Human history has been a roller coaster -from cavemen to the drivers of nature, humans have exercised the power of logic and reasoning to bend tides in their favor. It has been the virtue of humans who made impossible tasks possible whether through inventions or by cooperation. Human progress and growth kept them relevant and important in the world, but with the immense capabilities of the human mind, inventions have led them to an era where their relevance is now being questioned. The notion that “humans are social animals” is losing its importance in the age of the fourth industrial revolution where digital authoritarianism is becoming more evident. An era where humans are becoming products rather than consumers and where human to human interaction is being replaced with human to machine interaction which is facilitated by big data and algorithms, ignoring human factor in-between, and leading them to become irrelevant in the future.
The irrelevance of mankind originates from the ever-growing inequality. From the cave era, inequality has been the biggest problem of human society which has inspired thinkers, philosophers, social workers, entrepreneurs and innovators alike to understand its causes and to work for solutions. With the age of enlightenment, industrial revolution and later globalization, humans thought that this suffering of humanity is over and there will be no financial, social or cultural inequality between humans. But the gap between ‘bourgeoisie and proletariat’, ‘we versus them’ stereotyping, ‘north versus south’ identification proved it otherwise, and made it easier to understand the truth.
This growing irrelevance is being discussed in the existing literature as a myth rather than reality. But factual analysis says otherwise, supported by evidence from our surroundings is gradually leading us towards such a scenario
Now with the invention of artificial intelligence and revolution in computing technology, the inequality has deepened to an extent where humans have to compete with these machines rather than fellow humans to stay relevant in the future. With the facilitation of emerging technologies, the rich will continue to prosper and the common people will continue to suffer. As per Yuval Noah Harari’s highlighted in his book ’21 lessons for the 21st century’, the merger of biotechnology and AI might reduce humans to less the important species when machines will be able to perform all human tasks with more convenience hence leading them to be irrelevant in economic and political settings.
This growing irrelevance is being discussed in the existing literature as a myth rather than reality. But factual analysis says otherwise, supported by evidence from our surroundings is gradually leading us towards such a scenario. In the last few decades, world has seen an enormous growth in the computing technology and artificial intelligence where big data and algorithms are carrying out day-to-day business for humans. There is no doubt that it has enormous benefits but it has some repercussions as well. Mobile apps and cloud computing has made humans their products rather than consumers, selling our attention to advertisers, allowing them to interpret and understand our likes and dislikes, helping them to know what we think and what we say, and keeping them updated with our interests and our hobbies.
Although it sounds fascinating that now everything is just one click away whether it’s a car to take you to your favorite destination, or receiving your favorite food that you just ordered online. But unfortunately the gap between online and the offline world is closing and everything is getting integrated in the virtual world. Humans who are primarily social is becoming history because interaction between humans which was the beauty of human evolution is now minimal with the replacements of machines or algorithms.
Should we be concerned about this growing complexity of our environment facilitated by these technologies or we should put a deaf ear to wait for times when we are not relevant anymore or when a disaster of massive unemployment is upon us? As it is being said that evolution is an irreversible process so what should be the better strategy to stay relevant and important in the emerging future, not in the next decade or so but till the end of this century?
As one might point out that everything in the picture presented above is the exaggeration of available facts but the reality is actually the same as shown. It is true that humans will not be irrelevant in the near future and maybe never but these technological revolutions will gain pace in coming decades posing greatest hurdles for humankind. There is no doubt that humans have fought their way to stay relevant in the past and are likely to do the same in the future by being ready for such an outcome. So to make sure that it doesn’t happen to us or our future generations our strategies have to be human-centered by keeping authority in our hands rather than transferring it to machines. Furthermore, to evolve, we have to focus on quality and research based education. For now we need to instill basic human values in our generations and revive human to human interaction to identify common problems and to work for solutions as ONE- a single-integrated community of humans.
The writer is an M.Phil. Scholar of strategic studies at National Defence University, ISB, and is pursuing a specialization in the weaponisation of Social Media
Published in Daily Times, December 27th 2018.