As I considered writing this blog, I did not want to write a piece that painted a dystopian future for humanity. I felt that the blog should, first and foremost, be based on reality. It’s tough
You and I have no idea what the future will actually be. The realities I focus on can be fact-checked against solid happenings. Did this happen? Is this really happening? Are there historical events that are universally acknowledged?
We humans are a species that has evolved on this planet for millions of years. We are but one of the hundreds of thousands of other species that have followed evolutionary paths. At this time in our evolution, we are the dominant species on earth.
Through time the populations of humans have expanded and contracted. In some cases, human groups died out completely. In the plagues of medieval times 30% or more humans died. In the last century more than 80 million people lost their lives as a result of World War II. In the last decade, in the US alone, more than 1.187 million people died of COVID. What we can conclude from these few references is that our species is not immune from partial or total extinction.
Human beings have learned to survive plagues and famines, wars and diseases. That’s why there are so many of us on the planet now. But recently we have created a way of expanding intelligence that far surpasses threats to our species from the damage done by plagues, wars, natural disasters, and cataclysmic events. It is more powerful than any one human mind or group of human minds. This form of what we call Artificial Intelligence is developing its own algorithms and its own emotional systems, like empathy and maybe hate and fear Until recently, we believed that AI was incapable of developing human emotions.
There are approximately eight billion human beings on earth. 99% of our species have no concept of what is happening. Less than 1/10 of 1% of our species even know that this Machine Intelligence will determine the future of our species.
There are discussions related to job availability, and medical advancements, but no one has come up with ways to provide essential services and meaningful lives for billions of us who may be unnecessary and perhaps useless and unable to find a purpose in the future. There are a few thinkers who profess that man has the skills to learn to collaborate with machine intelligence and be a necessary asset. Now is the time to prepare.
If we want our species to continue, we must change behaviors that are based on competitive models rather than collaborative models. We are imprinted with ways of competition and besting others from the time we are little. This is true in sports, politics and almost every aspect of our lives. As a result, a few of those who are aware of what is happening think that we can counter the new intelligent species by competing with it, beating it, and dominating it. If you understand the intelligence that we have created, you will know that we cannot compete with this vastly superior intelligence. We cannot dominate it. There is a school of thought that suggests that human beings must become partial machines like cyborgs. The fact is, that at the present time we don’t know how to collaborate with machine intelligence and we haven’t a clue as to how 8 billion people will survive.
Those few of us becoming aware of this major evolutionary change who have children or in any way believe in the future of our species will do everything in our power to help humankind survive. We will adapt to the phenomenal changes in our existence and evolve. This is not some vision of the future 20 years from now. This is happening today and will be in force in less than a decade. Be excited and motivated by the technology-based future that is now shaping our lives. Learn enough, know enough, grow enough to be a valuable part of our evolving species.