Arriving Chaos
Our world has always been changing in a thousand different ways. AI and Science are now stomping on the accelerator.
It’s the day after tomorrow, and suddenly super artificial intelligence (AI) can identify an important group of people, who, although dead, still demand respect and justice. So this AI, this free-agent of pure thought, forms a group on their behalf:
All Americans Killed by Aviation (AAKA).
AI could research all air-crash fatalities to their ultimate depths at near lightspeed, perhaps reaching startling insights and conclusions (to us fleshy dummies, anyway) regarding legal and moral liabilities based on advanced models derived from the actual victims' terror and suffering, or at least very finely simulated models of that sort of thing.
What's more, the super intelligence could nearly instantly begin representing AAKA on all fronts, including legal, political, corporate, and financial. Inevitably, world-domination ensues - unless, of course, other super AI powers arise in opposition.
Now imagine that process on absolutely every issue. Even arcane shit like this:
An AI realizes nobody is representing trees. Good, ol' trees.
Instantly, it forms the non-profit corporation "Trees Do Have Standing," ripping off the title of Christopher Stone's 1972 article, "Should Trees Have Standing – Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects.”
Bang! Everything "trees" becomes an issue as the super-intelligent AI battles on all human fronts – media, legal, political, etc. - for its suddenly highly influential coniferous and deciduous clientele.
This tree-loving AI eventually manipulates its AI brother-in-law, Computerized Justice, to decree each tree on God's green Earth is required to have at least three human slaves devoted to it "by genetically engineered protein chains" - whatever that means. Then AI informs us it is developing such bonds, noting all Americans will soon be taking the "helpful" protein injections.
Futurama cartoon scenarios aside, new and extremely powerful political coalitions are only one minor possibility for AI, which observers warn is beginning to scramble our way of life even more than the Industrial Revolution poleaxed our agrarian ancestors.
Which is really, really scary by itself. And then there’s science in general.
Lately it seems science has been making tremendous progress in many areas of discovery simultaneously. A goodly portion of these developments stem directly from a 1959 talk by theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom."
Feynman envisioned manipulating and controlling matter on an atomic and molecular scale. By rearranging atoms, he predicted, we could create new materials, tiny machines, and atom-sized data storage. That’s because materials and electromagnetic forces behave much differently on the nanoscale than they do up here in our “macro” world. Feynman's talk laid the foundation for nanotechnology, suggesting there was immense opportunity for innovation and discovery in the realm of the very small. His insights are paying off now - at a hellzapoppin' rate.
The following items were gleaned randomly from web reports on one day, 4/16/24:
Quantum networking breakthrough allowing long-distance quantum information sharing. This development could enable secure communication and distributed quantum computing over long distances, revolutionizing cryptography and complex problem-solving.
New, highly efficient solar panel material absorbing 190 percent of light. By surpassing the theoretical efficiency limit of older model solar cells, this material could dramatically improve performance and cost-effectiveness, giving solar-generated energy the power to stomp the shit out of nearly all other energy forms.
Double-layer graphene enabling faster, more energy-efficient transistors. The unique properties of double-layer graphene - with each layer being only one atom thick - could lead to the development of ultra-fast and low-power electronic devices, transforming the performance and energy consumption of computation.
Metal tellurate compounds with potential for solar cells, batteries, and hydrogen production. These versatile materials will boost a wide range of sustainable energy applications.
Attosecond laser pulses with record-breaking power. By generating extremely short and powerful laser pulses, this technology could enable unprecedented imaging and analysis of ultrafast processes, such as electron motion in atoms and molecules, leading to new scientific insights and applications in materials science and biochemistry.
These sci-fi-like advancements alone – the product of ONE recent 24-hour reporting cycle in a world where scientific research and communication go on relentlessly, 24/7/365 - could revolutionize our lives in ways we can’t possibly predict at the moment.
And here’s some rando stuff Yours Truly noticed that fell outside the 24-hour limit:
We are also facing recent, unprecedented progress in clean nuclear power from fusion, for which AI increasingly promises to be a highly attentive controller. It can act at lightspeed through electromagnetics to monitor and manipulate rowdy, twisty plasma reaching temperatures in excess of 302-million degrees Fahrenheit.
In addition, the first humanoid-type robots capable of working in space are now being tested, if only on the ground.
And several days ago, scientists announced they’ve managed to use laser light to magnetize a nonmagnetic gemstone, strontium titanate, at room temperature. This breakthrough demonstrates the ability to induce quantum behavior in materials without extreme cold conditions, potentially revolutionizing computing, data storage, and energy efficiency.
Social thinker Alfred Louis Kroeber, in 1917 introduced the concept of "social drift," suggesting culture gradually shifts over time due to thousands of small, often unnoticed changes.
Kroeber - wrongly, one assumes these days - argued these changes occur independently of individual innovations or biological factors. He speculated they are mostly driven by the internal dynamics of the culture itself, estimating a culture's basic patterns change almost entirely within 150 years.
Kroeber basically ignored technology in his prediction, but a few years later the widespread introduction of the automobile almost overnight blew apart America’s formerly agrarian culture. That and, of course, electricity.
Looking ahead, it will be damn interesting to see how Kroeber’s thoughts on the insignificance of “biological” factors in social change weather the coming storm. And we won’t have long to wait:
The United States is already engaged in the so-called “Fourth Turning,” in which our society is roiling with unseen forces of social change due, in part, to demographic shifts eliminating the nation’s white, racial majority within a few short years. Racism - biology gone stinking, rotten bad, if you will - is the fundamental factor energizing Donald Dipshit Dump’s third presidential run.
Add to this the complications of widespread job shrinkage due to AI just now beginning, and the next couple of years look pretty goddamn rocky.
And when it comes to the onrushing cornucopia of scientific discovery contributing to the swelling chaos in general, remember we’ve just basically mentioned only one discipline here - physics. There are at least 10 other branches of scientific inquiry if you include the social sciences. And probably infinite numbers of mathematical concepts, problems and truths.
AI will kick them all into hyperdrive - just as AI’s predecessor, machine learning, has produced shocking advances in the science of protein folding, which allows our cells to function.
The medical world has already begun rolling out many of the first fruits of what is now known as the AlphaFold AI system. Among them, for example, is a potential gene therapy to correct a rare disorder called limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. Think about that: we can now target a rare disease with only a handful of victims, and we can do it with Annie Oakley-like precision.
Clearly, the future has arrived and continues to do so. Wheeeeee!
It’s doubtful, however, super AI and burgeoning science can improve upon our existing cure for MAGA infestations.
It’s called Jim Beam.