The "Exception" and So-Called "Artificial Intelligence"
Carl Schmitt's short work "Political Theology" offers some key insights into the nature of LLM algorithms, and their key, fundamental fatal flaw. It's the same problem the "the rule of law" has.
Carl Schmitt is known for several pithy phrases offering deep insight into society and politics. The problem is that once these phrases are out in the wild, they are used without reference to ideas and critiques upon which they are built. While this can be a good thing, often the phrases will used in ways that are completely divorced from the powerful insights that give them their real force. One such is:
“Sovereign is he who decides the exception.”
The most common way that you hear this phrase used to justify a strong, forceful leader who can make decisive decisions in a moment of crisis. A dictator. An autocrat. A monarch. But few, unfortunately, take the time to really understand what exactly is the “exception,” why it is the particular problem of modernity and then what can be done in response to this problem. I would argue that the problem we face with these sophisticated algorithms which are propagandized to us as a form of “intelligence” is actually exactly the same problem which Schmitt is dealing with in Political Theology. What is with the title of that book anyways? Well, to answer that, you must understand that the formation of law is, in the end, a kind of miracle. But we run ahead of ourselves. Let’s begin by talking about the closed system of law that is this thing called “the rule of law” because in understanding that, we will be able to properly understand the nature of sophisticated computer programs and their fundamental flaw.
A key impulse of the modern era, argues Schmitt, is to suppress the question of sovereignty by means of the division of powers and a mutual control of competencies. What this last means in practice is that power is taken away from persons to be vested in a system of law and policy that we know as “the rule of law.” The purpose of the state is not so much to wield power as it is to make laws or write policy. The illusion that is created is that “the law” itself is sovereign, that the law is what is governing society. The role of people is merely to tweak the law to keep the whole system humming. Even though politicians produce and vote on the law, the actual content of the law is supposed to be derived from the will of the people. In theory, every person in the land is supposed to submit themselves to this closed system of law. Everything, every person is supposed to be subject to the law. No one is supposed to be “above the law.” Everyone is “under the law.”
