Although 99% of countries veto certain research practices such as autonomous driving, human gene editing or general artificial intelligence, the remaining 1% will continue to generate knowledge and tools. Have we lost control of technology? Was there ever?
The truth is that we have reached a stage of progress in which it is practically impossible to stop the investigation . Even when it is unethical, dangerous or harmful to society as a whole, stopping it will be difficult and we will often have to settle for slowing it down .
Goodbye to centralized technology
Throughout our history, technological development has been “centralized”. In general, the great advances depended on the scarce funds that a certain state contributed to some project.
Also from wars, often driving technology like the magnetron used in radars. Today we all have a magnetron at home that heats food for us.
As a result, small incremental gains from private sources took a long time to trickle down to the local population, let alone the rest of the world. But today anyone can investigate, for example, AI. Or make use of crowdfunding .
In addition, research is decentralized . It is true that to a large extent it still depends on the universities, but these are found in all parts of the world and knowledge tends to open up and release data.
Liberated knowledge: goodbye to technological control
Another feature of the technological advance of the past was recorded in patents. These are still valid, of course, although the trend towards liberation is notable. Examples include Tesla’s release of his patents to fight climate change or the open use of transgenics such as golden rice to alleviate famine.
The big problem with patents in this system is that science is cumulative. Who has the right to use CRISPR? The Japanese because Yoshizumi Ishino discovered the system in 1897? Francisco Mojica’s team from the University of Alicante for their research ? MIT’s Broad Institute and Feng Zhang’s team for their practical applications?
The latter have the patent , or part of the patent, on part of the applications. But this has not prevented much of the world from using this technology to continue investigating, without fully knowing who the final application will pay homage to.
It is unlikely that if He Jiankui modified humans without permission, he would have had the detail to ask permission to use CRISPR technology. And it spins faster and faster.
When technology collides with employment
Another important point, this time related to jobs, is automation . At some point, some automotive company will come up with the autonomous vehicle formula . Five to ten years later, between 2.2 and 3.1 million Americans will be out of work . Suddenly. According to Andrew Yang, driving is the most common job in 29 states.
In Spain the number of professional drivers is estimated at about 300,000 . These will go straight to the unemployment line if the car industry succeeds. If not, about 1,000 people will lose their lives every year. It’s not like there’s a choice.
But while autonomous driving is easy to envision, there are other sectors where the human workforce is at risk . Automated restaurants like Flippy, Zume Pizza, EKIM, Creator or Spyce already exist. How long will it be before all fast food outlets are run by robots?
The serious dilemma of artificial intelligence
One last major drawback of the lack of scientific consensus when it comes to innovation is the case of artificial intelligence . At the moment this is classifiable as little more than a tool . A fun toy that helps us.
We do not know if it is possible to create an artificial general intelligence that is smarter than us, but we do know that it is being tried all over the world.
Going back to the beginning of the article, even if 99% of the countries in the world expressly prohibited this type of research, at least two countries would continue to investigate, with China probably in the lead.
We live in a very interesting moment of technological revolution. However, no one seems to be behind the wheel. Although countries take action on the matter and develop strategic plans for artificial intelligence , the world is one .
Let’s remember that artificial general intelligence will only need to be invented once, no matter where. Afterwards, there will be no off button, and we will have to live with its consequences.
