Our world is constantly evolving. We’ve made technological advances in the past 100 years that are out of this world. But do you think advancing our technology has made the human race “dumber”? Or did you read my post about AI and are scared of the future? Join me as I discuss why this ever-changing world is scary.
The Human Race
We, as a human species, love to be entertained. We are constantly on our phones, watching TV, playing games, or doing whatever else entertains us. We’ve become addicted to our technologies and entertainment and have forgotten how to socialize with others in this world.
The next time you’re out on a walk or in public, look around; how many people do you see glued to their phones, earbuds in and ignoring the world, or doing something with a piece of technology? We walk around with our heads down, reading the latest news article or text. We ignore our surroundings, almost getting hit by cars.
In fact, not too long ago, I was driving and finding a parking spot at work when a person just stepped in front of my car. They were startled when I slammed on my brakes because my car almost hit them. After that brief encounter, he glued his head back to his phone and continued walking. It makes me question if he would have changed his ways if he got hit.
This all starts with how we are raised. Nowadays, many parents give their kids technology (tablets, phones, etc) to keep them from crying or screaming. Then, the child grows up addicted to their screens and not knowing how to socialize.
Consequences
What does that cause? A society where most people have anxiety, depression, loneliness, and many other mental illnesses.
*If you need help, please contact someone; try the suicide hotline. If you want to learn my steps to overcoming loneliness, check out that post here.
Everything in life is about balance. If you tilt the scale in one direction, there will be negative effects. We need to learn how to socialize with people again. We need to learn to look at and understand other people’s points of view and not argue as much because we’re not always right.
Elon Musk mentioned that his NeuroLink, a technological brain implant, could send your thoughts to someone else’s NeuroLink. Can you imagine a world where people don’t even speak anymore? Does that excite you? Or is it scary that we will become more of a robotic species?
The human race is just one issue though. What about the Earth?
The Earth
I’m not sure if I even have to get into this subject. I’m sure you’ve heard about climate change and all the bad things happening to the world. It feels like it’s on repeat whenever you turn on the news. It seems like our solution for destroying Earth is to colonize and start destroying another planet.
Everything has a cause and effect. An example of this is overpopulation. We have a lot more people than we can handle; this leads to the clearing of natural lands to be able to build homes for them; it also leads to more resources being burnt and the destruction of our world with more greenhouse gases being expelled. On top of all that, that means more people will litter our waterways and pollute our air.
Will the Earth be habitable in a couple of decades? Is it going to become a wasteland while people start over on Mars? There are many questions that pop into my head; that’s what makes all this scary. Everything is unknown.
Technology
Technology is great. I personally love it; however, it can be scary thinking about how it will control us in the future. I’ve covered the topic of AI in more detail here:
Is the Growing AI Technology a Good or Bad Thing?
To keep it brief, AI can be scary. Cars driving us to our destinations might be natural to the future generation, but to the current gen, it’s out of this world. At any point, AI can be turned against humanity, and it won’t be pretty.
One of my favorite films, which can be scary, is Ex-Machina. I briefly mentioned it in that post, but it’s about a programmer who “won” a contest to test a new humanoid AI robot. It’s a mind-bending and cruel film by the genius Alex Garland. I don’t like spoilers so I’ll just tell you to go watch it.
Conclusion
I hope I’ve given you a few ideas of why the future of the world is scary. Sci-fi might seem fun in the films, but in reality, it could be a bit sad. We continue to advance technologically but stray away from being social humans. Once AI takes over, I fear humans might become robots.