This weekend I was listening to Fareed Zakaria on GPS @CNN (a program that I love) and he mentioned another aspect of government that I hadn’t covered in my post on “In Defense of Government”
His point was that we look towards our government to avoid catastrophes – and he mentioned this in respect to the climate crisis.
What really got me thinking was – this is a crucial and very under appreciated function. Essentially if the government is successful in averting the crisis, it is a non event (who remembers the collective action to fix the ozone layer hole in the atmosphere and globally phasing out CFL based coolants in refrigeration), since history does not remember the mundane – and hence the success of the institution is always under appreciated.
While if the government fails spectacularly (for e.g. The World Wars – that’s one for the history books – recounted and studied as a tale of misery and suffering for generations).
So how do we address this inherent bias in human nature – probably by also including our spectacular (although under appreciated) successes in avoiding crisis and a careful meticulous analysis of failure of strategy and policy on disasters – not just a tale of human suffering.
Future Disruptions and New Maladies – what the future may hold…..
An aging population without a plan to take care of our old and infirm.
AI and ML: Machines are getting smarter and more intelligent. AI seems to be able to do a lot of the cognitive jobs currently held by humans.
Automation: Think self driving cars, trucks and other vehicles; IVRs that perform the jobs of CSRs, chat bots etc.
Are humans a single planet species? Can we defy gravity at scale (mass transportation as opposed to a few infrequent transgressions into space) – Will this open up new frontiers to explore and eventually inhabit new worlds?
Will we discover other intelligent species/civilizations? Again new frontiers for engagement outside our current boundaries of work – think Star Ship Enterprise and its crew – “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before”.
All of these can be looked at as either opportunities or threats – it is what we make of it. Change is never comfortable, but depending on how we embrace and adapt to it may mean our survival or ultimately demise.
Our response to these changes may take the following shape –
Protectionist Policies – Have they ever worked?
When we domesticated animals, did humans that performed manual labor, resist the entry of animals? – no, instead they evolved to managing these animals and accomplishing more work than what they could do individually.
Did humans resist mechanization – yes, but it wasn’t a disruption that they could resist for long because industrialization came with a number of benefits: it raised living conditions, increased life expectancy and also provided a preponderance of additional time that could be productively used in the pursuit of other interests and goals.
So why do we believe that the same response will be successful for the next round of redefinition of work?
Innovation: Can we reimagine work that humans do?
Why do we assume assembly line work is actually adding value?
Humans were first domesticated by agriculture and forced to leave their hunter-gatherer life style. For work that needed more strength than a single human, we used animal power for tasks such as ploughing or extracting oil.
Then came automation – where we invented gears, pulleys and mechanical arms or wheels driven by motors and generators to perform the work on our behalf.
Next came CNC machines which in addition to the mechanical aspect of doing the job, could also be programmed to do the work without human intervention.
The final frontier is AI – where an automaton (or a software program since not all realms of work are physical) could sense the environment and determine the best action in order to achieve a set of finitely defined goals
I think we are ok as long as “we” get to define the goals but there are larger fears in society that when these automatons/programs take over and set their own goals – why would any human be needed?
Is that the right question? I do not know … does anyone?
Can AI and Intelligent robots really be an ally instead of a threat?
True if we do not hang on to our traditional definition for work and instead look for different ways to create value.
Will be a possibility if an alien species attacks us and we collaborate with our own robots to ward off this threat.
May be necessary if humans are not suited to be a space faring race and we need robots to help us in this hostile environment.
We will need them when we are older and frail and younger humans do not have the inclination or interest to look after us.
If we want to succeed, we will need to change the game …and have a plan for our workforce to transition to this new definition of work.
AI are robots that play games, do work etc. In my game there are 2 modes “Missions” and also “Skirmish” (I play star wars battlefront). In each game mode there are AI that try to blast you, they are programed to focus on you, the player. Each game has a difficulty that you can select and the AI are programmed to adapt to the difficulty that you selected and they will also adapt to which side you choose such as the rebellion or the empire. If you are on the rebellion, then the AI go to the empire.
Humans players are actual people (I hope you know that) that you can play against in a mode called “Multiplayer”; In that mode you play against other humans (of course right?) The people that you play in “Multiplayer” can pick up power-ups and they can do “Emotes” in game. Each human that you play can customize star cards (Star cards are advantages they can use in game such as a jetpack). Humans can do all of these things that an AI cannot.
The differences between humans and AI are:
AI cannot use star cards (I already said that right?)
Humans (regular players) cannot do the movements the AI does.
AI cannot pick up power-ups (yea I know i said that already.)
Humans (regular players) can use emotes (I KNOW I said that) but AI cannot.
How are they similar –
AI and human control players (of course right.)
AI and Humans (regular players) can focus on you, the reason I’m writing this is because whenever your in a server anywhere anytime (in the game) a player always focus on YOU yea YOU.
AI and regular players (humans) can get into ships (I don’t know how the AI gets into ships without power-ups but they still do.)
Thank you for reading this “article”! What I think is that AI and humans ARE THE SAME (at least in my game don’t know about real life)…
