INFORMATION

AGE
A. Make research/ reading on Bill Joy’s 2000 WIRED articles?
a. Why the Future Doesn't Need Us?

B. Answer the following questions:

1. Explain the positive and negative impacts of GNR technologies. What

moral or ethical issues and safety concerns do they pose?
- Sun Microsystems Chief Scientist Bill Joy penned the now-iconic article
"Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" in Wired Magazine in 2000, arguing
that coming technologies such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology,
and robots (GNR) will render humans obsolete. Because GNR technology
simply requires knowledge to develop, there is a considerable risk that
such information would slip into the hands of terrorists. target and
destroy a specific group of humans, potentially causing cataclysmic social
breakdowns to become extinct or slaves to better machines. The ethical
challenges we face with the advancement of technology all boil down to a
control issue, which we've been dealing with throughout history.
Depending on how it is implemented, any piece of technology can be
utilized to either benefit or harm society. As a result, we must restrict
society's access to technology by enclosing it behind a wall of credentials.
Controlling who has access to potentially destructive technologies is
undoubtedly our most serious existential threat. Nuclear warfare,
biological warfare, genetic manipulation of ourselves and other species,
and artificial intelligence are some of the significant difficulties we still
face in this realm. What kind of people have access to potentially
destructive technology is essential, so we should have solid processes in
place to manage this going forward. Unfortunately, the responsibility of
determining who is trustworthy has been delegated to corrupt people in a
corrupt system: the government. For this reason, I consider government
reform to be the most important moral problem in the field of technology.

2. We know by now that any technology may be dangerous. However, Joy

was much more worried about GNR technologies compared to other
technologies. What were the reasons for these great concerns?
- Joy is concerned that machines would duplicate and eventually enslave
humanity, but other people can do the same. We may improve our odds of
survival by transferring control to more foolproof robots developed and
controlled by our minds.
While Joy is correct that "uncontrolled self-replication in these newer
technologies poses a significant risk of substantial damage in the physical
world," so does "uncontrolled self-replication" of humans, their biological
tendencies, hatreds, and ideologies. Joy's fears are unfounded because
the lack of control over robotic self-replication is not, on the surface,
more frightening than the similar lack of control we have over the
replication of another human.

3. Explain how we will lose our humanity and purpose of life whether we
retain control of decision-making or give this capability to technology.
- We may now be chasing our own tails as we try to develop defenses
against the hazards posed by new technologies. Every countermeasure
may be as harmful as the technology it was designed to combat. But Joy's
conclusion is puzzling: "The only realistic alternative I see is
relinquishment: to limit the development of the technologies that are too
dangerous, by limiting our pursuit of certain kinds of knowledge." For
starters, it is unrealistic to believe that we could limit our pursuit of
knowledge even if we wanted to and that it would be a good idea. Second,
at current technological levels, this "freeze" does not eliminate the
danger; the danger exists now.

A fundamental flaw in Joy's article is that he wrongly accepts the

assumption that technology dominates humans rather than the other way
around.4 However, if we can control our technology, there is another
solution to our problems. We may utilize technology to alter ourselves; to
become more ethical, careful, perceptive, and intelligent. Joy must
believe that humans make decisions; else, how could they choose to
surrender? So why not change us, giving up not our quest for knowledge,
but our destructive tendencies?

Joy's panic blinds him to the potential benefits of our knowledge, and his
pessimism prevents him from seeing our knowledge and its applications
as essential to our salvation. Instead, he calls to the Dalia Lama's ethics to
redeem us, as if another religion's ethics will provide an escape from our
nature's less honorable angels. I am aware of no-good evidence that
religious ethics prescriptions have increased humanity's morals. Without
a doubt, the opposite case might be made. Why not apply our
understanding to acquire control over ourselves?
If we accomplish this, mastery of our technology will follow. Joy's
concerns are valid, but his answers are unachievable. His intentional
knowledge halt condemns humans.

4. Do you believe in the opinions of Joy? Why or why not?

- Yes, and what about his contention that humans have no business
researching robotics and artificial intelligence since we have "such much
trouble...understanding—ourselves?" " The response to this, striving to
understand the mind won't help you understand mind, states that self-
awareness is the purpose of knowledge pursuit. His grandmother "had a
sense of the nature of the order of life, and of the importance of living
with and respecting that order," he writes sentimentally, but this is utterly
naive and contradicts the realities. Would he have us die destitute and
young, fodder for creatures, defenseless against sickness, leading lives
that were "nasty, brutish, and short," as Hobbes so succinctly described
it? "Respecting the natural order implies impotence and passivity."

In fact, the life that Joy and most of the rest of us live was built on the
labors of people who fought valiantly against nature's order and the pain,
poverty, and suffering that it exudes. What would we be like without
Pasteur, Fleming, and Salk? As Joy points out, life is fragile, but it was
more so in the past, which was far from the idyllic paradise that he
imagines.

