I’ve written notes in a journal on something I am calling alignment as a very major portion of what we do when we world. It's look at how, or even, when how becomes when.
First, here in Alignment ① I will present an introduction, which is of course written well after all of those notes, when I wondered why I was using the term alignment for this… —alignment or introduction. It presents my own taphonomy of use when it comes to these word. Examples are not claims of originary truth for my work ideas, nor seek prescriptively imperial ambitions, even if the world is all we have.
Etymology
For twenty years I've been using etymonline.com as my go to quick-fix for etymologies, when reaching for my Compact Oxford was not fast enough. We'll see if AI summaries force me back to it when that website finally disappears under the weight of advertising mud.
From https://www.etymonline.com/word/alignment.
alignment (n.) 1790, "arrangement in a line," from French alignement, from aligner "to arrange in a line" (see align). Political sense is from 1933.
align (v.) early 15c., "to copulate" (of wolves, dogs), literally "to range (things) in a line," from Old French alignier "set, lay in line" (Modern French aligner), from à "to" (see ad-) + lignier "to line," from Latin lineare "reduce to a straight line," from linea (see line (n.)). Transitive or reflexive sense of "fall into line" is from 1853. The international political sense is attested from 1934. The French spelling with -g- is unetymological, and aline was an early form in English. Related: Aligned; aligning.
Pardon my French but two dogs fucking is a bit of a shock. As is the less than a century old usage internationally speaking.
In my notes and thoughts I used 'put one's ducks in a row" as if efficiency is the only thing to worry about.
Must write more generally about animal logic.
Dungeons & Dragons
The next context I wish to present is a more personal moment when I played D&D as a teenager listening to Kate Bush in the early 1980s.
I have always strongly associated (aligned?) the term alignment with the role-playing game mechanic in character and monster 'development', wherein a matrix of nine positions was drawn up, pivoting on neutral in each dimension, with good/evil on one axis and lawful/chaotic on the other.
Earlier there was only one axis. I think lawful/chaotic and all the hippie anarchists complained.
There are many versions or interpretations of this basic form online and they can be interesting in how they draw out their own preferences into this notice of difference. I used to think about this chart quite a bit at the time.
Where Gary Gygax or associates picked up this usage of alignment I do not know, it would be interesting to follow up because the political/international usage is only a couple of years younger than this key developer of a role-playing game.
Might have to write on imaginary animals and their magick as well.
Artificial Intelligence
Lastly for this introduction is the question of alignment in relation to discussions of recent AI developments.
It has a whole wikipedia page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_alignment
In the field of artificial intelligence (AI), alignment aims to steer AI systems toward a person's or group's intended goals, preferences, or ethical principles. An AI system is considered aligned if it advances the intended objectives. A misaligned AI system pursues unintended objectives.[1]
Usage in this area is about a decade old.
Here is an early use from Stuart Russell's response called ‘Of myths and moonshine’ https://www.edge.org/conversation/the-myth-of-ai#26015 in John Brockman, Jaron Lanier et al. The Myth Of AI : A Conversation With Jaron Lanier [11.14.14]. 2014, edge.org [Retrieved 7 August 2025]
[found via Future of Humanity Institute. 2014, December 8. ‘Professor Stuart Russell Summarises AI Risk’, The Future of Humanity Institute. [Retrieved 7 August 2025 https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/edge-article/).
1. The utility function may not be perfectly aligned with the values of the human race, which are (at best) very difficult to pin down.
[…]
The right response seems to be to change the goals of the field itself; instead of pure intelligence, we need to build intelligence that is provably aligned with human values. For practical reasons, we will need to solve the value alignment problem even for relatively unintelligent AI systems that operate in the human environment. There is cause for optimism[…]
Crossposted at whyweshould.loofs-samorzewski.com. First in a series on alignment as part of the taphonomy of worlding.
See also Worldbuilding 101 (crossposted /whyweshould.loofs-samorzewski.com).
I used to think a lot about the D&D alignment chart too when I was a kid. I think it was one of the such matrices I saw, where you could see how two different characteristics interacted, I found it fascinating.
https://jameskeithbarnard.com/blog/2025/02/08/the-road-to-alignment-how-i-arrived-at-my-philosophy/
Recent (February 8, 2025 ) example of alignment as a mindful technique of selfing (if unworlded)
of course this disparages new age-y types, but to be honest they are just worlding, if unconsciously of that as they so earnest self they way through everything, it ends that alignment is a practice not an achievement, currently the practice misses the lesson, the object lesson of the world.
other new-agey usages are more in line, dare I say, with D&D usages, i.e.
2020
https://www.elizabethdhokia.com/what-does-it-mean-to-live-in-alignment/