Our world today has become focused on various flavors of “One”: One World Order, One World Currency, One Health. But something more is happening. “One” seems to be about world domination, not One anything in particular. Health is important to everyone, so it may be the integrating factor. Perhaps leading to a “One Everything” that brings our civilization to its effective endpoint?
The answer: relatively few. Instead, the nature of very many jobs will change as ChatGPT and other AI critters are incorporated into the workplace. Humans are different from AI, and are still vital to most activities and jobs. Will workers continue to lose their jobs for whatever reasons, as always? Of course. AI has become just another reason among many.
Bank-based digital money is happening. Right now. Like it or not. It claims to offer convenience, instant transactions, safety, and simplicity. The Federal Reserve’s FedNow payments service goes live in July 2023. Is this digital money? How does it work? What happens next? Should we be concerned? Maybe, maybe not. Like so much else these days, it depends …
Our world seems to have become a bit apocalyptic lately. So many options are available for doing away with humanity. How to choose? But, perhaps the choice is already hardwired into our future – by us humans. Have we finally reached the point at which humanity has become self-obsoleting? Is such a thing even possible, given humanity’s demonstrated resourcefulness?
We humans are being remade today using many advanced technologies. Into what is as-yet unclear, but the direction such efforts are headed seems terrifying. Are we going to become obsolete and be replaced by transhumans? Or maybe these efforts are doomed ultimately to fail because we humans are much more than just biochemical thinking and feeling machines?
Aldous Huxley wrote in his dystopian novel Brave New World (1932) about a new world being created by people with extremely evil natures. While this description might apply to almost any period in history, it seems especially relevant to our world today. Changes that are occurring seem indeed to be ushering in our very own brave new world. But why “brave”?
Trust is the foundation and lubricant of human interactions. Absent trust, vital interactions become difficult, easily interrupted, and tentative. It is hard to imagine a world in which trust is increasingly absent or weakened, but this is where we seem to be headed. Inevitably? Or is there anything we can do about such a troubling trend?
Will AI rule the world? Yes and no – depends on how you define “rule”. Defined as “control, direct, influence”, the answer seems clearly “yes”, but the reason why turns out to be far from clear or generally understood. We can be, and in fact are, ruled in some very unsuspected and invisible ways. Welcome to the future – it’s here.
Chaos – disorder, confusion, things out of control. Kind of like much of our world today. When will our chaos go away? But what if chaos is an essential precursor to great change. Change rarely flows from stability and order. Disruption is what creates an environment favoring change. Chaos is often its marker. Chaos allows big changes to happen.
You may remember a while back when money was valuable and you could put it in a bank for safekeeping. Well, no longer. Money value is getting trashed right now, along with the formerly safe banks. The value decline started in 1913, with the dollar today worth around 4 cents in equivalent purchasing power. And now banks are suddenly collapsing. Where is this mess headed next?
