[Ailist] AI and Bullying

[Mary Gergen]

Hi,  Yes, probably most people want to have some status and power in the
world, and act in ways that might help them to achieve this sense.  Yet, I
hesitate to accept Howard Ditkoff's framing of this issue in terms of
personality.  If we take seriously the idea that in various relationships we
come into being.. that we acquire an identity through the relational
processes of which we are a part, based on our possibilities.. our
repertoire of selves... then we do not have to agree that some people are
"psychopaths" and "sadists" only.  Perhaps we might say that habitual ways
of gaining power and status include the  behaviors associated with these
labels.  I prefer the notion that we all have multiple capacities for
"being" and what we might regard as preferable is to find ways of helping to
bring forth the positive potentials that people have or could acquire.
Mary Gergen

On 10/28/08 7:38 PM, "Howard Ditkoff" <howard at emergentassociates.com> wrote:

> My feeling is that some bullying cannot be addressed by AI. There are among
> us psychopaths and sadists who enjoy causing pain and are not motivated at
> all by the "positive" feelings that AI aims at fostering. They are
> sociopathic and antisocial. Bullying involving people like that can only be
> addressed by stopping those people from having power.
> 
> But when it isn't involving someone like that, then perhaps AI can help find
> leverage points for reconciliation.
> 
> However, what I said in the first paragraph has massive implications that
> limit AI's effectiveness on a large scale in our world. Personality
> disorders are not amenable to AI.
> 
> Best,
> Howard Ditkoff
> Emergent Associates, LLC
> http://www.emergentassociates.com
> 
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