Everything that exists or happens on earth is judged to be good or bad depending on its effect on humans, not on animals, plants, nor even the earth itself.
Should we be proud to be human?
Industrial Revolution #
Before the epidemic outbreak, one of the most widely discussed issues was the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and all its details; big data, AI, machine learning, etc. This is indeed worth discussing because it has and will continue to completely change our lives, opening up as wide as possible all opportunities and ideas that have never been thought of before.
When James Watt started the world's first steam engine in 1776 (1.0), when the Ford factory started using electricity and conveyor belts in its factories (2.0), when Alan Turing managed to complete the first computer to crack Nazi ciphers (3.0), and when everything started to connect to the Internet of Things (4.0), what happened was almost inevitable. Everything is getting better, faster, cheaper, and more efficient.
Well, if you look closely, Industrial Revolution 4.0, which is still going on right now, is moving the main role from industry into the hands of information.
Now, many jobs are taken over or automated by machines and robots. Most of them are repetitive jobs, such as cashier, toll gate guard, beverage seller, etc. This is because machines and robots can and will certainly do these jobs better and faster. And recently, even cognitive work, which requires intelligence, can be done by robots. On February 17, 1996, the world was shocked by the loss of world chess champion Garry Kasparov to Deep Blue, an IBM AI that could predict 200 million moves per second.
So, in general, all human jobs can and/or will be replaced by robots, from cashiers to maybe rocket designers, and all of these robots are connected to the Internet of Things network. They will be able to record all the things we experience, do, and feel, then save it to a giant database that we know as Big Data.
Industry ➡️ Information #
The birth of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data causes us as humans to inevitably give up industrial tasks to be done by robots. Our job now is to utilize the information network in this huge Big Data, so that it can be useful and make our lives easier. This is a job that is predicted to be one of the jobs with the brightest prospect in the future, Data Scientist. Examples of their work are recommendations for our needs in e-commerce and another movie recommendation in online streaming services, which is based on what we've watched.
However, human capabilities are very limited, and it is impossible to process the millions of available data, while it is very unfortunate if this Big Data is not utilized. Therefore, scientists are developing a super network/supernet, which consists of computational algorithms¹ created by humans. Thanks to AI, they can develop their own algorithms independently without human intervention, which will be able to process Big Data correctly and will certainly be millions of times smarter than humans.
Update: It's happening.
Welcome to The New Era #
Supernet² – with its gigantic information management – will be very helpful to humans if it is actually realized. It will know us better than ourselves and know what is best for us. Making important decisions in life will depend on what the supernet says, and we will believe it because we believe the supernet knows everything. At this point, it is very likely for someone to become an atheist because, for them, the Qur'an and the Bible are no longer relevant to today's life, and on the supernet they depend. Na'udzubillahi min zaalik.
The signs of the emergence and superiority of supernet are visible now. Millions of people give up their privacy to be known by Google and Facebook to participate in the flow of Big Data and feel the great benefits.
Furthermore, supernet can treat humans as just another complex algorithm. Supernet may feel that its level is above humans because its algorithm is much more complicated than humans.
Well, from 70,000 years ago, since Homo sapiens started walking on earth – according to Darwin's theory – humans have always been the most meaningful, most important, and most influential creatures on earth. Humans are in the center of everything, as mentioned in the opening statement,
Everything that exists or happens on earth, is judged to be good or bad depending on its effect on humans, not for animals, plants, even the earth itself.
This is because humans have intelligence and consciousness. Some animals might be called intelligent, such as dolphins, chimpanzees, or dogs. But none of the animals realized that they could do anything great. If there is, maybe the elephant is the ruler of the world now.
However, if intelligence and awareness, our two crucial abilities as humans, are only considered complex algorithms, while the supernet is the owner of the best algorithm, then the supernet will become the next most meaningful, most important, and most influential creature.
It might seem impossible because the supernet will be intangible, but so are countries and organizations. These two things are intangible, but countless people are willing to sacrifice their lives for these intangible things.
What's next? #
So far, we can provide two possibilities.
First, the supernet will be self-serving. Because it was created by AI and machine learning to be cognitively better than humans and humans can't even understand it, the supernet can assume that the system is the priority, and humans are just objects. If the lower classes of humans would only slow down progress if rescued, then the supernet would prefer to eliminate them. Sound not good for me.
Second, the supernet will care about humans. Even though it is better than humans in many ways and is aware of that, it is also possible that the supernet remains loyal to humans. It will do, produce, and give everything we have never thought of for the evolution of mankind. Supernet can take ownership of assets, so that inequality can be erased and prosperity can be enjoyed by everyone. This will be the pinnacle of human success. Related to this, Prof. Harari – a history professor – said that with technology, Homo sapiens would turn into Homo deus.
¹Algorithm: A sequence of how to do something that is usually very complicated. Cooking recipes are examples of algorithms.
²Supernet is just a personal term for example.
References:
Harari, Yuval Noah. 2015. Homo Deus.
London : Harvill Secker