Considering Alien Solutions

When you consider similar
Problems using differing words,
The meanings you invest diverge

And enter alien orbits
Within your social thought systems—
Care and sacrifice drift away

From benefits and costs, one pair
Circling moral philosophy,
The other economy and

Behavioral ecology,
Which in turn inhabit vaguer
Regions of the larger system,

The fraught gravity of wisdom.
Satellites in opposition
May remain tethered nonetheless

To invisible positions
And parallel pulls linking them,
Despite the human tendency

To line up in teams around them,
Then treat thoughts as competitions
For truth as well as high standing

And the claim to be the best way
To think about all sorts of things
Unrelated to those problems.

You care. You make sacrifices.
Do you reap benefits? Do you
Seek to recoup costs? Do you care?

Humans generally prefer
Solutions from other humans
Over those from algorithms

Since they are less costly up front,
Even if they pay less later.
What roles do delayed benefits

Play in assessing sacrifice,
Or in diminution of care?
If you sacrifice a long time

Before you reap the benefits,
Does that signify you cared more
Though the benefits proved greater?

What does social learning look like,
If humans sacrifice more time
To learn more from algorithms?

It feels bloodless if you use games
For your proofs of concept—how Go,
As transformed by algorithms

Introduced novel strategies
That spread among human players
Trying to beat other humans.

But move to questions of romance,
Long-term partnerships, parenting—
If you care, would you be willing

To pay up-front costs of learning
From evolving algorithms
The strategies that would help you

Locate and obtain a partner,
Heal a frayed relationship, or
Raise a child with less sacrifice

But more benefits for the child?
Every trade-off involves morals.
Every moral stance means trade-offs,

Including traded perceptions
Of others of your sacrifice—
How ethical? Transactional?—

Which will themselves involve more costs,
More care, more trade-offs. So you care,
And you sacrifice, and you weigh

Costs and benefits, and argue
With others about what takes care,
Deserves sacrifice, earns rewards,

And there are no resolutions
To such multi-body problems,
Unless machines rescue humans.