Endangered Judgment: Joseph Weizenbaum, Artificial Intelligence, and the Imperialism of Instrumental Reason

Abstract This article surveys Joseph Weizenbaum's insights on judgment and the academic and computational practices that he thought were threatening it in the 1960s and 1970s. It also details how the writing of Hannah Arendt, the events of the Vietnam War, and Weizenbaum's identity as a Jewish émigré from Nazi Germany shaped his views on judgment. The essay then describes Weizenbaum's attraction to the humanities and less technically oriented education as a way of mitigating these threats. The conclusion reflects on how Weizenbaum's writings relate to present-day concerns about judgment, computational thinking, and the humanities. Reading Weizenbaum helps highlight computer science's problematic faith in “instrumental reason,” computational practices that promote technological solutionism, and the eugenic qualities inherent in the machine metaphor. The essay also underscores the capacity, and continued value, of human judgment in a world imperiled by large socio-technical systems and AI.