The higher self
I have taught a machine almost everything I know how to do at work. I taught it by correcting it, one rule at a time, such as the rule that, whenever I offer a client two dates, both are held in my calendar until they reply. Today it works in a way I recognise as mine, and I don't know whether I have built my replacement or the best tool I have ever had. Something like this happened once before. More than a century ago, Frederick Taylor needed stopwatches and engineers to get workers' knowledge of their trade out of their heads, and that knowledge, which he himself called the principal asset of every tradesman, became the company's. Now I hand mine over of my own accord, and so does anyone who corrects an AI agent. I think it can end differently this time. The machine can learn every rule I teach it, but only I can see the next one it needs. And if that copy of me is mine, it works for me and keeps what I have taught it, including what I have since forgotten. I believe e...