Surviving in the Age of AI

When we see these scientists and various expertstalking about artificial intelligence and other future technologies. We fill as if we are irrelevant. We think where do I fit in. Do I even get to be a part of this new future? And because of all this, we are wasting ourinvaluable time in fearing these technologies instead of preparing ourselves for this newtechnological shift. One of the reasons why humans rule this worldis because we are creative and we adapt. We even adapt to the harsh and deadly environment. So let us see how we can adapt to this newtechnological shift. And to do that we first need to understandand be clear about the concept of the scientific revolution. 

How do we define a scientific revolution? John Kuhn, An American Philosopher Historian,and Physicist argues In his Book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions thatDifferent Branches of Science Undergo Revolutions When Scientists gather enough Data that theycannot explain using the current system, method or paradigm. Or when they ponder upon questions like howdoes the universe works. Our History Tells us that scientific revolutionscome in waves, often stimulated by Advances in Physics. In the nineteenth century, the first waveof science and technology was made possible by physicists who created the theory of Mechanicsand thermodynamics. This enabled engineers to produce a steamengine, which led us to the locomotive and the industrial revolution. The profound shift in the technology whichtook place in this era lifted civilization from the curse of ignorance, backbreakinglabor, and took us into the Machine Age. The next in the 20th century, the second wavewas led by physicists who mastered the laws of electricity and magnetism. And we humans entered into the electric age. This second wave made possible the electrificationof our cities with the arrival of dynamos, generators, tv, radios, and radar. It also gave birth to the modern space programthat took us to the moon. In the 21st Century, The Third wave of sciencehas been expressed in high tech, spearheaded by the quantum physicists who invented thetransistor and the laser. 

This made possible the supercomputer, theinternet, modern telecommunications, GPS and the explosion of the tiny chips that havecaptured every aspect of our life. Now the question is what is next? Where are we heading now? Hi, Guys welcome to Eclectic – Here we talkabout History, philosophy, politics and Future tech. So, if you are interested in any of that considersubscribing. We live in an incredible world. Just this year, scientists made significantstrides toward an artificial womb, edited the first human embryo in the U.S, and evengot closer to growing human organs inside pigs. We are developing driverless cars, machinesthat can think and perform tasks better than humans. We are also making significant efforts tomake humans a multi-planetary species by trying to establish a permanent moon base and colonizingmars. To make these goals reality. We are going to get help from this new waveof Science. The fourth wave of science, which consistsof artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and a very unique combination of biotech andInfoTech. And this is how it is going to change ourworld. The combination of Biotech and InfoTechWe hear experts talking about how AI can bring massive unemployment and all that. It is not new. But no expert is willing to tell us why andhow Artificial intelligence can outperform its creator. To be able to deal with the future which,includes Ai we need to decode this deadly combination of Biotech and InfoTech first. Humans have two types of abilities physicaland cognitive.

In the past machines competed with humansmainly in raw physical abilities. While humans retained an immense edge overmachines in cognition. Hence, manual jobs in agriculture and industrywere automated – and humans started doing new service jobs, which required decision-making,learning, thinking and emotional skills. However, ai is now beginning to outperformhumans in more and more of these skills including the understanding of human emotions. How are they being able to do it? Enter biotechnology - To outperform humansInfotech sector is getting help from biotechnology. Research in neuroscience and behavioral economicsis allowing us to understand how the human brain works how we make decisions. It turned out that we don’t make our choicesbecause we have free will, our choices are the result of billions of neurons calculatingpossibilities within a split second. So human decision making and intuition arein reality just pattern recognition.

We can even call it a biochemical algorithmon which our brain works. Now, this is very precious information andthe biotech sector is supplying this information to ai firms. So if these all emotions, desires, and decisionsare based on biochemical algorithms then it becomes easy for AI to decipher these algorithmsand making sense of our neural network, because that is what ai does the best. The better we understand the biochemical mechanismthat underpins human emotions, desires, and choices the better computers can become inanalyzing human behavior, predicting human decisions and replacing human workers. Now you know what we are up against. But hey All is not lost, Every Scientificrevolution brings a new set of career opportunities. Also, in the long term even introduces usto completely new job profiles or careers. Before 2005, no one knew that being a YouTuber,or a social media influencer is going to be a mainstream profession. Internet economy introduced us to a completelynew set of jobs. Forget about what the internet has alreadycreated.

