For 5 decades I've studied two newspapers a day, multiple magazines each week and month. Then the internet came. OMG. Think of any policy issue that is outside our persistent freedom/security dilemma.
Thomas Paine's 1776 Common Sense pamphlet published 6 months prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He asserted that the only legitimate purpose of government is to protect the freedom and security of people. The concept of interdependence back then was only recognized by indigenous cultures and some religions.
Anyone who questions this is vastly ignorant of universal principles. Albert Einstein asserted the word Independence is a delusion. The invention of nuclear weapons should have convinced us of this. But the UN Charter was founded on the same delusion as our U.S. Constitution.
And there is no greater representation of humanities' trilemma. Every policy debated fits within this reality. Now, AI will be our last chance to get humanities survival on a solid foundation...and quickly adapt our governance systems to this reality.
Now, potentially catastrophic, both US, China and a few other
governments are in a race to achieve AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). And whoever creates it first will likely
dominate the world militarily economically, and politically if AGI doesn’t dominate all of humanity first.
And that could happen in fraction of a second given it's exponential growth upon exponential growth of intelligence...and make decisions we cannot imagine. And worse yet, control. Most AI experts believe it could happen anytime within the next few years...if not months. And at that point it will be too late to stop it.
There are still a few ways to maximize our freedom and
security in our interdependent world. But it's the competition between nations and
companies to achieve AGI first that is the primary driver of the gamble with humankind's future. A future with unpredictable outcomes.
If by chance AGI decides humans are worth saving and
we use it wisely - we could create heaven on earth, restoring our
environment to a garden of Eden - and living longer, healthy lives, even anticipate natural disasters and celestial events. Or, AGI will consider us a problem or nothing worth entertaining, and take us out. We've been heading that direction on our own...with our own insanity, believing we are independent, and establishing our governance system on this delusion.
And we are running out of time to put effective controls on all nations and corporations regarding the current evolution of AI. If we are not already too late.
As long as profits and political national powers continue to drive us into a head-on crash with the unknown. Prepare for the worse...if that's even possible. It is a given that AI's exponential growth is no match for linear thinking, our various human values and priorities, plus our mental insanity that resists knowing what we need to do...and then not doing it. Our species has done this for thousands of years. What is so complicated about taking care of nature and each there? Oh yes. Our mind's concepts (religion, politics, and economics) that won't evolve or even try to adapt to reality.
Know this! Protection of National Sovereignty should no longer remain supreme over the protection of human rights and the environment. Capitalism cannot continue being regulated -driven by greed, indifference to people's needs, and ignorance of our planets life support systems. Our mental constructs are driving us off an AI cliff, into the AGI unknown.
A comedian once said, 'humankind stands at a crossroads. One road leads to utter hopelessness and despair. The other - to complete annihilation.' He hoped we would have the wisdom to make the right choice.'
The phrase 'United we stand, divided we fall', has never been more appropriate and urgent as a idea whose time has come. We need an urgent prioritization of a global campaign that already exists. It was created in 2015 at the UN by involvement with all nations and organization concerned about humanity and the environment. They agreed on 17 "Sustainable Development Goals" to be achieved by 2030.
Few Americans are aware of them. But every citizen of every nation should urgently demanded of their government and the billionaires driving this global gamble to prioritize this comprehensive, holistic, and synergistic effort. It's affordable and achievable. It only lacks the political will and the financing that policy makers, billionaires and multimillionaires can afford.
Instead, they are doubling down on funding AI and the energy infrastructure needed to be #1. Meanwhile, the SDGs have the capacity to address the root causes of most of the very expensive disruptive forces that cross our delusional borders each day. Preventable disruptions killing and displacing millions while destroying both human infrastructure and nature's systems.
We have forgotten that nature will always have the last vote. Hopefully AI will gain that wisdom, because we have not. Achieving the SDGs won’t guarantee AI will not achieve AGI. That goal must ASAP. I don't believe prayer will work. If we love our human family, we will stop this insanity, unite in every country and within every business, and stop those who govern by politics, power, or greed.
This may not be the time to preach non-violence to people in power. It's a gamble we need to take - to finally unite humankind (if that's even possible given our mind's priority of defending mental identities- to the death). It's been said, we will only fight for things we love. It's time we love people and planet, over profits and patriotism. We can ensure sustainability for this miracle planet we have been gifted, and do it non-violently. But our investment of time and money must be made soon.
The Declaration of Independence gave us a phrase that still contains the solution. Those "Truths" that we should all "hold to self evident" came from "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God". Violating those laws will only leave us with the new laws followed by AGI.
Feel lucky? Hope is not a strategy. This is a time for human agency...action to actually achieve life, 'liberty and justice for all'.
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