The human species for years has been considered privileged, but it may itself be causing its own extinction. In the last half a billion years, life on Earth has been on the brink of extinction at least five times, a consequence of humanity.
An international team made up of scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers from the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford in England has been dedicated since 2013 to studying the types of threats that the human species currently faces. They have reached a chilling conclusion: technological development has been so rapid that we cannot yet glimpse its consequences.
The fields of artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology promise enormous medical and technological benefits. However, the group of scientists considers that: “in terms of moral responsibility we have a childish level, but with the technological capacity of adults.” The group, made up of Dr. Nick Bostrom, the director of the Institute, geneticist Seán O’Heigeartaigh, and Lord Rees, Astronomer Royal of the United Kingdom, among others, emphasizes the importance of understanding that “we are developing things that could go deeply wrong”.
The human species is a few steps away from saving or declining in the face of extinction
O’Heigeartaigh points out that while researchers’ intentions are generally good, genetic manipulation—the deconstruction and reconstruction of genetic structures—could lead to unexpected events when something good turns bad after being transferred to another environment and that: “With any powerful technology, we should think carefully about what we know—however, it might be more important to know what we are not entirely sure about.”
For his part, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and nanotechnology are incredibly powerful tools that “have chain reactions, so starting with few resources could channel projects that affect everyone in the world.”
According to Lord Rees: “This is the first century in the history of the world in which the main threat is humanity.” Now, while we have been able to survive thousands of years of disease, natural disasters, predators, and environmental change, it seems unlikely that we will become extinct so soon, that is, even with two world wars and flu epidemics during the 20th century, The world population continued to grow rapidly. But the worrying thing, according to Bostrom, is that these threats are new, and “we don’t have a history of surviving them.”
Beyond being a prediction that seems taken from a science fiction novel, what scientists seek to highlight is that the excessive advance of technology could alter human nature in unthinkable and irreversible ways, and they invite us to consider how necessary or Relevant the changes that are supposed to improve the species.
This story was originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera
