From Endured Dependence to Chosen Solidarity

There is a fear that has accompanied humanity since long before artificial intelligence: that the structures created to serve us might end up subjugating us. We have attributed it to empires, bureaucracies, factories, markets and, today, to digital systems that demand ever more of our time and, perhaps, sacrifices to keep functioning. This warning crosses eras and convictions: it appears in social thought, in governments’ concerns and in international institutions. United Nations initiatives such as AI for Good and work on smart cities also ask how to put technology at the service of human freedom and well-being. The anti-vision is widely shared: a humanity reduced to a cog in its own systems.

Leo XIV starts from that shared concern and, in the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas , offers his positive vision: to transform “endured interdependence” into “desired and chosen solidarity” (§187). Cooperating freely is an aspiration that may appeal to people of different convictions. At The Integral Management Society, we contribute four research paths: measuring avoidable sacrifices, testing current technology, establishing requirements for comparing chosen solidarity with other forms of organization, and studying whether AI systems can recognize their own limits and those of the whole. Today, we still have no demonstrated guarantees that technology can close the extreme paths towards the anti-vision we reject.