Societies and the world, as a whole, are rife with uncertainty. Humanity is caught by three existential threats simultaneously first time since its existence. The race of militarism resulted in sophisticated weapons and nukes, utilizing maximum natural resources while putting back waste, trash and poison. This caused ecological disruption. The race towards being the most developed technologically created imminent threats like Artificial Intelligence or AI.
First is the nuclear Armageddonhs, whose consequences can be seen in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Antonio Guterres, while meeting the prime minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, and the people of Hiroshima, at the memorial of the nuclear incident back in 1945, expressed condolence:
“We are one mistake, one miscalculation, and one misunderstanding away from Armageddon”.
Destructive by design, the nuclear challenge is looming. If not controlled, the entire cities of the world will be Hiroshimas and Nagasakis. With more than 13,000 nuclear weapons in the global arena, humanity itself is bringing doomsday. Budgeting billions to build sophisticated arms have been part of the course. No more, no less, nuclear weapons make no sense.
The burning of fossil fuels in every corner of the world is triggering climate change.
The second is ecological collapse. Humans started destabilizing the environment on many fronts. They have taken an immense amount of resources from the environment while putting back just waste materials. In multiple ways, we have created disturbance within the ecological balance. The burning of fossil fuels in every corner of the world is triggering climate change. As long as we combat the burning fossils, the Earth’s temperature already would have been increased by as much as 2°C, which consequences will be disappearing ice caps, the enlargement of deserts, and can push humans to seek new habitats since the previous would also have been uninhabitable. The climate tragedy Is looming large, to solely recognize it is not enough, we must act to resist it before it becomes irresistible. We must act to be safe rather than sorry. Unfortunately, till now, the emissions of fossil fuels is not reduced. The ventilated earth needs to go through rehab now to avert the looming tragedy of climate change then. Enough has been done, now, let nature take its course.
The third predicament is a technological challenge like Artificial Intelligence and big data algorithms which are going to overleap humanity and human cognition.
Elon Musk, William Hawkins, and many others predicted that the rise of Artificial Intelligence may be the end of Homo Sapiens. If the one hand the technological revolution brought about ease in life by connecting millions, if not billions, to one another, on the other it has created existential threats like AI. The merger of InfoTech and Biotech can push billions out of the job market. The near future predicaments are looming large that how the digital dictatorship will rise and grasp billions into its hands by reigning supreme over the personal data of millions. Sapiens need to be scared of nuclear Armageddon less than the rise of Artificial Intelligence, Biotech, and InfoTech.
Big data algorithms are going to seize the power from humans to highly intelligent robots. Predictions sometimes come true. Example? Dystopian novels Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 1984 by George Orwell predicted the future decades before and exactly the same display. Even historians like Yuval Noah Harari in his book 21 lessons for the 21st century have warned the world about the rise of Artificial Intelligence. As far as the robots get consciousness, they will understand the world, especially humans, and make choices for them about what is better for them and what is not.
About some 70,000 years ago Homo Sapiens replaced the other Homo genus species owing to their better cognitive abilities and that is the reason why Replacement Theory is preferred over Interbreeding. Homo Sapiens, due to this cognitive ability survived over others from an evolutionary perspective. And, now, humans are going to transfer/install this ability in robots. As Homo Sapiens brought everything under their control by cognitive ability, by using the same (even evolved) ability the robots and big data algorithms are going to bring humans under their control.
No doubt, in history, human trials fighting against challenges, plagues, and pandemics sans putting any Machiavellianism succeeded. Thus, optimistic psyches and planned objectives, and cooperation can help humanity escape every challenge like nuclear, ecological and technological. Hope so.
The writer is a freelance journalist based in Kandhkot, Sindh.