Homo Deus and the artificial intelligence - The Manila Times
THE human race evolved to become the Homo sapiens (from Latin "wise man") some 315,000 years ago in Africa. But unsatisfied with how its supremacy rules the universe, evolution continues for humankind. From Homo sapiens, a classification applied in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, human evolution is gearing towards what humans want to be in the future — Homo Deus — playing "god" with itself and the tools it creates and uses.
Author and historian Yubal Noah Harari coined the term "Homo Deus" to refer to the species which creates and uses tools not only to live in its environment but to tap on its being and becoming — extending its life expectancy, altering biological compositions in the pursuit of well-being and happiness, navigating even the outer space, and other infinite explorations and creations that the emerging "god-like" human intelligence can reach.
Paleoanthropologists examine fossils to trace the past of the hominins and concluded that human intelligence differentiates the ever-evolving species of the genus Homo — Homo erectus, Homo habilis — based on the creation and use of tools that they need to survive and thrive in the environment they constantly manipulate.
From the stones invented for hunting in early civilization to the weapons that ended up as even useful in hunting enemies during wars, humans tend to shift perspectives to the smaller picture for selfish gains from the big picture of what could be collectively useful for humanity. From the machines that reduced the need for slavery to robots that are capable of performing many human functions, humans are not only inventing tools to perform tasks but as creations that are far superior than what humans are capable of doing and becoming. From the small tribal feasts uniting humans to the global geopolitics that divide nations with the concept of economics that escalates the inequality (in what could have been an equitable and inclusive development), humans seem to lose sight of what matters most collectively as humanity.
Science, technology, humanity
History tells us that technology, simply defined as application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life, has changed and manipulated human environments. With artificial intelligence (AI), such manipulations occur in the virtual space, which has no limits in space and time. The science of it holds no boundaries. Its intention for the "practical aims of human life" is not defined and ruled by intellect alone and may actually subdue and control the very free will that complements the intellect in the core of human nature. The value of human values should be valued (redundancy intended) more than ever in the advent of AI that seems to have become not only artificial but more superior than that of the intellect that created it. Worst of all, the very technology created by the innovative human intelligence seems to run over the development of human intelligence in its people, especially the young who use it. The creative minds that led to this AI seem to have ignored that it takes neural connections in the human brain to hard-wire it for something creative and innovative.
Google search made knowledge accessible at the click of a finger. AI has not yet rendered textbooks and libraries obsolete but it threatens their very physical existence. In the past, learners in libraries trusted the authors for credibility as a source of information. Now, learners are left to trust themselves in curating information in an ocean of knowledge being offered by anyone in cyberspace. Then, ethics dictated that citations are essential to respect intellectual property. Now, the prompt input of a learner to an AI, like ChatGPT, shall be sufficient to a make-believe ownership of a work done. Many human functions, even by professionals, are deemed replaceable by AI, like legal papers, architectural designs, medical laboratory interpretations, nursing care plans, accounting reports, among others. And the machines are capable of learning.
Anxiety is fear of the unknown
Anxiety is a future-oriented, long-acting response broadly focused on a diffuse threat. Simply, it is fear of the unknown.
Cars were regarded as one of the worst inventions of the 20th century. Karl Benz was dismissed by critics, with many feeling as though nothing would overtake horse-drawn carts, trains and bicycles. In the wake of the bike fad of the 1890s, reporters and analysts were wary of the "next big thing" in transportation. In 1902, The New York Times called the automobile impractical. Then the car took flight in 1903 as a plane.
The concept of money disrupted the then barter system. From the coins created in China in 770 BC, it took thousands of years for this portable tool of exchange to become the money we are using today. Money as the notorious "root of all evil" is the same money that makes our transactions easy, especially that it has become digital.
Even banks, which trace their beginnings in the lending of seeds in ancient Mesopotamia, led to the anxiety of humanity and took thousands of years to stabilize and be the trustworthy institutions that we know today.
Humans by nature are anxious about, and distrust, concepts outside their comfort zone.
Valid paranoia of distrust
The collective paranoia for technology is aggravated by the fact that behind these technologies are technopreneurial millionaires, if not monopolizing billionaires, who have seen the future and envision an industry of the future in it. AI for profit shall follow the stories of multi-billion military technologies that, for profit and greed, could incite wars to benefit from it. In the ICT era, data and information became power, as land was during the feudal era and money was during the industrial era. Look at how TikTok that originated from China has led to the controversial threat to the TikTok-ing America.
Now, who is anxious about AI? The very humanity that created it! In fact, humanity is anxious of itself and of the Homo Deus among us using science they may not be able to control.
Comments
Post a Comment