Law, Liberty and Leviathan: AI and the Future of Human Autonomy

The problem laws and social institutions (from queues to markets) tries to solve is how to get peace and prosperity when coordination is hard and people cognitively limited. Society functions through culturally evolved cognitive artifacts that extend human cognition and help solve complex coordination problems beyond individual capacity, powered by human autonomous action. But if we accept extended cognition, it appears that we should accept a continuity thesis too: the extension can be done using software, especially AI. AI is likely to change the balance between transaction costs, economies of scale, and cognitive labour, with radical effects on human society. As AI replaces biological intelligence, individual human autonomy may become unnecessary for producing material welfare, shifting from essential to merely optional. We discuss potential solutions to preserve human autonomy in an AI-dominated world – can we gain the benefits of vastly enhanced coordination without losing a liveable niche for humanity?