The Francis Bacon Debate Society of Spain held one of their debates at the House of Lords, Westminster on Thursday 22nd January, Francis Bacon’s birthday.
The Francis Bacon Debate Society is, ‘A politically unaffiliated and independent society dedicated to fostering constructive debate and curiosity.’
The Francis Bacon Society was invited to this special evening. The debate premise was AI Should be Regulated to Preserve Human Agency. On the face of it, AI and its contemporary uses, might seem remote from Francis Bacon and his era but there is in fact a direct connection.
When he was just 15 Francis Bacon was sent to France to the Paris embassy on her Majesty’s Secret Service. It was here he invented his bi-literal cipher similar in principle to the binary code which became the basis for all modern computers. All data and instructions for computers, including those that run AI, are ultimately translated into binary code. This is the language of the machine and it all began with Francis Bacon. As Professor Sherman says, “because it’s a binary code, it actually is credited with being the beginning of the digital age that leads to computers. . .he is the first one who’s credited with developing this.”
Bacon had a specific directive that knowledge should be used with charity, he urged everyone to, “consider what are the true ends of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure, or the mind, or for contention, or for superiority to others, or for profit, or fame, or power, or any of these inferior things, but for the benefit and use of life, and that they perfect and govern it in charity.”
Concerning Artificial Intelligence, Bacon would no doubt apply the same principles that defined his life and would remind us, that knowledge is itself power, but it is our moral duty to ensure that power is used for the benefit of humankind and not its detriment.
A most excellent, contemporary, and thought provoking debate on Francis Bacon’s birthday. Many thanks to the Francis Bacon Debate Society of Spain and its President Jan Farrell.