Yet at least they created the impression that their aim was to give politics and society a say in their own future. How else to explain the sudden rise and fall of the Pirate Party in Germany in 2011/12: this movement had nothing to offer except a kind of liquid democracy involving unconditional basic income ideas, strong data/privacy protection, a revolt against antiquated copyright laws, and plenty of internal chaos – and that was all. Lots of people don’t understand this, or else they don’t care who shapes their political and social futures. We can’t really blame them: Thinking about the future in terms of human benefit is not really part of their job descriptions. And business craves progress because that leads to maximum productivity and profit. But should we leave the job to science and business? Definitely not! Scientists are driven by curiosity, which is what makes them able to expand the limits of the possible. Or to put it another way: Technology has no ethics – that’s simply our responsibility. Tech writer Kevin Kelly once said that “computers are for answers humans are for questions”. And all that’s just for starters!īut lets be clear: Technology itself is neither good nor bad it is morally neutral, just a tool.
Google’s Magenta Project may one day lead to Artificial Creativity. IBM is working on quantum computers compared to which the human brain seems pea-sized. Tesla, Uber, and Waymo are behind our steering wheels. Apple, Google and their ilk tell us what’s supposed to be interesting. Tinder and Parship decide whom we meet and whom we fall in love with. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Baidu determine whom we communicate with and what about. Not that we, too, don’t feel the need for speed, but if everyone is only worried about moving as fast as they can, who will stop and consider where we are heading? Who is Mission Control for Humanity when we need it? Who is authorized to make these decisions in our name? Right now, it seems that (some) scientists, some venture capitalists and big technology companies are in charge, albeit without any proper supervision.
That gentle “Wind of Change” we heard so much about back in the 90ies will soon become a bona-fide whirlwind very soon. Remember how exponential works? First comes, 4, then 8, 16, 32, and so on. Right now, we are standing at the take off point for exponential development in technology. And just wait until machines start teaching themselves (aka “machine learning”) – that’s when things will really get moving.
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Sure, we don’t see many robots passing us in the streets, yet, but even those tiny devices that we now lug around with us are far more intelligent than those funny-looking humanoids we used to watch on the kiddie scifi series The Jetsons. Tomorrow is on its way, and it’ll be here faster than many of us may think. Thanks to Tim Cole for helping with this translation. Read the original version at Die Welt (paywall), or via the brand-new Renner/Leonhard site
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