Right now, it is also a driving factor behindthe major shift in the professional preferences of young millennials and no one is talkingabout it – The rise of freelancing. Let me throw in some interesting statisticsto prove my point. In America, 35 % of America's workforce, whichis roughly 55 million people work as freelancers or contractors. Not just America, A study last year by theMckinsey global institute showed that 20 % to 30 % working-age adults in the European Unionare also independent workers. So as this trend goes on what would the fourthwave science bring in with it. Low skilled jobs that require people to doroutine work are going to be wiped out and I think that’s pretty clear to everyone. However, The Human care industry, which takescare of the sick, the young and the elderly, is likely to remain a human bastion for along time. Because jobs in healthcare require a widerange of skills including being able to deal with the unforeseen scenarios. 

Nurses need a good motor and emotional skillsto give a painful injection, replace bandage or restrain a violent patient. Doctors, however, absorb medical data, analyzeit and produce a diagnosis. They rely heavily on processing information. Ohh so that seems like something Ai can doeffectively “ Processing and analyzing information”. So the doctors are more likely to be affectedby AI than nurses – that’s ironic. So human qualities of taking care and beingcompassionate are going to be in demand. Who knows AI might end up making us more human. Look at some of the busiest doctors today,they barely have time for their patients - instead of asking patients how they feel many doctorsjust send them away to have some random lab tests. Anyway, still, we will need doctors to performcomplicated surgeries at least for the next few decades. In the next few years, AI-enabled app on yoursmartphones will be able to detect the disease. But to get the full treatment we will stillhave to visit the hospital. It has already started - There is alreadyan AI-powered app available that can spot skin cancer with 95 percent accuracy.

So it is no longer the future it is present. It is not necessary that there can only bea competition between AI and humans. We can create a working culture based on Human-Aicooperation. For example, the replacement of human pilotsby Ai enabled drones has eliminated some jobs but created many new opportunities in maintenance,remote control, data analysis, and cybersecurity. The US armed forces need thirty people tooperate every unmanned predator or a Reaper drone. And few more people to analyze the data itgathers. So what do we get here - Data Scientists,cybersecurity, maintenance and manufacturing these ai enabled drones plus writing complicatedalgorithms for these machines.

The problem here is that these jobs requirea very high level of expertise and skills. Even the US air force in 2015 could not findsufficient trained people to fill all these positions. So basically it faced an ironic crisis inmanning the unmanned aircraft. So we humans are finding it hard to catchup with the rapid advancement of technology. Because it is too fast. Back then, it was easy. A farmworker who lost his job to automationfound a new job in factories. In 1980, unemployed factory workers startedworking, as cashiers in a supermarket. Now technology has become faster than humanscould adapt, therefore, only creativity can save us. In the past, the Music and Movie industrieswere born right after the industrial revolution.

In the 21st century, there is going to belots of space for all sorts of creative people. People, who can write, speak, create and articulatethemselves. People who can entertain, who can create algorithms,apps, and introduce us to new scientific methods and ways of building infrastructure withouthurting the environment. As of now, we have way too many protestersaround the world but we have very few people who are actually working on finding solutions. Therefore, People who can come up with thesolutions to our environmental problems without stopping or hating the industrial growth willbe in high demand. Still Just being creative will not be enough. We will have to possess multiple skills. Already today a YouTuber not only needs toresearch, write and make videos they also need to find a way to market and promote theircontent. Writers are also trying new ways of promotingtheir books. For example speaking on ted talks, being partof various podcasts and YouTube videos.

A social media marketer not only needs tocome up with the marketing strategy he also needs to take care of designing graphics andwriting impactful content. In the tech industry, every year new codinglanguages and new tools are being introduced and engineers are trying to learn them. So, We will have to keep learning new thingsand updating our skills. Doing the same thing or being in the sameprofession for all of your life is not going to work anymore. We will have to keep retraining ourselves. And that sometimes can be exhaustive, frustratingand tiresome. So to take care of that we will need goodmental healthcare, psychologists, therapists, and even the meditation and yoga gurus willbe in high demand.

This can even give birth to a brand new relaxationindustry. According to a research, videos or music contentwhich helps people to relax, is becoming more popular on YouTube. Now while relaxing we might feel like checkingthe social media where we are already giving out our personal information to watch funnymemes and videos. As of now on average, the data of a singleUS consumer is worth at least 240 dollars per year to companies like Facebook. More than 150 million Americans are on Facebook. So yeah do the math yourself. Anyway, so there would be an enormous amountof opportunities available for people who can make sense of this data or who can findways to exploit this data. And also for people who can make marketingmore personalized and more precisely targeted using your personal data. Who should be in control of our data wouldbe a top philosophical question of this century and who knows even a data brokerage wouldbecome a real thing pretty soon.