Technology Would Kills Us All; Not A Novel Concept But Since It’s From Stephen Hawking, Be Warned
ByWorld-renowned Physicist Stephen Hawking has made another apocalyptic comment that advancements in technology may eventually destroy humankind. He warns of climate change, uncontrolled Artificial Intelligence and nuclear or biological war that sound like themes from sci-fi movies, but could very well be true in real-world.
Hawking has once again raised an alarm about the dangers of technology though the 74-year-old is optimistic enough to say that this has been an exciting time to live. In an interview with The Times, he did commend the technological leaps mankind has accomplished to shape the modern world we know today. These are exciting times indeed where cars drive on their own, home appliances respond to voice commands and space explorations have made great strides in uncovering the vast universe. Hawking says so himself after traveling to Antarctica, meeting world leaders, staying in a submarine and experiencing zero gravity, USA Today reported
Nonetheless, Hawking points out technology also brings its own perils and judging from how aggressively man has pursued innovations, it may strike back in unprecedented ways. He spoke of an innate aggression in man, hard-wired to our genes as a survival mechanism. In a modern world, man needs to contain and control that same aggression in order to survive a different kind of danger, which is made by man himself. One way to do this is by learning to work together and form a world government, which observers say may be extra challenging since history has revealed that mankind has not been successful in forming alliances.
Hawking adds that if mankind fails to work together to combat the ill effects of technology, then mankind is doomed. These dangers include the threat posed by climate change that could potentially destroy our planet. Incidentally, Hawking did say before that man only has one thousand years left on Earth and that we may need to find a new planet to colonize in the not-so-distant future.
Last October, Hawking also spoke of the growing threat of the AI technology and he is not alone for Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak share his sentiments. These world figures have signed a letter along with 8,000 researchers and scientists regarding the potential danger brought by the AI technology. AI may be the best thing to happen in modern society but it could also be the worse or even more dangerous than a nuclear war according to Mashable.