Community Democratic Citizenship Article Summary - Free Essay Example

A study published in the Journal for Artificial Societies and Social Stimulation (the JASSS) utilitized artificial intelligence to study the question of whether people are naturally violent, or if factors such as religion can cause xenophobic tension and anxiety between groups, that may or may not lead to violence. The tests revealed that people are naturally peaceful, but in a wide range of contexts they are willing to engage in violence. Violence emerged particularly in situations when others went against or threatened the core beliefs that define a persons identity. The study was conducted by a group of researchers from universities like Oxford, Boston University, and the University of Agder, which is in Norway. They used theories in cognitive psychology to replicate how a human thinks and processes information against their own personal experiences and created an AI program to show how an individuals beliefs match up in a group situation. To represent an everyday society, and how people of different faiths interact in the world, they populated a simulated environment with thousands (maybe millions) of human models. The only difference between the people was a few different variables like age, ethnicity, religion. Some of the models were given positive experiences with people from other religions, while others had negative or neutral encounters. They did this to study the escalation and de-escalation of violence over time,and how it can or cannot be managed. The environments also had a basic design. Within these spaces the humans interacted with certain hazards like natural disasters and disease, and at some point, each other. The findings show us that even in times of crisis such as the natural disasters or diseases, people tend to bond and come together. The conditions that cause mutual xenophobic tension occur is when social hazards, such a people from inside or outside the group go against the groups core beliefs and identity. It is only when peoples core beliefs are questioned, or they feel that their commitment to their beliefs are challenged, that we see conflicts occur. However, this study showed that this anxiety only led to violence in 20% of the scenarios created. While CMTY 195 has not had a section on religion or religious conflicts thus far, I feel that is article is still relevant to this course and its teachings. Artificial intelligence can help us to better understand the causes of religious violence and to possibly control it. This study is one of the first that uses AI with a realistic human psychology. This research can be a positive tool that supports integration of multicultural societies. Throughout this class so far, we have read about increased diversity in America (Week 7), emerging megacities and their problems (Week 5), feminist issues (Week 11), and many other issues that I feel tie in to this article. I feel a sectio about religion and religious anxieties would tie in perfectly in a class about community and citizenship in a democratic society. It is a very important problem that has caused so many conflicts, violent and non-violent. With this ability to mimic human psychology, and the future hopes of understanding and controlling religious conflict, continuing this kind of research can help bring peace and cohesiveness to our local, state, national, and global communities. With all of the issues and conflicts we have learned about in CMTY 195 and that we hear about everyday in the news, this simulation showed that we are not inherently violent people. There may be some hope for us yet!