Are we headed to certain doom?
Eventually. Everything that has a beginning has an end, right?
With each passing day we get updated on what the latest invention is, on how big tech companies are in a race to be at the top of the list by inventing something that has never been done before that would solve many human problems. Because of this, we see the prevalence of the known phenomenon we refer to as AI. Almost every app out there has an AI feature that is exclusive to the app which the developers put out there for users to use even when there is no need for an AI to be there.
New applications popping up all take pride in letting us know that they have this superior AI feature that can do this and do that which no other developer has and because of that, theirs is the superior product.
In a documentary that I watched not so long ago on cable TV, I was informed that the very first household robot will soon be released into the market for consumers like me and you to purchase and use domestically. I was amazed because I genuinely did not imagine a day would come where there would be no need to hire human domestic staff anymore as there would soon be an influx of automated robots that would be programmed to carry out many household tasks and even be capable of babysitting little children and of course the price would be through the roof which would create a situation where it would be only those who had the funds to afford the robots that would be their target audience.
My uncle was right, the more technology advances, the more people will be put out of jobs. But that is just one side of the broad spectrum that is technology.
On another side of the spectrum, technology has done a great deal of good to the world. Because of technology people across the globe are able to connect to each other within minutes without having to physically cover great distances for meetups, breakthroughs have been made in medicine, science and other fields because of how fast the world keeps evolving and many other things. I can't even remember the last time I saw fresh graduates from the university walking around with their CV in a file actively looking for vacancies and trying to see if they can get interviewed on the spot. Technology has seen to that and job hunting can be done from the comfort of your home and you can hunt for jobs even in another continent.
With almost everything being done online these days it has created some sort of ease when it comes to human interactions as people can come together to form communities online and can bond together over shared values and ideologies without even bothering with physical meetups and this is a major breakthrough as it affords people the opportunity to interact with different people from different races and learn from them. On the other hand though something has to suffer as nature sees it fit and though there are many good things about the “online" space, the human race is suffering from it. I realized that an increasing amount of people lack basic social skills when it comes to interactions that are not online based and it is alarming. In public spaces for example, where we are supposed to be aware of their surroundings and actually be in the present, you see people bent over their phones with no regard for the next person.
Also, because of the privacy it affords users, many people that we see online are not who they claim to be in real life. Often times we hear of the term "fake life” and it is because online people have the freedom that they really don't have when out in the real world which means they get to behave a certain way that is not genuine, they tell lies about themselves and others and because viewers on the other side of the screen have no way to prove or disprove, they gobble up the lies hook, line, and sinker.
Early unrestricted exposure of the younger generation to the online space is also another problem. Because of this, we see a huge decline in the IQ of the younger generation because they're busy chasing their favorite shows and celebrities instead of studying and developing their brains for the future.
Is this going to be better in the long run?
Well, I sure hope so, because if not we are all cooked as a species.
All images used are mine.
