We are smart, smarter, the smartest?! - Smart systems beyond optimization

Abstract

Smart systems are not just technical tools but endowed with agency and discretion. Whereas their character as a black box is widely discussed, their moral inaccessibility is not. Broadening the issue of ‘smartness’, our research concern is as follows: How is the complex, typically ambiguous and contradictory moral infrastructure of late modern societies mirrored and eventually transformed by smart and learning systems? In order to conceptualize this question, we combine the normative reasoning of the Economics of Convention (EC), which distinguishes several competing moral orders, with the assumed smartness of learning systems. We propose to confront smartness with conflicting moral registers and to revise the competences which enable learning systems and humans to interact in a common “space of negotiation.”