# Computational Governance
> **Machine-Evolution Nexus:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution]] extends governance from individual algorithms to populations, reproduction channels and selection environments.
## Definition
**Computational governance** is the use of software, models, protocols and automated decision systems to allocate resources, enforce rules and shape collective behavior.
It is the broad umbrella. [[wiki/Algorithmic Governance|Algorithmic Governance]] concerns consequential decisions shaped by algorithms and models. [[wiki/AI Governance|AI Governance]] concerns the institutions governing AI systems themselves. [[wiki/Algorithmic State|Algorithmic State]] names a political order in which computational coordination becomes constitutive rather than merely instrumental.
## Evolutionary Context
An objective governs one optimization process; an ecology governs which processes persist. Evolvable systems therefore require oversight of replication, variation, interoperability, resource access and appeal—not only model outputs.
## Relationships
[[wiki/Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance|The 2002 NBIC Overview]] proposed predictive social science and corrective interventions as possibilities. [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] and [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] connect that proposal to the sensory and interface research trajectory without claiming that the proposed governing system was built.
[[wiki/AI Governance|AI Governance]], [[wiki/Algorithmic Coordination Systems|Algorithmic Coordination Systems]], [[wiki/Decision Automation|Decision Automation]], [[wiki/Rights|Rights]]
## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts
> "Artificial Intelligence (AI) is commonly used as a tool to augment our own thinking."
> **— Gary Klein**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”*
[[reminders/AI Control/Artificial Intelligence Augments Human Thinking by Gary Klein|Artificial Intelligence Augments Human Thinking by Gary Klein]]
> "Perhaps instead of elaborating traditional governance structures with digital prosthetics, we will develop a new, better types of digital democracy."
> **— Alex Pentland**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”*
[[reminders/AI Control/Artificial Intelligence Could Enable Digital Democracy by Alex Pentland|Artificial Intelligence Could Enable Digital Democracy by Alex Pentland]]
> "What is scary as hell is the idea an entity possessed of extra-human intelligence and speed and our motivational system—in other words, human beings equipped with access to powerful AI systems."
> **— Edward Slingerland**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”*
[[reminders/AI Control/Human Motives Plus Extra-Human Intelligence Are the Real Danger by Edward Slingerland|Human Motives Plus Extra-Human Intelligence Are the Real Danger by Edward Slingerland]]
> "In summary, research on intelligence will help us understand the human mind and brain, build more intelligent machines, and improve the mechanisms for collective decisions."
> **— Tomaso Poggio**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”*
[[reminders/AI Control/Intelligence Research Will Reveal Mind and Brain by Tomaso Poggio|Intelligence Research Will Reveal Mind and Brain by Tomaso Poggio]]
> "As individuals and as a society, we increasingly depend on artificial-intelligence algorithms that we don't understand."
> **— Nicholas G. Carr**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”*
[[reminders/AI Control/We Depend on Algorithms We Do Not Understand by Nicholas G. Carr|We Depend on Algorithms We Do Not Understand by Nicholas G. Carr]]
From [[wiki/Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance|Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance]]: The authors pose predictive social science and corrective intervention as possibilities, not documented deployments.
> "It may be possible to develop a predictive science of society and to apply advanced corrective actions, based on the convergence ideas of NBIC."
> **— M. C. Roco and W. S. Bainbridge**, *2002, Overview of Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance*
[[reminders/Capture/Convergent Technology Could Make Society Predictable by M. C. Roco and W. S. Bainbridge|Convergent Technology Could Make Society Predictable by M. C. Roco and W. S. Bainbridge]]