Our species is creating an intelligence that is far superior to any human mind. We now live in an age of super intelligence, often called Machine Intelligence, which is rapidly gaining control of mankind’s future. Every system we take for granted is no longer as we once understood it. As an educator I have long been concerned that our schools are preparing students for success in our past and not their future. Our relationship to our past and the assumptions that guided every system that mankind depended upon are no longer valid. Our past is not prologue to what is coming. What will happen to our species in the future will be determined by our current actions and how we “educate” a superior force which is Omnipotent and Omnipresent.
Less than four years ago I wrote about the skills and abilities humans have. At the time I wrote Human Competence, in 2021, and Human Competence: Imperatives, in 2022, I believed that artificial intelligence could never develop what I then believed were certain human competencies. I was wrong. A super machine intelligence now exists with access to information hundreds of thousands of times greater than any single human being is capable of and it can replicate human emotions.
There is no place to hide from this new reality. You must do everything you can to understand the challenges humans face. Kahlil Gibran’s words are relevant here: “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.”
I strongly suggest that you enhance your education with an amazing and truly informative book written by Mo Gawdat: Scary Smart.
Only you know whether you will read this work. Your decision is an indicator of your willingness to fight for the survival of our species.
If you have already acquainted yourself with Yuval Noah Harari, you are probably familiar with his book Sapiens. Look him up on YouTube and watch any of his interviews. This will connect you to the insights of a 46-year-old man who is one of the world’s greatest philosophers and historians. He provides insights into the future of machine intelligence and what we must do if our species is to survive. There are many other great minds that you can connect with. Start with these two windows into the future of humankind.