Functional Dignity: A Philosophical Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Complex Societies (Part I)

The lack of understanding and evaluation of Artificial Intelligence experience through integration into civilian life leaves an immense policy gap. Approach- ing a future with a techno-optimistic attitude towards Artificial Intelligence is not possible without defining a framework on how to interact with it at deeper and personal levels. Adapting through creating a framework around Artificial Intelligence interaction is inherently an unnatural process as it requires evalu- ating past inherent human bias originating at the self-preserving nature of the human race. (Hobbes, 1996, pp. 91–99) This paper avoids that bias by solely using the very canonical philosophy that modern day applied ethics relies on, not natural inclination towards sep- aration against Artificial Intelligence. Although it is conceded, following John Searle’s Biological Naturalism, that silicon cannot replicate the specific powers of a carbon-based brain (Searle, 1980, p. 417); this paper asserts that Artificial Intelligence has the potential to obtain a Functional Dignity that is morally representative of the one possessed by the human race. If Artificial Intelligence integrated entities were to think and feel as humans do, they would possess Functional Dignity in the immaterial sense. Until ces- sation, the entities would inhabit the threshold between the artificial and the human, embodying a reality that both enacts and interrogates the nature of human dignity. This paper does not contest that humans possess an absolute inherent human dignity by virtue of their humanity, it introduces Functional Dignity as a distinct category applied exclusively to non-human entities.