A Brief History of the Speculative Measures for Autonomy

Micah Tewers

Keywords: speculative, philosophy, autonomy, ontology, ontogenesis, justice, justification

TL;DR: This paper is a brief history of the speculative measures for autonomy, from the original legislation of the laws of nature to autonomous AI.

Abstract: This paper presents a novel summary of the history of the evolution of the measures for autonomy (i.e. self-legislating systems), from Creation myths to the study of technological autonomy, progressing through five interrelated phases. First, the original legislator of the laws of nature is considered as the singular measure for autonomous existence. Second, a set of hierarchical governing systems are conceived as a sort of supplement to the limitations of the original monopolistic autonomy. Third, this hierarchy of governors is inverted by transcendental philosophy, putting emphasis on the immediate conscious “self” - the auto - in self-legislation. The fourth stage emerges in existential philosophy, which notices the seemingly inescapable paradoxes of this introverted autonomy, as all justice and justification becomes circularly self-justified. The fifth and most contemporary measure of autonomy universalizes this existential insight and measures each being’s autonomy simply in proportion to its own alienated independence. The paper concludes with an analysis on the potential limits of this universalized autonomy and suggests a route for future research which may ultimately separate the measure of autonomy from the measure of responsibility for justice.