cloa

“ My brother scuba-dives, he goes: “Oh, you know what you do if the shark’s bothering you?” Bothering? You need to look in the dictionary, pal! It really bothers when he shears my leg off to the hip. I find it very bothersome to get back to shore with my torso snapped in half. He said: “What you do is to let the shark get up to you and then punch him in the face!” Yeah, now when that doesn’t work you poke him in the eye with your stump. Punch a shark! What if he wasn’t even gonna attack you? What if he’s just curious, he’s swimming by and you: Pow pow pow! “Ehi! What the fuck?! What d’you do that for?” “I thought you were gonna attack me!” “I’m going to now. I was gonna let you go, bu the other sharks are watching, it doesn’t look good now! ”

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Human beings are the results of millions of years of evolution, where the guiding principle was survival of the species, not efficient, algorithmic computation. Robustness in the face of unexpected circumstances plays a major role in the evolutionary process. Human intelligence has co-evolved with social interaction, cooperation and rivalry, and communication. The ability to learn from experience and to communicate and thereby coordinate with others has provided powerful adaptations for changing, complex environmental forces. Interestingly enough, the ability to deceive seems to have been one driving force. Only the most intelligent of animals is able to employ a sophisticated level of intentional, purposeful deception. Only the most sophisticated animal is capable of seeing through the deceit. Sure, nature also practices deception through camouflage and mimicry, but this isn’t willful and intentional. Primates are the most skilled at intentional, willful deception, and the most sophisticated primate, the human, is the most sophisticated deceiver of all.

Note that some deception is essential for the smooth pursuit of social interaction: the “white lie” smooths over many otherwise discomforting social clashes. It is not always best to tell the truth when someone asks how we like their appearance, or their presentation, or the gift they have just given us. One could argue that computers won’t be truly intelligent or social until they too are able to deceive.

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