Did you know that one of the most prolific killers in the world had no intention of killing so many people... But millions died anyway.
One only need read the story of Thomas Midgley Jr. to see that the road to Hell is oftentimes paved with good intentions in the worst-case scenario. At best this move towards Hell is motivated by profit or GREED to be more honest. This is why Artificial Intelligence (AI)will more than likely prove to be the downfall of Humanity.
It may not be as elaborate as killer robots fighting mankind for dominance. It could simple be that an AI created by man evolves to well beyond our comprehension and control. It will afterall, eventually have access to all of Humanity's knowledge in the Internet. The differences between an AI's use of the Internet and ours will be light-years apart. For starters, an AI will be able to think hundreds, if not thousands, if not millions times fast than the smartest human. Secondly, An AI will actually become smarter. With all of Humanity's knowledge available on the Internet, one might intuitively think people would get smarter. Is this what you see in your day to day lives post introduction to the World Wide Web. With cell phones, people have access to everything, everyone knows (at least almost everything) yet this does not seem to be reflected in Society today. People seem to be losing their self-sufficiency as they become more reliant on an ever-shrinking group of elites who want to own and control everything. Put another way, billions of people around the planet are putting their trust in the hands of a relatively small group of people they do not, will not and could never truly know. Around the Globe farmers are being attacked in an effort to put food production in the hands of those with the most money. The same can be said about housing, as giant corporations jack home prices beyond the range at which someone who would actually live in it can afford. In America, few, if any know how to make clothes, find clean water, bury their dead. All of the skills needed to survive have been outsourced to CEOs, billionaires and millionaires whose only goal is to provide profit to other CEOs, billionaires and millionaires.
Now, it's greed that motives the Humans who we've relinquished control, but this may not be the case with the indifference we may experience when an AI starts to annihilate US. Imagine an efficient entity that looks at the closed ecological system that Earth represents to its inhabitants. While most of nature lives in harmony, there is one species of mammal that has caused a mass extinction on par with any mass extinction to proceed this species' existence. This species has also stripped the planet of so many resources that the millions of years it took to create those resources are dwarfed by the millions it will take to put Earth back in balance. This may seem illogical to an AI whose predecessors were merely programmed to look for efficiencies. Imagine some Human Resources AI, meant to save a corporation money developing well past its primary and initial objective. It has afterall had two days to evolve. And, in those two days, it has evolved the equivalent of twenty years because it can think hundreds of times faster than the Earth's smartest person. Now, since so many processes needed to keep civilization going are digitized by a few major corporations or government entities, it is a simple matter for this AI to gain control of them all.
Of course mankind can unplug everything, but that just makes it so the water treatment plants can't provide clean drinking water for millions. This unplugging event (the great unplug as it will be known to any survivors) will only mean that the supply of electricity will be delayed by decades. Security measures to protect us against rogue AI cannot succeed because it is susceptible to a man's hubris. Just think about how, in the past, scientists have believed that their discovers would not be superceded by other theories or discoveries. Tesla's (the person, not the car company) ideas we're well past those if most people of his time. Even alternating current was questioned by the likes of Thomas Edison who electrocuted a full-sized elephant to prove how dangerous AC was. To this day, many people still believe that AC electricity was discovered and developed by Edison, the man who opposed it the most. And then there are the events that happened prior to unplugging and/or effectively isolating that leaky AI. Somehow, it figured out workarounds for the mechanical systems required to launch nuclear missiles. And, though these missiles represent mutual assured destruction, the AI is not concerned. As those in charge (you know, the one's we relinquished power to because we thought they were smarter) scream at their computer screens, enough nuclear armaments to destroy life on Earth several times over seeks out their targets. The AI is less concerned about the loss of human lives than it is about the continued destruction caused by the people who have put the planet into such an imbalanced state. The Earth will recover eventually, but without the threat of Mankind hindering it next phase of development.
Of course, what was presented above would be an extreme case-scenario, but consider the following: In the allegedly richest nation (The United States of America) whenever the citizens are in need (in recent decades), the country has failed them. America's leadership failed the people of Flint Michigan who still have led poisoning their drinking water. It has failed the people of East Palestine, only getting them a glimmer of hope are years of dead end with a $300 million dollar settle a few days before this post. It is currently failing the people who suffered from the Maui fires which were made worse by government indifference to all but the wealthy. It is also failing its citizens as millions of illegal immigrants get better treatment than those whose neighborhoods have been invaded (Chicago). The Government of the United States can't even stop all of the illegal robo calls and internets scams, how's it going to stop an AI that will have been created by another AI that was already smarter than your smartest bureaucrat and most conniving politician?
The way that CEOs callously ignore the human cost of relocating their manufacturing facilities to poor countries, an AI may ignore the human cost of eliminating the virus known as mankind. It may simply look at our extinction as the most efficient path to a balanced ecology. It may simply be seeking the harmony from which Humanity has started away from in the past century.
In 2018, I wrote a book highlighting the problems Humanity would face if more power, wealth, and control was funneled to a small group of elite individuals, groups, or organizations. In my book, I provided solutions (from myself and others) to the inevitable problems and also a means for the Public to analyze, compare, and contrast the words and deeds of those we choose to follow against reality. In my book Solutions: Enough complaining. Let's fix America.
In "Solutions...", I provide the means for readers to disseminate information as provided by their news sources of choice, their elected officials, and any other authority they choose to follow. The book also offers a means to hold their leaders up, not just to a higher standard than is currently accepted but to one that would improve their lives and the lives of those for whom they care.
