RAMIDO, Angel Mae CLOHS – H141

Why the future doesn’t need us?

In April 2000, Bill Joy, an American computer scientist, chief scientist and corporate executive
officer of Sun Microsystems, wrote an article for Wired magazine entitled, ‘Why the future
doesn’t need us?’ In his article, Bill Joy warned against the rapid rise of new technologies. He
argued that human beings face the realistic possibility of extinction because of competition from
intelligent robots, which are made possible by technological advancements in artificial
intelligence. Furthermore, 21st-century technologies – genetic engineering, nanotechnology and
robotics – have the potential to significantly extend the average human lifespan, but they are so
powerful that in them also lurk grave dangers.

Joy locates these dangers in the potential (or actual) ability of robots, engineered organisms and
nanobots to self-replicate. If these technologies go out of control, this amplifying factor can lead
to substantial damage in the physical world, not unlike the potential of computer viruses to do
harm. Worse, unlike conventional “weapons of mass destruction,” 21st-century technologies are
much more readily available to individuals or small groups, and having knowledge alone is
sufficient to enable their deployment.

In the article, he cautioned humans against overdependence on machines. He specifically stated:

“If the machines are permitted to make all their own decisions, we can't make any conjectures
as to the results, because it is impossible to guess how such machines might behave. We only
point out that the fate of the human race would be at the mercy of the machines. It might be
argued that the human race would never be foolish enough to hand over all the power to the
machines. But we are suggesting neither that the human race would voluntarily turn power over
to the machines nor that the machines would willfully seize power. What we do suggest is that
the human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the
machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines' decisions.”
Joy also voiced out his apprehension about rapidly increasing computer power. Joy’s worry is that
computers will eventually become more intelligent than humans, thus ushering societies into
dystopian visions, such as robot rebellion. To illuminate his concern, Joy drew from Theodore
Kaczynski’s book, “Unabomber,” as follows: “Kaczynski's dystopian vision describes unintended
consequences, a well-known problem with the design and use of technology, and one that is
clearly related to Murphy's law – ‘Anything that can go wrong, will.’

Our overuse of antibiotics has led to what may be the biggest such problem so far: the emergence
of antibiotic- resistant and much more dangerous bacteria. Similar things happened when
attempts to eliminate malarial mosquitoes using DDT caused them to acquire DDT resistance;
malarial parasites likewise acquired multi-drug-resistant genes.”

Nearly 20 years ago, in the documentary The Day After Trinity (1981), Freeman Dyson
summarized the scientific attitudes that brought us to the nuclear precipice: "I have felt it myself.
The glitter of nuclear weapons. It is irresistible if you come to them as a scientist. To feel it's there
in your hands, to release this energy that fuels the stars, to let it do your bidding. To perform
these miracles, to lift a million tons of rock into the sky. It is something that gives people an
illusion of illimitable power, and it is, in some ways, responsible for all our troubles—this, what
you might call technical arrogance, that overcomes people when they see what they can do with
their minds." Human nature may be corrupted when the powers of our mind, our rationality, and
our S & T become manifest. If we are not able to rein in the vanity and arrogance that such powers
unleash, the we are on the way to destroying the world.