11:10
[21] Nick Bostrom & Vincent C. Müller, Future Progress in Artificial Intelligence – A Survey of Expert
Opinion: https://nickbostrom.com/papers/survey.pdf, abstract
see also, When Will AI Exceed Human Performance? Evidence from AI Experts (Oxford
University, Yale University, last revised May 2018): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.08807.pdf, p.2
see also, S. Russell and A. Dafoe, Yes, We Are Worried About the Existential Risk of
AI (2016): https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602776/yes-we-are-worried-about-the-
existential-risk-of-artificial-intelligence/
[22] Merriam-Webster, “intelligence”: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intelligence
see also, Stuart Russell on Artificial Intelligence: What if we
succeed?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXgKFRq3JRA&t=267s, at 47:52
[23] Stuart Russell on Artificial Intelligence: What if we
succeed?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXgKFRq3JRA&t=267s, at 22:20
[24] David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World, Chapter 9: “…it
is universally true that either the laws of physics forbid eliminating it in a given time with the
available resources or there is a way of eliminating it in the time and with those resources.”
see also, Making Sense with Sam Harris #22 — Surviving the Cosmos (with David
Deutsch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dNxxmpKrfQ&t=1552s, at 28:22 to 29:00
[25] Nick Bostrom & Vincent C. Müller, Future Progress in Artificial Intelligence – A Survey of Expert
Opinion: https://nickbostrom.com/papers/survey.pdf, abstract
see also, When Will AI Exceed Human Performance? Evidence from AI Experts (Oxford University, Yale
University, last revised May 2018): https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.08807.pdf, p.2
see also, S. Russell and A. Dafoe, Yes, We Are Worried About the Existential Risk of
AI (2016): https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602776/yes-we-are-worried-about-the-
existential-risk-of-artificial-intelligence/
[26] Philosopher Peter Singer on AI, Transhumanism and
Ethics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcs9p5b5jWw, at 17:08
[27] ibid., at 18:22 to 19:01
[28] Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., and al., e. (2007) Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science
Basis. Contribution of the Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report. Edited by
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
24[29] Nick Bostrom & Vincent C. Müller, Future Progress in Artificial Intelligence – A Survey of Expert
Opinion: https://nickbostrom.com/papers/survey.pdf, abstract
[30] Nick Bostrom, The Future of Humanity: https://nickbostrom.com/papers/future.html
see also, Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a
bomb’: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/12/nick-bostrom-artificial-
intelligence-machine
[31] Will MacAskill, What are the most important moral problems of our
time?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyprXhvGVYk&t=181s, at 9:54
[32] Making Sense with Sam Harris #48 – What Is Moral Progress? (with Peter
Singer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAwcpFGu2Y4&t=3246s, at 1:31:48 to 1:32:33____, Where’s My Car?: Referring to Friends in the New Age
Karma Alvey
I. Introduction
As humanity evolves, so does language. Colloquialisms and slang move with the times;
from the cat’s meow to the bee’s knees to bae, we find ourselves constantly picking up new slang
to fit the mold of the year. The same goes for our monikers when we speak to each other, as well
as the characteristics we associate with them. On college campuses especially, the term “dude”
has become prevalent in conversation amongst diverse groups; men, women, and genderqueer
individuals all seem to be using the term in one context or another, so much so that the inflection
on the word can change its entire meaning. But is everyone comfortable with the shedding of
“dude’s” particularly gendered past as a word? Is this reclaiming universal, or is it seeded in a
change in age or the rise of more fluid gender identification? This idea will be explored in an
attempt to provide clarity on how to navigate monikers in the 21st century.
II. Existing Research
The term “dude” dates back to the Roman comedy Eunucus, in which the term was
intended to mean “a well-dressed man,” according to Richard A. Hill’s article, “You’ve Come A
Long Way, Dude: A History.” In the article, Hill also explains that the term evolved, and by the
late 19th century, was used to describe someone of “less-than-gentlemanly conduct” (322). The
term continued to shift in its usage as it became popular in the “wild west” as a name for what
we would call a “tourist” today.
In what Hill calls “The Second Great Dude Shift,” the term took back its connotation of
sharp dress amongst “zoot-suiters” and “pachucos,” or well-dressed men in black or hispanic
communities. However, by the 1950s, “dude” had become a moniker for any male-identifying
person.
Scott F. Kiesling further explores this idea of the “Great Dude Shift” in his article,
“DUDE,” by discussing how “dude” is losing its status as an exclusive reference to males, but is
“...developing into a discourse marker that need not identify an addressee, and more generally
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