5. What solutions can you propose as to not reach what he predicts might
happen?
- I say abandon Joy's pessimism and reject all limits to our knowledge,
health, and longevity. Be cognizant of our past achievements,
appreciative of all that we are, but driven passionately and creatively
forward by the possibility of all that we might become. Therein lies
humanity's and their descendants' hope. In the words of Walt Whitman:

This day before dawn I ascended a hill,

and looked at the crowded heaven,
And I said to my Spirit,
When we become the enfolders of those orbs,
and the pleasure and knowledge of everything in them,
And my Spirit said:
No, we but the level that lifts,
to pass and continue
beyond.
~ Walt Whitman

6. Some people accuse Joy of being a neo-Luddite, something which he

denied in his article. What is a neo-Luddite? Based on Joy’s article, do you
think that he is a neo- Luddite? Why or why not?
- Neo-Luddism, often known as new Luddism, is a philosophy that
opposes many elements of modern technology.

Joy then moves on to his other technologies that are making things worse
argument. Concerning genetic engineering, I can think of no reason, short
of infantile pleadings not to play God, to obstruct our growing ability to
perfect our bodies, eradicate disease, and prevent deformities. Failure to
do so would be immoral, making us responsible for enormous amounts of
avoidable pain and death. Even if there are Gods who have equipped us
with intelligence, it seems unlikely that they did not intend for us to use it.
In terms of nanotechnology, Joy speaks eloquently about how "engines of
creation" might become "engines of destruction," but it's difficult to see
why we or anyone else would want that.

Joy also thinks that there is something sinister about the fact that NBC
technologies are mostly military in nature and were developed by
governments, but GNR technologies are primarily commercial in nature
and are being developed by corporations. Unfortunately, Joy provides us
with no cause to share his terror. Are private firms' commercial products
more prone to inflict destruction than governments' military products? At
first look, the contrary appears to be more likely, and Joy gives us no
reason to reconsider.

7. Complete the following metacognitive reading report:

a. What three concepts from the article will you never forget?
1. Can We Prevent a Future with Machines as Masters?
2. What Dimensions Should We Examine?
3. To Succeed, We Need to Change How We Innovate
b. What three realizations did you have after reading the article?
State your answer in the following manner:

Before reading the article, I thought the future does not need us, the
overthrow of the human species by machines is by no means inevitable. It
will not happen overnight. There would necessarily be stages that we as a
species would be witness to. Initially, there would be a state of reasonable
reliance on machines to augment our thinking, in advance of relegating it
excessively and detrimentally to them. Conceivably upon encountering a
situation that goes too far, potentially threatening our existence or
relevance, we could intervene.

However, after reading, I can now say that I learned, Economic return to
investors and shareholders is, of course, a significant priority when
launching a new entrepreneurial endeavor or corporate innovation
initiative. The need to take other factors into account when selecting
where to focus our innovative capacities is increasingly urgent.

What three things are still unclear to you after reading the article? None

Direction: Answer the following based on your own understanding.

1. Your own point of view about the information age?
- The idea that access to and control over information is the defining
feature of this current period in human civilization is known as the
Information Age.

The Information Age, also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, and
New Media Age, is closely associated with the introduction of personal
computers, but many computer historians attribute its origins to the work
of American mathematician Claude E. Shannon. Shannon, then 32,
released a seminal article at Bell Laboratories claiming that information
can be quantitatively expressed as a series of ones and zeros. Shannon
dubbed the "Father of Information Theory," demonstrated how all
information media, from telephone signals to radio waves to television,
could be sent without error via a single transmission medium.
What is the significance of the Information Age on the following:

a. Communication: Many communication services emerged, such as

texting, email, and social media, and the world has never been the same
since. People learn new languages more easily, and many books have
been translated into other languages, allowing people all around the
world to become more educated.

b. Education: Despite the obstacles and concerns, it is vital to recognize

the positives of technology in education, such as better cooperation and
communication, higher educational quality, and exciting classes that help
ignite students' imagination and search for knowledge.

c. Entertainment: There is no business-like show business, as the phrase

goes. The connection between filmmaking and technology is obvious. For
example, many movies today make use of technological breakthroughs
such as the green screen, computer-generated images (CGI), and many
more. Furthermore, technological advancements have altered how
movies are transmitted and even watched. Because of technological
advancements, both manufacturing and viewing quality have greatly
improved. One can only imagine how different filmmaking will be in the
next years because of technological advancements.

d. Economy: By now most Americans are aware of the World Wide Web,
and for many it has become an integral part of their business and
recreational lives. It is creating new business processes and models, from
book sales to airline tickets to banking to vacation planning to stock
trades to home and automobile purchases.

References:
1. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/10118/chapter/12
2. https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/
3. https://reasonandmeaning.com/2016/02/17/critique-of-bill-joys-why-
the-future-doesnt-need-us/
4.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/columbiabusinessschool/2020/03/26/why-
the-future-does-need-us/?sh=aac7a1759f26