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When will humanity end? Whether this is due to a nuclear holocaust, or as a result of crossing a critical climate threshold, or at the hands of robots powered by artificial intelligence, or “Don’t look up” An asteroid, the question plagues our thoughts, our research, and our Facebook rants.
Now, one theorist warns that human civilization with a population of 8.2 billion people stands at a critical crossroads: oscillating between what he predicts is authoritarian collapse and massive abundance.
“Industrial civilization faces an ‘inevitable’ decline as it is replaced by what could turn out to be a more advanced ‘post-material’ civilization based on abundant distributed clean energy.” The key challenge is that industrial civilization faces such a rapid decline that it may impede the emergence “A new, superior ‘life cycle’ for the human race,” Dr Nafeez Ahmed, best-selling author, journalist and distinguished fellow at the UK-based Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems, said in a statement.
Ahmed, who has spoken at UN summits in recent years, is the author of a paper recently published in the journal Insight.
Jaya Herrington, vice president of Schneider Electric, who was not involved in the research, said: The Independent It agrees with all of Ahmed’s big points.
She said: “We are living in a historic moment of now or never, and what we do in the next five years will determine our levels of well-being for the rest of this century.”
Using scientific literature, the study presents a theory of the rise and fall of civilizations, concluding that humanity is on the brink of the next “giant leap” in evolution, and progress must not be thwarted by tyranny.
The research concludes that civilizations develop through a life cycle consisting of four stages: growth, stability, decline, and eventual transformation. He says that industrial civilization today is moving towards decline.
Ahmed says increasingly authoritarian policies and efforts to protect the fossil fuel industry — which produces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change — are factors that could put civilization at risk. The global decline in the return on energy investment is a major component of this decline.
Investing in carefully designed clean energy and new physical capabilities such as manufacturing, artificial intelligence, 3D printing and laboratory agriculture can create new forms of networked superabundance – when there is an abundance of resources available through networks – that protect Earth’s systems. But Ahmed says they cannot be ruled by the old, centralized industrial hierarchy.
Ultimately, he finds an ever-widening rift between the so-called emerging new order and the “industrial operating system,” leading to political and cultural turmoil and global crises.
“An amazing new realm is emerging, where humanity can provide itself with abundant energy, transportation, food and knowledge without harming the Earth. This could be the next giant leap in human evolution. But if we fail we will truly evolve as humans by reshaping how we manage this… Emerging capabilities responsibly and for the benefit of all could be our undoing. “Instead of evolving, we will regress, if not collapse. The rise of authoritarian and far-right governments around the world increases this grave risk of collapse.
In his new book darwinian survival guide, Professor Daniel Brooks from the University of Toronto says that although the risk is high and time is short, humans can make a difference.
He made his point The Independent via email, is that although utopia is far-fetched, the end of the world will not happen even if there is a major collapse of technological humanity. He believes that the world faces “a problem for which there is no technological solution,” and that if a collapse occurs by 2050, the people who have continued with business as usual “will all be held responsible — regardless of politics, economics, or beliefs — and those who have managed to Being part of the survivors and rebuilders will all share in the credit.
“We agree with those who say we have enough technology to solve problems now, and although technological progress is useful, the accelerating pace of global climate change is outpacing the rate of technological progress – and the solution to preserving technological humanity lies in changing our behavior (not electing autocrats “Anti-science would be good behavioral change at the electoral level, a point on which we agree with Dr. Ahmed,” Brooks wrote, referring to his co-author, Virginia Commonwealth University associate professor Salvatore Agosta.
Ahmed’s paper comes on the heels of dire warnings about the Earth’s rapidly warming future. Last year, a team of international scientists said so Six of the nine planets border Earth – which defines the safe working space for humanity – has been exceeded.
“This update on planetary boundaries clearly depicts a patient who is not well, with increasing stress on the planet and violating vital boundaries. We do not know how long we can continue to push these key boundaries before the combined pressures lead to irreversible change and damage.” He said Johan Rockström, co-author, is director of the German Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Research published earlier this year found that maintaining at least net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, a level that can be absorbed by nature and other carbon dioxide removal methods, is critical by 2100 to reduce the risk of climate tipping points and ensure planetary stability. .
“Multiple wars, extreme inequality, looming climate collapse and new technologies capable of changing our very existence have put humanity at a crossroads,” said Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard. He said In September. “We no longer have time for complacency or defeatism – only the shared responsibility to save the world that we owe to future generations.”
We’ll have to wait and see if there’s any other Hollywood-style research predicting the end of the world through AI systems.