( A ten-minute read)

Putting religious beliefs aside ask yourself or Google a question :

WHAT IS WRONG IN THE WORLD?

There is no shortage of people who know what is wrong.

The most frequently cited reason is probably the decline of religion, specifically the religion of the person writing it.

The list is endless.

Lack of respect for elders, unregulated capitalism, greed, alcohol, the economy, the rich, attachment, premarital sex, liberals, the unemployed, pride, lawyers, apathy, Starbucks.

The planet itself is fine and does what it does best which is to exist, orbit, and rotate.

The real question is what is wrong with our civilization?

We live in a world where text messages surpass face to face conversations.

We live in a world where if you didn’t snapshot it or post it to Facebook, “it didn’t happen”.

We live in a world where our self-esteem is managed by the amount of “likes” on our selfies and statuses.

We live in a world where our tv’s and cell phones get thinner and our bodies get thicker.

What happened to the world where everyone minded their own damn business?

What happened to the world where people actually knew their neighbors and didn’t fear them?

What happened to the world where people got together and lost track of time because they didn’t have their phone attached to their hip?

What happened to the world where people could voice their opinion without getting hate mail?

What happened to the world as one nation under God?

The answer I suppose depends on seeing the world within framed views of rich and poor.

What is clear is that people’s desires are contradictory, so it becomes a matter of democracy.

The problem is that most people fail to see things from other peoples perspectives. There’s no right or wrong. Just different point of views. People have become greedy and have forgotten their own truth but what happens when people stop caring.

I’m going to assume almost everyone knows that poverty is a huge problem in so many countries across the world, you’re not starving right now but you know there are hundreds of thousands of people that are.

I thought by the end of writing this, I would know what was wrong with humanity, but I don’t and I would be most grateful to anyone that can offer an explanation.

I think it was Einstein who said that ” we seem to have found the way but lost the destination”. We all seek understanding and sympathy if not empathy.

Industrial Civilization leaves us slaves to nothingness and our last days are spent in a hospital where machines are our mothers.

The only thing that is certain in life is the depravity of mankind.

As a species, we generally are self-destructive, greedy, and overpopulated.

We are the only species that hunts on a full stomach, enact genocide, and create wars by selling arms.

Unfortunately, the current technological advances are not going change the fundamental problem of what we call civilization.

Ever since the dawn of our species through no fault of our own, we have been unable to act as one : (FOR THE COMMON GOOD).

EVER POLITICAL IDEOLOGY HAS BEING BASED ON GROWTH.

We now enter a new age of TECHNOLOGY where data is feeding artificial intelligence that is, in turn, fanning advances in the world of scientific research, that is and will have far-reaching consequences on all aspect of living.

However, despite thousands of academic papers on the subject, our current civilization relies on trial and error.

The core of our present-day technology is flawed in as much as it is going to created greater inequality. While we are busy focusing on computer intelligence artificial intelligence might arrive in a living form first and bring with it unprecedented ethical challenges.

THE CORE OF SCIENCE SHOULD BE TO GENERATE KNOWLEDGE THAT OTHER PEOPLE CAN TAKE AND BUILD ON.

We need to push the frontiers of our knowledge with deep knowledge far beyond cool social apps, and neural networks that are presently trampling over moral boundaries.

We need more minds thinking about where it’s all going to end up and not allow computers to figure out for itself.

OUR CIVILIZATION NEEDS TO WIN THE RACE BETWEEN THE GROWING POWER OF TECHNOLOGY AND THE GROWING WISDOM WHICH WE WILL MANAGE IT.

EVEN IF THERE IS AN AMAZING OPPORTUNITY TO HELP HUMANITY FLOURISH THERE MUST BE A LINE DRAWN SOMEWHERE.

As always it is our complacency that is the real threat to the world.

So I leave you with these questions.

How can we ensure that artificial intelligence is developed in ways that benefit all parts of society, and serves the public interest?

How can we design meaningful public engagement around the future impact of AI technologies?

FINALLY, ANY AI THAT GAINS CONTROL OVER IMPORTANT SYSTEMS WITH UNSUPERVISED INTELLIGENCE IS GOING TO POSE AN EXISTENTIAL RISK NOT JUST TO THE PLANET BUT TO HUMANITY AS A WHOLE. SO EMPOWERED IT WILL BECOME UNQUESTIONABLE.

The more AI advances into a general purpose technology that permeates every corner of life, the less sense it makes to allow it to remain in the hands that serve a few instead of the many.

Most of today’s and past world problems have their roots in Inequality.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks chucked in the bin.