Modern Technology
WONDERS and DANGERS
of TECHNOLOGY
By Peter Solomon
The clock is ticking…
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE TODAY
- 1. Email local, state, and federal representatives and demand they establish regulations for responsible use of AI, genetic engineering and the Internet.
- 2. Post a link to this message on all your social media sites.
- 3. Support organizations devoted to the technology threats.
THE INCREDIBLE SPEED OF TECHNICAL ADVANCES HAS OUTPACED HUMANITY’S SOCIETAL AND POLITICAL ABILITY TO MANAGE THEM
Modern science and technology has produced amazing advances. But their hazards and misuse can lead to significant danger to our existence. In 2017, Stephen Hawking predicted the extinction of humans on earth within 100 Years. Has the incredible speed of technical advances outpaced humanity’s societal and political ability to safely manage them?
Our modern science and technology has produced some amazing advances for humanity. But their hazards and misuse can lead to significant danger to our existence. In 2014 Stephen Hawking predicted, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” Albert Einstein said, ”We will hope that future historians will explain the morbid symptoms of present-day society as the childhood ailments of an aspiring humanity, due entirely to the excessive speed at which civilization was advancing.” And Charles III, King of the United Kingdom, said, “There is no doubt that we live in an age of unprecedented, and sometimes terrifying, technological advances where the speed of advance so often outstrips the necessary ethical considerations.”
Surveys of thousands of AI professionals were taken in 2022 and 2024. Half of those surveyed believed there was a 10% chance for AI leading to outcomes as bad as human extinction. One of the current dangers of AI is deep fakes, realistic-looking videos, images, and audio recordings that can make it appear as if someone is saying or doing something they never said or did. Another danger is that AI programs for social media are often designed to maximize user engagement. It is obvious from the selection of crime, fire, and medical emergency programs on television that the public is more engaged in stories of mayhem and chaos than peace and tranquility. So, AI delivers such stories to social media users. Facebook’s AI helped to fuel the Rohingya humanitarian crisis in Myanmar in 2017.
Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel Prize winning Godfather of AI, warned:
“It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things.”
While genetic engineering is our wonderful new tool to create vaccines in record time and to cure cancer and genetic diseases, it has terrible risks, too. Gene editing using CRISPR technology is now so easy to do, hobbyists have used it to modify frogs to improve their jumping ability. A doctor in China used CRISPR to alter the DNA of human babies. Genetic modifications in agriculture may have negative impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity.
CRISPER gene editing technology could be horribly destructive and impossible to control. Will it be employed to create bioweapons, designer babies, giant soldiers, and a new species? Could a new super humanoid species eradicate homo sapiens, like our species annihilated the Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Jennifer Doudna, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry for CRISPR-Cas 9 editing technology said, “The idea that you would affect evolution is a very profound thing.” Fellow Nobel Prize winner, Emmanuelle Charpentier, cautioned, “It is our responsibility as scientists… to make sure that the technology is applied safely and in strongly regulated frameworks.”
The Internet gives us immediate access to all the world’s information. Social media provides the platform for personal communication and posting of ideas. But QAnon and other conspiracy theory websites are examples of how our low political and social IQs allow it to be used for spreading lies. And it has facilitated the formation of new tribes that have outrageous ideas and get their news of the world from their closed-off reality bubbles.
Just as the human respiratory system is the conduit and multiplier for disease viruses, the Internet information system is the conduit and multiplier for fallacy viruses, lies that can sicken a democracy. The lies enter our information system, which circulates them and multiplies them through news feeds, retweets, reposts, forwarded messages, podcasts, and websites. While the press and broadcast media can be sued for libel or slander, the Internet is the Wild West. How can it be regulated?
Humans have been using fossil fuels for heat, transportation, electricity, and industrial processes for millennia. Coal was first burned in fireplaces 10,000 years ago. Then in the early 18th century it was employed in steam engines. The first gasoline-fueled engine was built in 1876 and coal was first used to generate electricity in the 1880s.
The increased use of fossil fuels over the last two centuries has led to a 60 percent increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide and the resulting increase of global temperatures of 1.6°C. Predictions for 2100 are as large as a 4°C increase.
The Thwaites Glacier, called the Doomsday Glacier, is melting. If that glacier, the ice shelf below it, and other glaciers disappear, it will cause global mean sea-level to rise nearly 11 feet. Our history suggests that our civilization will not have the capacity to deal rationally with the famines and population displacements caused by crop failures and sea level rise. It would create world chaos and possibly lead to nuclear war.
At age 17, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg said: “Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope, but I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.
Nuclear technology may be the greatest boon and the greatest threat to human existence. Nuclear medicine is one of the boons. It is used to detect, diagnose, evaluate, and treat many diseases, including cancer, heart disease, gastrointestinal, endocrine, and neurological disorders.
Einstein’s theory of relativity explains nuclear energy. On one hand, we’ve created nuclear fission power plants. And nuclear fusion offers the potential for limitless, pollution free energy if successfully developed. But on the other hand, we’ve built enough nuclear bombs to annihilate the planet. Nine countries, some with adversarial relations, possess close to 13,000 nuclear warheads. Their use can be in the hands of just a single individual, and a few dozen such weapons used in war could destroy civilization. Could global warming and overpopulation cause the chaos that would trigger such a war.
After witnessing the first atomic bomb test in 1945, Robert Oppenheimer said:
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Remember Stephen Hawking warned that humans would be extinct on Earth in 100 Years.
THE CLOCK IS TICKING
Please visit and follow https://www.instagram.com/100yearstoextinction/ and https://www.100yearstoextinction.com/ for more information on threats to human existence and to information and links to organizations fighting these threats.
