Guesstimating futures…
Tech advancements and where humanity might be heading
I just saw a video about speculation over new devices Samsung is working upon — New Note with seamless screen extension and a laptop with just screen!…not going into detail, I think it's pretty evident that we have developed an appetite for upgrades and features in tech every year, striving for better compact cameras, computing power, 5G…and as it progresses next steps include creating AI and IoT which can take decisions better than us for us, making life simpler.
We have worked upon systems to deliver everything at our doorstep and that being autonomous would be the next step,
Exciting experiences, which will greatly improve in near future —
An autonomous system of robots will be preferred for delivery. People will be given rest for such harsh jobs and the last statement would work as a good example for a marketing campaign:
No human was harmed during your delivery due to the harsh conditions outside.
As 5G becomes prevalent, the average time we spend in the virtual world might be more than our time in the physical world. May it be streaming, shopping or conversing
Streaming
Loads of new content will be accumulating over platforms like — Youtube, Netflix, Discovery+, Disney, BYJUS, Udemy, MIT…
I hope the walls between entertainment and education comes down. That would be one of the most interesting innovation for education systems around the world. ( that’s just my worldview, I hope to write more about that, also Disney and BYJUs might already be working on it)
Shopping
Well, shopping has already become virtual. But the new AR features will up the game and will be more engaging for the customers. Companies will make their stores — online and offline engaging with the help of Augmented Reality.
AR over the real world will become common as filters in Snapchat.
IKEA is working towards it greatly, you can check out their recent application called IKEA Place where you can choose the furniture which goes perfectly in your home.
Conversing
Having options to not face the real world and live our lives is enough for us to adapt and thrive. Going out, looking at people who can’t afford to have those privileges, meeting offline is already a tough job after we went through this pandemic.
Why put so many efforts when you can do a video call with a filter over your face to make you look as you want and have your favourite food at your doorstep by Uber with a drone dressed in your favourite anime character.
Looking at the history presented to me, it seems that humans tend to have short-sighted, self-serving plans, lacking holistic perspective towards the planet and sustainability in long term.
We are habituated to seek and live by the comforts, wants and entertainment over utility.
Smart homes and IoT will do the menial tasks like cooling the home before we reach, keep our coffee/smoothie ready, playing song based on our mood, cleaning the house, watering plants and whatever similar features we will be adding. It is evident that we will get more dependent on technology as we move forward.
An analogy can be theorized where one feels crippled if her/his smartphone is taken, feels like losing a part of your body. It is not a natural limbic system except for a cyborg it is! So what could be the worst?
Tech is moving towards AI and what is that :
AI — Artificial Intelligence is a machine that does not rely on us to make decisions. Like a child, it absorbs the data provided and connects the dot for understanding impacts in various aspects, coming up with the decisions to be taken for achieving the accurate predictions.
This form is not naturally occurring but human-made hence, Artificial Intelligence.
AI is preferred to do vast pattern studies and other meticulous tasks for a human, it is supposed to guide us to make more accurate and efficient predictions that will drive our decisions (because we aren’t making decisions like an intelligent species)
We forget that in this vast universe ‘life’ is rarer and more precious than any other thing
Any kind of life form is much much rarer than any compound like diamonds or oil in the universe. What are we doing ?
Cutting trees driving climate change, using fossil fuels bringing every other species to their extinction( been doing this for decades now). As the kings and queens of this planet, we are ignoring reality so that we can live blissfully.
As nature is always making its move, we can learn it from Darwin’s theory of how the fittest survives. Humans don’t seem to be the fittest in the context but a new organism is on the rise and is evolving faster than any other species on Earth has ever evolved. If you didn’t understand, I am referring to technology and AI sits at the end of the spectrum (as much as my mind can grasp).
Nature seems to be in favour of machines and helping them evolve, human is acting as a puppet and might be just another pig to be slaughtered for the next evolutionary step.
A possibility where a computer replaces the humans, beings who created it. So let’s get a perspective of how superior a supreme AI will be from us (individually).
We have worked collectively over sciences of different fields like astronomy, biology, chemistry, psychology, theology etc. a for centuries leading to our understanding of the world and who we are. And all of it is digital including our finding, understanding, feedback, emotional and non-objective preferences. (watch The Social Dilemma)
And if we are to create a supreme AI and ask it to work, “ It’s like a genie out of the bottle” as Joe Rogan said. We have no idea of how the hell it is gonna react to all that data and conclude what! We are creating a new brain that will know all about us and have the cognition to make us go on wars without us even knowing that it is who made that happen,
It could do a million innovations, test them over a simulation and execute those plan in some minutes. While we look at it like chimps looking at us in the zoo.
Humans take a good amount of time to put regulations and make rules after some observation of devastating occurrence, take an example of 9/11 or Nukes, but this time we might get hit so harder that we won't be able to catch up with the enemy, furthermore even identify. Hopefully, we will have our real set of Avengers by then.
If you are thinking why would we create such an AI and then appoint it for such big decisions for humanity? The answer is very simple because we have been blabbering for the past 25 years or more about plastic recycling, fossil fuel consumption, deforestation and all that…and here we are on the path.
Even if we stop harmful activities today, it is still too late. So thinking that we will not create a supreme AI to bring some additional help to rectify the living hell we have made out of this planet doesn't seem a realistic approach to me.
But this is just an alternative storyline, where it turns against us. there are movies, stories such as this article so that people who would be responsible take good precaution.
Hoping that AI is efficient in making decisions for saving the planet and saving humans as well(I am excited for that even in my imagination.
What would happen if it is just for our benefit and chances of that being a possibility are equal(I think or I hope so)
Here is a list of some Sci-fi movies which have a significant role of AI involved in it -
Blade Runner(1 & 2), Terminator (out of the six genisys is a personal fav.),The Matrix (excited for the 4th sequel), Wall E, Her, Minority report, Age of Ultron, I am Mother, Upgrade and honourable mention Black Mirror, Travelers( last two are series on Netflix)
