Not quite sure what it is lately but everyday I get the feeling that we are headed imminently towards our own demise. Perhaps it is just me. Perhaps my age is causing me to see and interpret the on goings of the world in a different fashion from the way I did when I was in my late teens or into my 20's. I certainly have no real reason to believe that anything today is worst then it was in the past. I grew up in a rather tumultuous period in history. At Fifteen years old the world was in the height of ''Phase II'' of the cold war. The Nuclear arms race had spiraled out of control. This culminated in 1985 when I was twenty years old; with both Russia and the United States holding a staggering 21,000 warheads for an equivalent of 12,300 mega tonnes between them. Back then neither of these two countries liked each other much. Even with all of this though, I never had any sense of impending doom. I always believed even at that young age (15 to 20) that more rational heads would prevail and that disaster would be avoided. This played out positively in 1986 when the US and Russia agreed to reduce by 50% their nuclear arsenals. This optimism continued as the Berlin Wall came down in November of 1989 and the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. So what is it about the times we are now living in that gives me a bad feeling every morning.
Perhaps its to many doomsday or alien invasion movies, or to many Walking Dead episodes, or to many religious predictions of the impending end. No. That's not it. Its not even anything to do with nuclear rogue countries such as North Korea or Iran procuring their own arsenal. Or the evolution of China into a predominant super power. Or even the recent resurgence of the Russian military machine. Its none of that. Its something I cannot put my finger on. I have never been a doomsday prophecy advocate. I generally laugh off the latest claims of the impending end and continue about my business. This time though, these present times; I get the feeling we are standing on the edge of an envelope. Teetering precariously. Its a feeling. A feeling that mankind is racing, ''itself'' towards the end. Now one might look around at the astronomical advancements in our technology and believe that we are simply racing to a better, more structured world & life. I have a hard time sharing this sentiment. Recently I read a book called
''What Should We Be Worried About?`` (Real Scenarios that keep Scientists up at night). The book is an interesting read but one of the passages that most intrigued me and probably best captured why I have been feeling the way I do is following piece titled,
''The Rise of Anti-intellectualism and the end of Progress'' it basically describes that through our history, civilizations have failed and when this happened the torch of progress was always passed to a new region of the world. The problem now is we live and are living in a single global civilization and if it fails, we all fail together. The pretext of what is found in this passage for me simply defines that we as a society, as humanity have to start to realize: The technology that unites us can also hurt us collectively. There is no more ''their failure'' if something big fails we are all going to fail.
The failure I am contemplating is not the,''
mad man pushes the button in a brief case and blows up the world'' scenario. It is the little by little, not so noticeable infringement into all aspects of our lives of ''things'' we actually believe are good for us. Or more aptly believe we control. We have become too well trained in anticipating the next technological advancements which we are convinced will improve the mastery over our daily lives, our health or our well being. All the while, events are unfolding in our ''natural'' environment, results of these advancements which capture little or no public attention. Combined with this are individuals, corporations and groups who are using evolving technology to make advancements in genetics, robotics, medicine, drugs, food supply and many other areas without really having full control over what they are trying to, ''invent/create''. Whenever they are challenged on their control and understanding of these advancements their reaction is normally a brush off and accusations of alarmists wanting to hold back mankind. These dismissals are thrown about with ease and accepted as rule by the masses. Are there alarmists out there? Absolutely! Are some of their fears warranted? Probably. What concerns me the most though is that the principle, ''anything mankind does wrong we can simply fix'' still prevails. The problem with this ideology is the emergence of the ''ingenuity gap''. This was demonstrated on a global scale by events such as; Chernobyl,The Fukushima Daiichi, Japan, Nuclear Meltdown, BP Plc's, deep sea Macondo oil spill , and most recently the MH370 flight. In all of these cases we witnessed mankind's advancements and superior technology fail. Yet when faced with having to repair it or understand why it failed took a prolonged period. Hence causing devastating impact on people, the economy and the environment. One might argue two things. One: Throughout history mankind has always faced these types of problems/challenges. Two: The problems/challenges which we were faced with ''eventually'' were fixed. They would be partially right in both cases with a glaring exception. The mastery over such problems/challenges has always been within arms reach of our control. We were never leaps and bounds out front of ourselves. This is no longer true. The advancements being achieved are exceeding even the brightest minds we have. The masses are simply being left powerless and in the dark.
Such has become the reality of our daily lives. We believe because we master our smart phones, the internet, a GPS and other technology we encounter each day that we are ''in the know''. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is; perhaps as little as 2% of people actually truly understands how that technology is created and truly ''functions''. Even less know how to fix it if it goes haywire. In the not so distant future someone somewhere is going to push the wrong button, mix the wrong combination of bacteria, cross two wrong wires and mankind will never be the same. Be it the creation of a super virus, technology becoming self aware, Nano technology gone berserk or simply the innovation of some type of ''new'' phenomenon. Sooner then later some well, or not so well meaning individual, corporation or group will unleash a torrent onto humanity for which we lack the ''ingenuity'' to control or fix. The likelihood of this coming to fruition in greater then 50%. It is greater a percentage then our intellectual capacity to solve can afford. We will come up against a wall. It is getting much closer then you might know. Everyday the common person struggles with the simplest of technology now available to them. Now imagine them trying to deal with one they know nothing at all about or have the slightest clue of how to control. Yes there has always been a fear of the unknown. We have seen it throughout history. The fundamental difference here is the speed at which technological evolution is taking place. Humanity has reacted in the past...rather slowly...in the new reality, lack of speed spells the end.
One day in the not so distant future you might just wake up, go to have a shower and the water doesn't come on. You will get dressed, go down stairs and turn on the TV but the electricity will be off, You will muster something together for breakfast, head out to the driveway to go to work and find that your car won't start. You will try your cell phone but it doesn't work. You'll notice that the streets seem peculiarly empty.....sound like a apocalyptic TV episode? Or the begin of a Doomsday movie? Only problem is its not a movie, nor the beginning of anything. But it might be the end of everything. Or it could just be me feeling a personal sense of doom which I am projecting out onto the world. Lets hope its that.
