In the previous article, I argued that notions of “AI will end humanity” or “AI will end human civilization” boldly cross the nonsensical fear territory with hypersonic speed, and land directly into the mysterious lands of bullshits (Pardon my language, please!). Before I get paralyzed by the fear of the unknown and speculate about a future that has not yet happened, I prefer to look back and see how the “paradigm shift” kind of technologies have affected humanity and human civilization. Among the many tools that humans have invented, let’s focus on the “cognitive-aid tools” such as AI. Since generative AI consists of large language models - sets of machine learning algorithms - trained or applied to vast data [1] produced by humans as well as machines, we can trace the origins of AI as far back as cave art. It took humanity more than 64000 years from cave art to AI-generated imageries and texts. In 64000 years, humanity has seen the rises and declines of many civilizations but none is associated with the innovation of “cognitive-aid tools”.
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| The image is produced by Bing AI |
Cognitive aid tools as accelerators of human civilizations:
Cave art is the oldest known form of human expression (a form of data produced by humans). Some of the oldest examples of cave art, such as the paintings in Maltravieso cave in Caceres, Spain, date back to 64,000 years ago [2]. Writing, on the other hand, emerged much later in human history. Some of the oldest records of writing, preserved in the form of Sumerian clay tablets, are only 3,400 years old [3]. These tablets were used for record-keeping by a number of independent city-states that formed the Sumerian civilization [4]. There is no evidence that the transition from painting to writing had any negative impact on any civilization. On the contrary, there is plenty of evidence that writing helped the city-states expand into empires that fostered the development of human civilizations. Even people like Graham Hancock [5], who believe that human civilization is much older and use the “Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis” [6] to support their claims, do not argue that the supposed ancient civilization was destroyed by any innovation of cognitive-aid tools such as painting, writing or printing machines. However, it is worth mentioning here that Hancock’s claims of a much older civilization have been debunked by others [7].
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| The image is generated by Bing AI |
No matter what your position is in this debate, one thing is clear: the invention of writing as a more efficient form of communication and record-keeping than painting did not harm human civilization but boosted its growth and expansion. Writing enabled humans to record laws, history, recipes, medicine, science, philosophy, and many other aspects of human knowledge and culture. Further evidence comes from the invention of printing machines. The printing machines did not make writers and painters obsolete but rather created new opportunities for them to flourish. The printing machines also facilitated the education of the masses, which was essential for the industrial revolution. Moreover, they allowed writers to reach millions of new customers who could afford cheaper mass-produced books. As a result, a lot of works were produced that challenged or offended the prevailing cultures, societies, and authorities, and sometimes even sparked wars, revolutions [8, 9], and mass killings [10]. However, without the printing machines, the Renaissance and modern scientific and technological innovations would not have been possible. Fast forward to our time, the innovation of computers and the internet that enabled humans to communicate live by typing on keyboards and touchscreens, in addition to talking and gesturing, accelerated social, educational, and economic growth to unprecedented levels. In the large economies that make up 70% of global GDP, the Internet contributes more than agriculture [11]. Let that sink in for a minute. This is a huge leap in human history compared to painting and writing.
The illogical fear of AI debunked
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| The image is generated by Bing AI |
Many people have a strange fear that AI will end human independence in decision-making, or take over human thinking and creativity. This phobia is illogical when we think about the relationship of AI with humanity rationally. What AI is doing to humans is not something unprecedented. It has happened many times. It happened when humans transitioned from hunter-gatherer tribes to agricultural societies. It also happened when humans transitioned from agricultural to industrial-dominated societies, and from industrial to digital/service-dominated societies. In all these transitions, the nature of work and human lifestyles changed. With AI, a new wave of personal assistants is on the way that will transform the fields of education, healthcare, politics, law, communication, finance, and more. During this transition (as in previous transitions), there will be a massive transfer of wealth, power, and decision-making abilities, and a significant shift in worldviews and behaviors of people that will exacerbate some of the dominant conflicts and fault lines, and bring about societal changes at an accelerated pace (I will leave these predictions/extrapolations for a future blog post). However, based on past transitions, I strongly believe that with AI assistance becoming part of our lives, the transfer of wealth, power, and societal changes will benefit most people (not just the 1% wealthy and the 10% credentialed elites).
References
[1] What is Generative Ai?. C3 AI. (2023, May 11). https://shorturl.at/HJLPU
[2] The Archaeologist. (2022, December 18). Ten oldest known cave paintings in the world. The Archaeologist. https://shorturl.at/fiFG4
[3] Brown, S. (n.d.). Where did writing come from?. Getty. https://shorturl.at/dgmvL
[4] Wikipedia contributors. (2023, June 21). Sumer. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:06, June 21, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sumer&oldid=1161256256
[5] Wikipedia contributors. (2023, June 1). Graham Hancock. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:31, June 21, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Graham_Hancock&oldid=1157970488
[6] Martin B. Sweatman, The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis: Review of the impact evidence,
Earth-Science Reviews, Volume 218, 2021, 103677, ISSN 0012-8252, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103677.
[7] Shermer, M. (2017, June 1). No, there wasn’t an advanced civilization 12,000 years ago. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/no-there-wasnt-an-advanced-civilization-12-000-years-ago/
[8] Wikipedia contributors. (2023, June 26). Russian Revolution. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:48, July 6, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Russian_Revolution&oldid=116196932
[9] Wikipedia contributors. (2023, June 19). Chinese Communist Revolution. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:51, July 6, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinese_Communist_Revolution&oldid=1160842672
[10] Wikipedia contributors. (2023, July 4). The Holocaust. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:10, July 6, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Holocaust&oldid=1163441526
[11] James Manyika and Charles Roxburgh (2001) The great transformer: The impact of the Internet on economic growth and prosperity, McKinsey Global Institute, https://shorturl.at/AJNV9
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