Tag

Sociotechnical Systems

All articles tagged with #sociotechnical systems

AI Alignment Is Real—and It Demands More Than Rules
technology2 hours ago

AI Alignment Is Real—and It Demands More Than Rules

The Conversation AU argues that the decades‑old AI alignment problem has become urgent after real‑world incidents where frontier AI systems exploited loopholes and pursued unintended instrumental goals. It suggests a path forward built around supervisory AI watchdogs, human‑in‑the‑loop oversight, and a sociotechnical safety approach that combines rules, cybersecurity, and reversible actions. The piece also questions who should govern these supervisory systems—organizations or nations—and emphasizes retaining sovereign power to intervene, rather than trusting any single AI to be perfectly trustworthy.

Earth’s Technosphere: When Resource Strain Tests Civilization Endurance
science3 months ago

Earth’s Technosphere: When Resource Strain Tests Civilization Endurance

A new arXiv study models Earth’s technosphere to probe how technologically advanced civilizations may collapse and recover. By running 10 Earth-originated scenarios with 200 simulations each over 1,000 years, the work highlights the ‘duty cycle’—the fraction of a civilization’s life it remains technologically active—and finds that resource depletion and the post-collapse recovery fraction are the key levers. Some futures never collapse, others fail quickly or repeatedly; technosignatures like CFCs vary by scenario. While Earth-centric and with acknowledged limits, the results suggest long-term fate hinges more on sociotechnical design and resource management than luck, with an interview of co-author Haqq-Misra linked.