From thrills to threat?
Technology's evil twin
When I was young, I thought about how much time was left in a school day measured in hours and minutes. Now that I can look back on 70-some years of time, I think about it differently. I guess that's bound to happen when there's more past than future.
And then, because I was reading about some recent finds in archeology, I encountered references to 3.75 million years ago – that's when forms of animal life moved from water to land, and legs (rather than fins) became a thing. When gills morphed into lungs, that (eventually) led to opera singers and play-by-play sportscasters.
But I found myself unable to comprehend the concept of time so far beyond our brief experience of being human and here for a pitifully abbreviated time. The evolutionary clock was ticking 2.75 million years ago when genus Homo - our distant human relatives appeared. By then, those once-knuckle-dragging ancestors were busy growing bigger brains and making stone tools that enhanced their survival, which eventually led to us about 550,000 years ago: Evolved humans today sitting in front of computer screens trying to decipher truth from lies on social media posts and (sadly) news outlets.
Essentially, we owe all this technology and brain power to toolmakers at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania who were not us – but hominids just trying to get through another day without being eaten by a sabertooth tiger. It gets a little bit easier to grasp when we consider the relatively meager amount of time since all those early evolutionary branches led to Homo sapiens 300,000 years ago. But still, that's too many zeros for my brain when it comes to time. Dollars, yes, I can imagine that.
I'm not alone in being trapped by time-warp – unable to grasp the concept of eons. And people way smarter than me have tried to eliminate a bunch of those mind-boggling zeroes that mess with understanding time. Here's one attempt from paleontology geeks at Montana State University:
"Picture time compressed by one million times; one million years is now one year. By this standard, one day is just over 2700 years. So, assuming it is midnight on a Monday, Hannibal was marching his army and accompanying war elephants over the Alps. Sunday Jesus was born around 2:30 AM. The pyramids were built Saturday morning. The Ice Age ended last Wednesday. The first hominids appeared in … 2015."
Taking the zeroes away helps because our human brains were not constructed to comprehend large numbers that were never essential to our survival and evolution. Researchers say that humans – and other species, BTW – are born with "numerical abilities," so we can quickly grasp the difference between small and simple numbers. But numbers with more digits? Not so natural. Quick, what's the difference between 12 and fifteen? (You got this!) and then, what's the difference between 46,455 and 46,448? Doable – but the larger the number, the harder it is to grasp – because it's not hardwired through evolution as we migrated from the swamp to the top rung of the ladder of life.
But lacking this particular innate ability, humans still managed to achieve remarkable feats – to the point our own innovations just might threaten our position as top dawgs on Planet Earth. Could we potentially be challenged or dominated by our rapid development of Artificial Intelligence? Become the inventors of our species' devolution? Well, consider this:
Our memories are limited. We store and retrieve useful information that keeps us alive, healthy, amused, and able to navigate life according to our individual interests and values. Computers, however, have no such limitations and no need to balance emotions. Unlike some of us with two legs and one brain, they multitask, don't need sleep, pull information from multiple sources simultaneously, and don't 'care' about anything or anyone, including you and me.
All this didn't cause us much concern for many decades as AI developed in ways we benefited from – ways that set us free to work faster, work less, and learn more. From 1948, when 'robots' were created, to today, with Open AI that produces content with lightning speed, multitasks, never needs a coffee break, and doesn't have a care in the cyber-world.
The concern is that our unstoppable ability to improve and expand technologies may (in the minds of many experts) be our undoing as masters of our universe. Think about this – because of technology, anyone, anywhere, can plan, program, and disseminate information. Our online world is rife with truth, lies, exaggerations, fantasies, political and personal agendas – and it's all available with a simple internet connection and a click on a link. Technology has outpaced our ability to manage it. Yes – that old sci-fi fantasy of 'robots taking over' is no longer pure fiction.
None other than Geoffrey Hinton – the computer scientist who fueled the study of artificial neural networks, is called the "Godfather of AI," and was one of Google's biggest brains. He left his research work and is now warning us about the significant risks of artificial intelligence. He is joined by Elon Musk (SpaceX) and other Technology leaders who claim that "Technology can pose profound risks to society and humanity." (This opinion, however, does not motivate either of them to cease and desist. What would be the fun (or profit) in doing that?
Can we even put the rabbit back inside the hat? The answer is pretty much, "Nope." So we have a new responsibility to check our sources, verify, question and trust what we know to be, well, trustworthy. But how many of us have the time or skills to take on the challenge? We have families to manage, work to do, cats, dogs, and squirrels to feed. And now, an innovation that makes life more convenient and connected threatens us like no other technology in human history. It will be interesting to watch – evolution to revolution? Time will tell.
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