Artificial intelligence and biotechnology will create a new kind of human, and this transformation will take place already in the 2100s. This forecast was shared with The Guardian by the Israeli historian and author of the book "Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow" Yuval Noah Harari.
In a century, a reasonable man will cease to exist as a species, the historian believes. However, people will not be exterminated or displaced by robots, humanity modifies itself with the help of artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
According to Harari's forecasts, people of the future will have to live in new conditions, in many respects corresponding to the theory of the end of history of Francis Fukuyama. The world will be ruled by a single civilization and a single political system - according to Harari, the process of unification of states has already begun. Capitalism is increasingly moving away from liberal humanism. Governments introduce liberal laws, not out of humanistic motives, but to support the capitalist economy.
“There is a fear that in the 21st century capitalism and humanism will take different paths. Developed economies will emerge that will do without liberal policies and will not support investment in education and the welfare of the masses,”the historian notes.
Technology will play a decisive role in these processes. According to Harari, progress cannot be stopped, so humanity should think not about how to stop the invasion of robots, but how to correctly control them. The historian emphasizes that if any of the countries decides to stop developments in the field of artificial intelligence, then other states will continue them, no matter what.
Harari believes that in the absence of global challenges and disasters, technologies will develop harmoniously: people will control the use of AI in the defense sphere and conduct genetic experiments with caution. But if there is a global crisis, humanity will take desperate and risky measures. The historian compares this course of events to the emergence of the Manhattan Project during World War II.
At the same time, Yuval Harari believes that people are now living in the most peaceful time in history. Violence and ideological divisions persist, but they are much smaller than before. The conflict zones are concentrated in the Middle East, as the main source of prosperity there are still material resources - oil and gas. In many countries, the main resource has become knowledge, which is difficult to recapture by violent methods.
Evolutionists from the University of Adelaide (Australia) agree with Harari's conclusions, who believe that the transformation of humans into cyborgs is a natural stage of evolution. The inevitability of cyborgization is also recognized by entrepreneur Elon Musk.
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