Notes on Magnifica humanitas, the first encyclical of Pope Leo XIV.
- presentation of the argument (end of the introduction)
- encyclicals on anniversaries of rerum novarum - remarkable ones and footnotes to history, this looks to be the former
- time is greater than space - work to establish excellence for greatness to unfold rather than aim for greatness itself
- p19 - morality itself transcends private sphere so we shouldn’t delegate religion just because it’s religion - American Protestantism and laicism
- p21 - reaffirmation of the secular and temporal power
- p25 - polish translation is bad - explain monopoly
- p25 - truth is one, but many ways to it, analytical knife
- paragraph 27 - spiritual power is the safe haven when the world is wronging people
- p32 - network of associations mediating between the human and state, even more important as rule of law fails because law is opaque and hard to understand
- p67 - universal destination of goods as applied to open source.pharmaceuticals and generics
- p71 - principle of subsidiarity also applies to big tech
- p77 - Catholic notion of social justice as contrasted with the popular understanding
- p80 - social justice in the face of faceless algorithms
- p85 - ok but what are the responsibilities of individuals? it’s all just rights of the poor and obligations of the rich, ok, but how do we reconcile the fact that not all people are good stewards of their belongings and some are just in hardship because they fail at it?
- equality is all, capitalism is none, distributism is one - mmo logic (starter home, starter horse)
- p92 - Moreover, it omits things that can’t be easily measured and exposed on a balance sheet
- p99 - AI is not human, and it’s output doesn’t have what ours would - classical structure driven by analogy
- p100- impression of objectivity: “how do you know that?” Might be the biggest advancement
- p105 - accountability surrender - “Claude did that”, mbtf, mbtr
- p108 - data is a shared good
- p111 - not just AI labs, but also implementers
- p128 - errors, banger quote
- p132 - whether news items and “facts” can be truly true - seems like the text itself concedes that it arises as a function of networks of relationships
- p134 - pragmatism attacked
- p135-6 - communication itself shapes culture and experience
- p138 - following on - journalists brought to light injustices and abuses, but they also brought about destruction and arson by misrepresenting reality
- p140 - spontaneous discovery, ai only gives you what you ask for
- p141-2 - exposure of children to mobile devices, unclear science on this honestly, no distinguishing between supervised and unsupervised access
- p149 - assisting the poor is necessary in emergencies, but it should lead to them standing on their own two feet - ok, but how?
- p152 - how to keep humans in the loop while a machine does work? slack - you shouldn’t account 100% for the time of each person, but rather give them some time of “slack” for finding immediate improvements to the system
- p154 - gains from the capital have been mostly swallowed up by the property market (Sutherland)
- p156 - policy measures to counteract unemployment caused by AI
- p158 - there are specific beneficial outcomes from hiring juniors, so we should still do it
- p159 - GDP sucks, and we need to rely not just on metrics but also on intuition, sometimes doing things that might be irrational, but will benefit individuals
- p160 - capital gains and finance industry are not in themselves a problem, but they become problematic when they outweigh the gains from labour (counterpoint: there’s a lot of people, and a lot of value generated that isn’t captured monetarily)
- p162 - interesting contrast - on one hand, rich should be taxed more, but on the other, government should not just be a distribution machine. question: isn’t it the case that the poor should have simpler taxes, rather than simply less taxes?
- p170 - not just addiction to digital media but also “time dilation” resulting from scrolling reels
- p180 - humans reduced to data are an instance of goodhart’s law, when the executives at the top are too far removed from labourers at the bottom of the orgchart, and management is only done based on data rather than individual taste and feeling, it will become dehumanising
- p186 - what is meant by social love and civilisation of love?
- p198 - a human must be responsible for lethal or irreversible decisions
- p200 - all systems, not just in a war setting, should have a chain of accountability so that a specific person ultimately is responsible for a decision, this can even go as far as the people who signed off on design of a specific piece of business logic responsible for making a decision that causes harm to someone
- p204 - war is one thing, but because of the proliferation of ai and speed of development, we are building even more useless “productivity software” instead of cooperating with subject matter experts to solve problems in real domains, ai labs command highest salaries while startups in domains like biotech, logistics, education, cannot find top talent
- p213 - gandalf quote - everyone has the moral obligation to preserve the mindset of peace in his daily life, no matter how insignificant the contribution might be
- p237 - algorithms drive our daily decisions, pursue wisdom rather than immediate results
- p238 - the digital world is a new continent to be evangelised, not just by means of content creation but also bringing our own spirit into the digital works that we create
- p239 - digital communication is no substitute for physical connection
- p241 - like nehemiah, we are to bring our faith into the work that we create, into “research laboratories, technology companies, the media, institutions and local communities”
- p242 - the walls of jerusalem are not merely defensive structures but adornments of the bride of christ
- p244 - we are called to look at history through the eyes of the least fortunate, not through the lens of the powerful
- conclusion - magnificat, mary’s soul has changed even though the material conditions of the world around her didn’t