ScuzzBlog: Diaries June 2023
Entry 22nd June 2023: Post 1: AI and the plight of human kind.
AI and the plight of human kind.
What I say here can be roughly translated as a load of bollocks.
Just that we yet again appear to be focussing on the trivial and
less on the bleeding obvious. For the sake of argument I will
make comment regarding AI and finish on the thing that really
matters if you want the kids to have somewhere to live in the
future. So like I say just a load of bollocks. Treat lightly.
I beg.
I was going to tag this comment onto a couple of blogs I have in
the wings relating to AI but have decided just to let it have its
own page for today.
I read and continue to read such a load of nonsense spouted about
AI and I just wanted to say a few things on the subject. For me
it sits at the heart of the human neurosis and fear of that which
it cannot yet fully understand. Twas the same reason men walked
in front of the auto-mobile with a red flag for fear they would
destroy all living things.
However it does bring into sharp focus a bigger problem that humans
have. Anyhoo here goes.....
The human race has not evolved for well over 2000 years minimum
with a probable timeline of the last strong evolutionary change
taking us back to the climate issues that rendered the planet more
hospitable for human growth. Whilst the human species itself is
still very much the same basic biological product that it generally
always has been, the tools, skills and processes developed by the
human race have advanced exponentially, particularly in the last
100 years or so.
If you have ever read the book by Arthur C Clark 2001 Space Odyssey
you will see that the significance given in time from the first
monolith to the second , signified by the casting of the stick in
the air to transforming into a space station is but a blink of an
eye. This demonstrates most clearly to me the lack of biological
evolution compared to the technical advancement of the tools we
use. It is important to grasp this concept given that the tools
we use are the element that we need to surpass if are to progress
as a race. Just as in Space Odyssey we need to prove we are better
than the machine if we are to truly evolve.
So what is my point. I have lived a good few years and seen a number
of technical advancements. For the most parts I view the world I
live in as simply an enhancement of tools that in truth were in
existence in one form or another during my very early years. What
I am troubled with as I enter the autumn of my years is just how
little human kind has truly evolved and developed in that period.
Today our world leaders are a shadow of the giants of old and have
little desire to tackle the real issues of human kind. What I
fear most is that not only will we fail to secure a sustainable
world for future generations but sadly destroy the very earth that
we live upon.
Human kind needs to evolve and change the very nature of its being.
For that we need great leaders and great minds and I'm afraid the
kind of minds required are not dictators, generals or politicians.
Personally I would rather give control to the schoolkids of the
world than those that currently run the show.
I digress.
So what is the issue with AI ? The idea of artificial intelligence
has been with us from the days computers became our partner in the
solitary world we created in using said computer. We have always
wanted a response from a computer to be almost human. It saves all
the hassle of actually having to meet real people. Social media
plays to that desire and let's be honest, who these days hasn't got
some kind of social media buddy follower list that they treat as real
friends? With the exception of me that is. This is not the purpose of
this discussion.
OK what is AI doing. The supposed AI that troubles some but which
is misunderstood by the greater population is the decision making
processes that some systems have that do not involve human validation.
These systems have been created by companies who sought to remove
the high cost of providing human services in favour of computers
that could run twenty four hours a day and 365 days a year. It is
no more than an advanced tool developed by human kind. These
systems are only a threat to human kind if they are programmed to
do as such. Otherwise they will make only the mistakes that humans
themselves have created within the designed programs. Human error.
Sadly we are relying more and more on computers to do what humans
use to do to the exclusion of the human interaction that we so
dearly yearn. Why else would you have so many Facebook followers?
The problem of the lack of personal contact is the primary reason
why humans are not evolving. The one line Twitter response is about
the limit most folk are prepared to extend their thought processes
and so we are saying a lot more these days with less real content.
Worse, is that social comment without real life human interaction
is like eating food with no taste.
I am not going to comment on the science fiction subject of actual
artificially intelligent entities and am not even remotely troubled
that some robot will manage to pass the Turin test in any time in
the decades to come.
The bigger problem is the exponential growth in technology by the
masses that seriously is going to destroy the planet.
It is interesting that all these subjects of man's destruction of
the planet and AI are so succinctly explained in The Matrix. It is
Agent Smith that explains why the humans are so destructive to
Morpheus referring to them as a cancer. It is Morpheus that earlier
explained the potential energy value of the human body.
This bit will sound a little creepy Sorry for this.
I am not sure if you are aware of the scientific principal that
states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. It simply will
eventually burn out into the nature as heat. When I was at college
I was educated on the thermal efficiency of materials and how to
calculate heat loss in a building. One of the key factors was the
energy consumption of any given device. To calculate this it is
quite simple and that is the KW rating of an appliance will give
you its energy use or eventual heat value when active. So every
electrical device carries a heat penalty as it consumes energy.
Further all humans emit energy which is what Morpheus was referring
to. Every cell in the body produces heat. This follows the same
principal of using energy just as in the appliances.
What is important to understand is that it matters not how much
energy you conserve, or how well your house is insulated, or how
green you are or whether your electricity is provided by a windfarm,
the very process of you being alive and using human tools will
invariably create heat. It is that energy footprint of the billions
of humans populating this world that is heating it up and ultimately
changing the climate.
So what is the solution. Simple. Humans need to evolve to survive.
Humans need to have a structured plan for dealing with energy usage
and the heat it generates. Humans need to develop a social structure
that better utilises elements that benefit human evolution and which
do not rely on the consumption of energy. It needs to work together
and maybe traverse into space and populate other planets.
Just reflect on the energy footprint you consume every single day.
You are burning heat whether you like it or not. It is really time
we stopped bickering about nonsense subjects like AI and war and
focus on building a society that can grow to meet the challenges of
tomorrow. The current systems don't work. They haven't worked in
my lifetime. Today we have the worst kind of political and social
systems to deal with the problems of tomorrow. We need somehow to
make good the ills of this political stagnation and truly work for
the good of the planet.
Time to evolve, or surely one day there will be a moment when the
atmosphere will simply evaporate into space rendering the planet
useless... and it really won't matter how many followers you have.
Just as in Space Odyssey humans need to ultimately defeat the machine
if they are to transcend to a higher level of evolved understanding.
Tools are and will always be the easy way out, but they are not
necessarily the only truly beneficial solution for human evolution.
We need a different kind of mindset to deal with that problem.
Otherwise game over.
These are my very own private thoughts based on just one lifetime.
AI and the plight of human kind.
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Last updated 22nd June 2023
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