Our darkest moment – or the dawn of a new enlightenment?

All around us, examples of artificial intelligence and algorithms are not hard to find. Our homes and smartphones are equipped with personal assistants such as Alexa and Siri, listening in to our conversations and learning our habits. Our consumption of all things digital, from music to news to commodities, are increasingly being analyzed and shaped by algorithms. Schools have even begun experimenting with personalized learning systems to optimize how we learn. From call centers to warehouses, emerging technologies are helping us become more efficient.

Our darkest moment – or the dawn of a new enlightenment?

But do we ever stop for a moment and wonder, what do we really want technology to do for us? What kind of world do we aspire to? How is technology impacting the human race? Are recommendation engines creating unintended silos and a more polarized society? With as much data as we generate today, how much do we know and understand about ourselves, and those around us? Are we mindlessly going through our day – like the characters on the Axiom in the movie Wall-E? Has our craving for convenience enslaved us to our technology, disconnecting us from the real world, and in the process, removing what makes us most human?

In this new world of contrived envy, where anyone can be “instafamous” – a world where we are constantly vying for attention and recognition, is technology taking us down the road of no return? Where do our priorities and our loyalties lie? With the concentration of such power in the hands of so few, do we trust that large technology platforms have our best intentions in mind?

What does our future hold?

“Computation replaces conscious thought. We think more and more like the machine, or we do not think at all.” James Bridle, New Dark Age

As Cassie Kozyrkov in her recent blog post, “AI represents a fundamental leap in human progress”, but “it’s not the genie that is dangerous. It’s the unskilled wisher. The genie’s magic could be a huge boon to humankind, but that depends on which direction you point it in.”

Just as every technology advancement can be used for good or evil, it is up to us to decide how to use it; but the challenge per James Bridle is that fewer and fewer people fully understand what technology is doing – even (at times) the creators themselves. Used for bad, AI can enable oppressive regimes to spy on and control the activity of their citizens. Used for good, AI can augment human abilities and help find cures for diseases.

As my good friend Patrick Rivenbark said, “the most important business decisions have more to do with how we choose to treat each other as people, and less to do with needing more data.”It is not the data, rather, it is people – and how we choose to treat one another – that matters. Collectively, we must hold those with the growing power of computation more accountable for their actions, so that technology and data can be used for good, and toward efforts to improve the well being for all. In this potentially dark age, humanity matters more than ever.

That is the future that we should aspire to – a society where people can have an equal chance to be successful – regardless of their socioeconomic background, regardless of their gender, education, age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

A future where our fate is not determined by our zip codes and the lottery of luck associated to where we are born; where children can have a chance to have a higher standard of living than their parents; where they will have equitable access to opportunities that help them move up the economic ladder – one in which each generation can move up to higher rungs than the last. A future where everyone will have access to clean water, a secure food system, a healthy environment, and quality education; where they will not have to go through a day without food.

A future without want, without desperation, without darkness.

A future where we can freely share our thoughts.

A future where we are not afraid to dream.

Tune in for a brand new podcast episode of Judge Me By My Cover via iTunes or Spotify, as Bradley and myself talk about tech, data, and James Bridle’s book “New Dark Age.

See more stories by Theodora here.

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