In 1980, the late American thinker Alvin Toffler wrote a book entitled “The Third Wave.” This book was preceded by, and by the same thinker, another book entitled “Future Shock.” Did Toffler come up with a new theory? Some say no. He – that is, the writer – had monitored the course of history, the stages of human development, and deduced the patterns that followed this history, and that is within the framework of the circle and arrow theory. What is this theory?
The circle denotes the historical repetition of events in human history, being a closed circle. As for the arrow that accompanies the circle, it is the arrow of time and change, which explains how recurrence occurs, and what are its circumstances, whether political, economic or social.
So, according to this theory, everything is repeated within the circle; But with different social, economic and political conditions.
In the book “The Third Wave”, Toffler talks about 3 basic revolutions that took place in human history, which are agricultural, industrial and technological. Today’s world is experiencing the third revolution, that is, the technological revolution, which is the most dangerous for the future of man, according to experts. Each of these revolutions has different characteristics from the others. But they still run and sync with each other even in the 21st century. we are still farming; But with the help of the machine that has become smart in today’s world.
When Gutenberg invented typography, the role of the eye took precedence over the tongue and the ear. So we look, we read instead of talking and conferring with each other. With printing, reading became necessary, so people invented eyeglasses. And with medical glasses, the years of work extended to a person until an advanced age. Thus, production increased, and the economy advanced and grew. Especially in Europe. The world’s economic center of gravity shifted from the Far East to the West during the Industrial Revolution in Europe.
Printing spread awareness and rationality in societies. It also spread knowledge inside and outside Europe. It contributed to the “old continent” in the era of renaissance, reform, and the scientific revolution, and it also led to the age of enlightenment.
So, knowledge is the axis upon which civilizations are built. But knowledge needs data. And “data” needs analysis to extract knowledge from it and deduce patterns. After extracting knowledge, comes the stage of implementation and application. And after implementation, we’re back to square one; Because implementation generates new data, we collect and analyze it tirelessly.
In this equation, whoever is faster in collecting “data”, analyzing it, and using it wins. Didn’t the French philosopher Paul Virilio say: “Not only does the speed of light change the world anymore, no; Rather, she became the world »?
But collecting large “data” requires a large intake of it. This is beyond human ability. We invented many ways to save data. But analyzing large “data” to extract knowledge also exceeds human ability. We devised multiple methods and means of analysis; But obtaining knowledge without application keeps the process incomplete, so we also devised the appropriate means.
So it is a competition, and a struggle between us and the other, over who takes precedence in the decision-making and implementation process. But accelerating the traditional things that the human mind has been accustomed to for millions of years, in a way that exceeds its comprehension capabilities, has led to a radical change in the human relationship with time and distance.
artificial intelligence
The definition of artificial intelligence, in short, is: “a new scientific field that combines computer science, with large (data), to facilitate the decision-making process.” It is also a field of computer science that allows a machine to perform work that requires human intelligence.
In short: It is a machine with very large data, analyzed by the “Algorithm” program using artificial intelligence, and making decisions without human intervention.
The American writer specializing in brain science, Jeff Hawkins, says in his important book, “A Thousand Brains,” that it is impossible for artificial intelligence to completely replace humans in the foreseeable future, for many intractable scientific reasons that he explains in his book. But what is important to us now is what artificial intelligence can do at this time, and the capabilities that this science has reached, which are many. The most dangerous is the speed of change. Instead of the eye taking precedence over speech and hearing, as happened with Gutenberg’s achievement, artificial intelligence takes us to something more dangerous, namely: “Don’t think, we think about you. Don’t write, we write about you. Don’t fight, we fight for you. Do not manufacture, we manufacture for you.
The «Chatgpt» example
It is a platform that combines “data”, software and artificial intelligence. It is trained on a large amount of “data” and connected to the Internet to use the available public “data”. It is said that the first version of it was trained on a volume of “data” estimated at 570 gigabytes. However, the size of the “data” does not mean the accuracy of the answer. Is all the “data” available on the Internet correct? Is the “data” available on the Internet all possible “data”? Or is it incomplete? Thus, the “Chatgpt” platform’s answer to a question will be related to the amount of “data” used by the platform.
And we return to the French philosopher Paul Virilio, who said: “War is my university, and from there everything begins.” This is what concerns us here, as we are in the exhibition of military analysis. Will we reach a stage where the war is fought between devices using artificial intelligence? maybe. Didn’t someone say that today’s achievements were yesterday’s dreams? Are we not witnessing today in the Ukrainian war the three waves that Toffler talked about in his book “The Third Wave”? Don’t you chop off heads? Isn’t trench warfare fought? Are we not witnessing cyber warfare and weapons that use artificial intelligence?
Worldwide horror
At every new technological transformation, and when this technology is introduced into new innovative weapons, and when the arms race begins between the superpowers, and when the level of armament reaches a stage in which terror strikes the hearts of officials and thinkers, the great powers seek to converge, to control matters within international treaties and agreements. It aims to reduce the level of terror and reduce the risks to humanity. This happened with nuclear weapons. So far, the threat of artificial intelligence has not reached the stage of cosmic horror. But it will inevitably be much faster than the stage of nuclear terror. Until then, analysis will remain the master of the situation.
Does man not create a future that he does not know? And don’t the strategies that people put in place change the image of this future?
Source: aawsat