Programmed to Deceive: Robot Environmentalist James Lovelock’s Alliance with the Technocratic Establishment

JAMES Lovelock – who died in July 2022 at the ripe old age of 103 – is possibly best known for his Gaia hypothesis, the theory that the earth is a self-regulating super-organism. Whilst Lovelock may have spent the last few decades of his life being presented as an outsider, despite the more positive aspects of his work his long association with NASA means that he had been connected with the scientific establishment for some considerable time.

The Gaia hypothesis is one thing, but Lovelock was also promoting the idea that so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI) can “save the planet” by apparently detecting the true course of the earth, something that we humans are apparently too stupid to do. Rather than present AI as a form of machinery, an approach Lovelock insisted provides the mistaken impression that it is “under human control,” we must move aside and allow it to make decisions on our behalf.

This promotion of AI stems from Lovelock’s faith in the AlphaGo computer programme, which can play the complex Chinese board game ‘Go’ at a level superior to that of the game’s most outstanding competitors. Bear in mind Lovelock’s NASA background and the fact that AlphaGo was developed by DeepMind Technologies and itself funded by capitalist stalwarts Horizons Ventures and since purchased and deployed by Google.

The veteran environmentalist wanted to see AI learn from certain situations and then develop exponentially to the point where it is actively working alongside Gaia. When it comes to the ethical dimension of AI, on the other hand, Lovelock cited science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:

“A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.”

Lovelock believed that the potentiality for AI disobedience can be contained by imbuing it with a sense of dependence. Just as crops exist at a lower level than a farmer, humans are slower than “cyborgs” but would maintain AI obedience in the way that a farmer ultimately needs his crops to survive. Or so the theory goes. One of his chief interests, however, was the kind of geo-engineering that has already led to scientists tinkering with the weather by erecting sun-shields and sun-reflectors. He was even involved with the Environmentalists for Nuclear group, who wish to see nuclear energy replace fossil fuels.

These ideas are presented in a book that he co-wrote with mainstream media journalist Brian Appleyard, who just happens to be a member of the World Economic Forum and a recipient of the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). It is clear to see, therefore, that Lovelock was part of the same capitalist scam that is hijacking the Green movement for its own ends and creating an unholy alliance between capitalism and a form of New Age millenarianism.