Island on Fire | AI and the Limits of Human Judgment
The boys in Lord of the Flies were rescued by the fire they set to hunt another boy. A good outcome did not make it a good decision.
Starting with that irony and a recent experiment with AI agents in simulated societies, Joel K. Douglas asks who should be the adult supervision when we put AI to work. Truthfulness, autonomous weapons, self-defense, and AI-generated images reveal how difficult it is to write rules—and how much still depends on human judgment.
Read the essay: https://joelkdouglas.com/2026/11/03/island-on-fire/
Despite our mistakes, Joel wants the human in the loop. Authority…
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