We as a society are living in the midst of a technology-driven world where intelligent machines can think, react, respond and make decisions of their own across sectors that span healthcare, education, and human resources.  Such automated systems are even being applied to develop lethal weapons that can target and kill at their own discretion. These intelligent machines are driven by large data sets and algorithms with unconscious biases built into them by their human authors. When such powerful machines can decide what kind of healthcare medical patients receive, what kind of education students receive, where job applicants will be hired, and which military targets to kill if classified as a threat; then an urgent question arises. Who should be accountable for the ethical governance of these technologies? How do we ensure that machine decisions are fair and equitable, and in the best interest of the wider public? Who and what kind of stewardship will ensure and protect democracy, human rights, civil liberties and social justice?

In order to understand what this stewardship entails, we must go back to the basics and discern who we are as humans. 

In order to understand what this stewardship entails, we must go back to the basics and discern who we are as humans. The political philosopher Martha Nussbaum offers a useful starting point in her essay “Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities.” She explains how as children we are naturally born with a genuine sense of care, sympathy and concern for others. During a child’s play - the natural interplay between a baby and the parent, the baby first recognizes humanity in the other. As the play develops in the presence of the other (the parent), the child develops a delightful source of capacity for curiosity, awe and wonder to connect with the other through empathy and to comprehend the complex of their world.

As a result, the child develops the capacity for considering the perspective of the other and imagining what their experience might be like. In other words, this fosters the ability of children to see the world through the other person’s eyes. Developing this capacity for empathy is crucial preparation for tackling more complex societal issues and challenges later on in life.

As I see it, the early identity and experiences of a human infant are not injected with the ideologies and philosophies of race, color, religion, national origin, and other belief systems that divide and separate us through inherent biases. Rather, the infant begins with a pure human experience as one among the many species of planet earth, just like any other animal of planet earth (not superior to any other animal) and sees everything for what it is with clarity through a genuinely human lens.  No child is born a thief, a felon, or a murderer. There are, instead, various life situations, circumstances, and experiences that make people break the law. Ethical governance of society requires that we get to the root of all these issues with a genuine sense of care and concern. In this way, we can resolve the basis for what humanity is all about by solving human issues and challenges of the modern society. Were we to do so, all the time and resources spent building more prisons and taller walls could instead be reinvested into building a healthy, thriving society.

In our quest to climb the corporate ladder as quickly as we can, usually at the expense of other things and other people, we sometimes forget how to really be a human. Our global future cannot thrive through top-down authoritarian leadership structures mostly driven by personal agendas and ambitions for quick wins to attain short-term personal gains. Ethically governing the future of technology will require instead human-centered stewardship that recognizes the intrinsic value in the collective civic good of the community by nurturing authentic meaningful relationships with a more inclusive and holistic approach that centers around the themes of ethics, long-term sustainability, responsibility and accountability, and the overall wellbeing of the wider public interest.

I would argue that for a higher kind of human stewardship, the identity of the so called “leader” should expand from solely him or herself to the larger organization or community. When one expands his or her identity to the larger society, then you no longer have to tell them to be more compassionate, be more empathetic, do the right thing, etc. because naturally you will do what is best for the larger public interest rather than for some self-motivated personal gains. This kind of human stewardship will recognize and appreciate the interconnectedness between all facets of the larger collective ecosystem, and the perspective of the leader slowly shifts from oneself to the other, the larger mankind. It is no longer “about me and what can I get out of this”, but rather it becomes “what can I do for the other, the larger ecosystem”. It is about realizing that an earthworm is just as important as a big human being. If all the earthworms cease to exist on planet earth, the humans will also perish from planet earth within no time. It is about realizing this complex interwoven, interconnected nature of the world that we live in; and also having the sensibility to put yourself in the shoes of and see the world through the eyes of an ant, a bee, an earthworm, or even a captive gorilla from West African wilderness who lives in a zoo as seen from the excerpts of Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what your religion is, what race you are, what the color of your skin is, what your job status and job title is or what your nationality is because despite of all this, we are all species of planet earth having a human experience and it is very special, and we need to nurture it and protect it. Human stewardship at its finest form acknowledges the interconnectedness of all elements of life within the identity of the self with that of the other that makes up the larger, throbbing collective ecosystem. Once this shift in perspective happens, ensuring and protecting the privacy, human rights, civil liberties, democracy, equality, social justice and national security will naturally be taken care of and done the right way in an ethical, humanistic, and compliant manner for the benefit and well-being of the wider public, and with civic good at the core of our guiding principles in building a thriving, healthy society.