The Three Hidden Dangers
“We are what we think, — -With our thoughts, we make the world.” (Lord Buddha)
The temperate climate recently has been suffering from tropical climate pattern with high hot winter (Canada). The frequent visit of deep depressions like Amphan,Nisarga, Ayla, Gati, Nivar, Btrevi, Yash etc are a matter of great concern to the meteorologist. The death and devastations suffered by Hiroshima and Nagasaki has not become yet pale yellow. Your choice of leisure and dress has not been fashioned by your dear and near ones but by the rating of the dresses as made by algorithm. During the ongoing festival season of West Bengal, I had the privileges to enjoy the family gatherings along with my neighbors and old friends. I notice a marked difference between the joy and pleasure of the ongoing time in comparison to the few years back. Physical bonding has been replaced by the virtual reality either in the form of electronic gadgets or virtual friendships. Most of the people are farmers in our areas and the farmers are being habituated to cultivate the crops varieties which are either hybrids or the outcome of the biotech .The choice of the music as a part of the celebration is done by the unknown hands- the hands of AI. The 10000 years old human civilization is the portrait of the amazing achievements and the impossible has been turned into possible by the dint of the human inquisitiveness and the will power to make it a planet of human settlements. The poverty has been conquered, the diseases have been overruled, the children mortality has been minimized, and the span of the human life has been extended. The 10000 years journey of the civilization is the saga of unmixed sorrow and happiness. The civilization has no command over the natural catastrophes like flood, earthquake, tsunami, forest fire or the other unavoidable disasters. The last century has experienced two world wars of human death and devastations by the courtesy of the war mongers. But the 21st century is likely to suffer from a number of unavoidable issues but the most three important issues remain hidden are the climate change, the nuclear war and the scientific tsunami of the disruptive technologies mediated by the close adherence of the biotechnology and information technology in the name of the artificial intelligence. Let us explore the bitter reality of these three important but least uttered issues. Little boy (Uranium gun type device) and the fat man (Plutonium implosion type)-the two obnoxious names are uttered with utter dismay by the common people and these two fate of the aforesaid explosion has turned millions hue and cry with uttered sufferings even today in the islands of the country of the rising sun, Japan. Nuclear war or atomic war or thermonuclear war is very common vocabulary among the mass. It is the weapons of mass destruction within a very shorter time along with long lasting radiological lethality. After the 2nd world war, number of countries even under developed economy has been able to design this mass destruction device along with super powers of the globe like USA, China, Russia, Japan and France. India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea etc are some of the members have been able to design this super power explosive weapon. Whether it is a limited nuclear war or full scale nuclear war, it can certainly destroy the economy, social and military infrastructure of the target nation and in the long run, it will cause a tremendous detrimental effect of the biosphere of the global environment. The important issue is the challenge of the climate change across the globe. It is the human induced global warming that is supposed to cause the detrimental effect of the global climate pattern. Emission of green house gases from the uncontrolled burning of the fossil fuels is one of the important causes to induce the phenomenal change of the global warming. The agriculture activities in random manner along with the installation of different heavy industries like cement making, the power generations from fossil fuels, steel making etc are some of the causes for the global climate change in this century. The IPCC has warned about the change of the average mean temperature of the earth and the detrimental effect of the climate change will bring devastation on the physical environment of the earth. The recent upsurges of the different physical phenomenon like the heavy rainfall in some regions while drought on the others. Global sea level rising due to the melting of the glaciers is an important concern of the different cities close to the sea. The change of the ecosystem will bring changes in the crop productivity in one hand while the forest and wild life will be severely affected. Change of the lively hood can cause the poverty of the millions of population particularly in the sub-Saharan Africa and the South East Asian countries. The unstable food security may cause starvation of the millions. Under nutrition due to starvation may cause the pandemic of the different diseases mainly escalated by the malnutrition and poor health and hygienic practices. Agriculture based industries will face a serious challenge and this may lead to the millions of unemployment situation. The GDP of the country in general and underdeveloped and developing countries in particular will become serious challenges in the drive to solve the unemployment and mal nutrition. The natural intelligence, a God gifted attribute is displayed by the animals and the Homo sapiens sapiens i.e the wise man by the dint of their humanity enriched with dignity and thinking with the humanity. But the artificial intelligence, (AI, the magic of reality)- the symbiosis of the biotechnologies (here) and information technologies is an important concern in spite of its multipurpose imponderable outcomes. It may bring the scientific tsunami in the near future if it is to be allowed to exercise without maintaining any strong and determined line of actual control of the technologies. AI application systems that perceive the environment and takes actions to collect the maximum outcomes .It can mimic the cognitive associated with the human mind. AI offers lot of applications like advanced web search engines, recommendation systems, understanding human speech, self driving cars, automated decision making etc are some of the recent uses enriched with AI.The juvenile journey of the AI is highly to be appreciated but the long term prospects of the AI can pose some serious issues particularly in the context of humanity. But Super intelligence garnished with AI, technological unemployment can be driven by this technology, AI as smart authoritarian government, existential risk along with ethical issues are some of the most debating concerns of this tsunami of data driven technology. The apprehension of the symbiosis of biotechnology and the artificial intelligence can bring the total change of the human race and it may become Frankenstein if not properly monitored in the juvenile stage of the most sophisticated scientific creation of human mind. Machines cannot bond with humans due to zero ethics, emotions and morality. Lack of creativity is one of the important concerns of AI but the sibling of InfoTech & Biotech has the ability to manipulate their human brains and this hack might shift the human decision taking abilities admixtured with different manipulative algorithms. The enough chance of the erosion of free choice, clarity and human values garnished with the ethics by the dragon hands of new born baby of modern science will create a billion dollar question about individual choice or the choice created by machine learning and AI driven algorithm. The expression of sorrow due to loss of dear and near one will be dictated by ‘Rudali’ (hiked weeper) like machine sentiment designed by algorithm of AI. The day is not far off when a choice of the token of love and meeting place for first meet will be directed by AI because of making merriment and love are nothing but the endocrines signal that can be mimicked by the very delicate algorithm of computer technologies. All those dangers are apparently less meaningful and even not to be treated as matter of great concerns but the destiny of human along with free choice; free will etc is now at a stake. The scientific progress, the conflict and war, the unavoidable climate changes-all are invisible but in the door step sooner or later, they will knock us. All the flaws of human nature contain the seeds of its own improvement. Free speech, non-violence, cooperation, cosmopolitanism, human rights and acknowledgement of human fallibility are guiding norms of human destiny and science with ethics, education, media, and democratic government along with the markets can minimize the endangered values of human civilization of 21st century. Problems are solvable if we sustain the benevolent forces of modernity. May I quote from the great humanist and philosopher, Rabindranath Tagore (Nobel laureate),
“The most important lesson
that man can learn from life,
is not that there is pain in this world
but that is possible for him
to transmute it into joy”.
