BLOG #11
Elon Musk is an engineer, inventor, and business magnate, recently went on to Joe Rogan’s podcast. Musk is perhaps the most requested guest of all time, as he is rarely seen doing long-form uncut podcast such as the Joe Rogan Experience. Rightfully so, with all the projects and inventions Musk has his hands on including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and the Boring Company. In the podcast, Elon estimates that he has millions of ideas, there’s no shortage. He estimates that 80% of his time is spent dealing with engineering and manufacturing.
So what exactly is Elon Musk creating? Why is he doing it? What are his motives? Is he a superhero or a supervillain?
In terms of Artificial Intelligence and its’ advancements, the percentage of intelligence that is not human is increasing. Eventually, humans will represent a very small percentage of all intelligence. Elon has tried to worn politicians about regulating AI more heavily. Once AI starts to take off, it will grow rapidly and exponentially. If we wait to regulate it, it will be too late and we will start to lose control over it.
I know this sounds like another doomsday sci-fi movie where robots take over the world, but the direction technology is going makes me believe humanity is heading towards a breaking point.
Neuralink is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers. In a few months, Elon said that Neuralink will have a product to announce with the goal of giving people superhuman cognition. This is essentially a brain-computer interface.
I know this is some freaky stuff. Technology imprinted on our brains acting as an extension of ourselves. It just sounds unrealistic.
Yet, Elon makes an interesting point. Isn’t your phone already an extension of you? We are already cyborgs. We just don’t realize it. Our lives are constantly projected and shared on social media. Our profiles, pictures, messages, and searches are extensions of who we are and what we do.
Your phone is “artificial intelligence” just sitting in your pocket.
The younger generation, Gen Z, have only known smartphones and technology. What would they do without it? My younger cousins are constantly playing video games and watching TV and playing on their phones. They have grown up with a screen. It’s only going to get worse.
As technology and AI advances further, there will be more automation. With more automation, there will be fewer jobs. Eventually, technology will become so grand and vast, that it will do everything for us. If people don’t have to work, what will they do? Eat, sleep, watch movies, playing virtual reality games. Humans will become pawns to the technology that surrounds them.
AI in terms of medical advancements could prolong human life, reducing mortality rates with data analytics and disease prevention procedures. Physical ailments will be fixed by advanced prosthetics. Humans may live to 150 years old! But will medical procedures become so technological that humans lose part of their humanity?
AI in terms of entertainment brings people into 3D virtual reality. Once it is perfected, the games we play will feel more and more like real life. Like in the Black Mirror episode, Playtest, from season 3, it becomes impossible to differentiate virtual reality from reality itself.
Sex Robot Brothels are expanding all over Europe, where people are already flocking to AI for companionship and pleasure.
Thousands of people in Sweden have lined up to get microchips in their arms under their skin. These microchips replace the need for car keys, credit cards, etc. The data on these chips will continue to increase. Yet people neglect the downfall of their own privacy and security.
At what point is there enough? At what point do we stop creating these “luxuries”?
Do we need virtual reality gaming? Sex robots? Microchips under or skin? Technology imprinted on our brains?
Do we need to live forever!?
It all comes down to human rights. Regulation is needed now to protect our humanity. We need influential leaders to stand up against all the unnecessary technological “advancements.” These advancements are coming and they are coming faster than people tend to realize.
Maybe Elon Musk can be that leader. His intentions are still unknown.
Is he a superhero? A supervillain?
Maybe he just wants to be Superhuman…
– Jake Beman