The ethical regulator theorem provides a basis for systematically evaluating the adequacy of existing or proposed designs for systems that make decisions that can have ethical consequences; regardless of whether the regulating agents are humans, machines, cyberanthropic hybrids, organizations, corporations, or government institutions.
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The theorem builds upon the law of requisite variety and the good regulator theorem to define nine requisites that are necessary and sufficient for a cybernetic regulator to be both effective and ethical:
- Purpose expressed as unambiguously prioritized goals.
- Truth about the past and present.
- Variety of possible actions.
- Predictability of the future effects of actions.
- Intelligence to choose the best actions.
- Influence on the system being regulated.
- Ethics expressed as unambiguously prioritized rules.
- Integrity of all subsystems.
- Transparency of ethical behaviour.
Of these nine requisites, only the first six are necessary for a regulator to be effective. If a system does not need to be ethical, the three requisites ethics, integrity, and transparency are optional.
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Super-Ethical Systems
A six-level framework is proposed for classifying cybernetic and superintelligent systems, which highlights a future time-line bifurcation that results in one of two mutually exclusive outcomes:
- The human race is protected by superintelligent, ethically adequate "Super-Ethical" systems.
- The human race is dominated by superintelligent, ethically inadequate "Super-Unethical" systems.
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For more information, see the PDF: Cybernetics 3.0: Ethical Systems.
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