Here comes the future; it’s full of AI and more technology. Scared? Well of course you are. People in our society have been worried about the future for decades; maybe longer. Back in the 1950s and 60s it was nuclear war. Then it was civil unrest. We were always about to be beaten, surpassed, outdone, left on the trash heap of history. Japan was taking over. Then it was China. Russian missiles were aimed at us, and unstoppable. Uncounted millions of (gasp) poor people were going to overrun us. The drugs were going to kill us all, or at least our kids. Or if not that, we were going to go broke because the national debt was completely out of control. And anyway, if you get sick enough you’ll just go bankrupt and you’ll be homeless. Not that you’ll remember, because of Alzheimer’s. Which would definitely get you if you somehow escaped ebola. And covid. And monkeypox. And mad cow disease. And bird flu. And now, now, we have to worry about artificial intelligence deciding we’re expendable and working to make that reality by creating armies of chrome robots with glowing red eye and slight Austrian accents…oh wait, maybe that movie wasn’t a documentary?

But hang on a minute; what exactly has been going on for…my entire life? Why have there been decades of apocalyptic pronouncements, none of which ever came true? It’s almost like our society is somehow based on fear, isn’t it? Right now you can take your pick of apocalypses: the AI one, the climate change one, the global war one — and every once in a while you even hear about somebody taking seriously the one with the actual zombies (maybe that movie wasn’t a documentary either).

Is it me, or do most of these end-of-the-world stories have something to do with technology? Ever since the days of the space race, we’ve been — or maybe we’ve just been told we should be — on edge about falling behind in technology. And then, just by the way, that same technology was likely to blow us up, pollute us into our graves, take away our jobs and livelihoods, or with this newest one, create armies of chrome-plated robots with glowing red eyes…never mind.

New technologies definitely come with some tradeoffs, but so far the idea that they might end the world as we know it — has absolutely come true! The world we live in is not the world we used to know. Think back just ten years ago; things have changed so much. The world as we knew it really did end, and it really was because of technology. It’s just that what came next was not an apocalyptic wasteland. It was just that we got used to it faster than we expected we might.

So why, I wonder, haven’t we gotten used to getting used to changes? It’s the story of our lives; things change constantly, and we just get on with it. But we worry, we fret, we wring our hands and despair for the future. We don’t for a minute think that we’ll be able to keep adapting and learning. It seems like we’ll stay the same, wondering what to do, not figuring it out, and being swept away by the wave of newness, not to mention shot by the chrome-plated…dammit, never mind.

When I try to zero in on what exactly we’re so afraid of, I can’t find it. Well, that’s not quite true; I can find one thing we should be afraid of; more about that in a bit. But it isn’t the technology. It never has been. It’s not the constant flow of change, as frustrating as that can be sometimes. It’s not the loss of parts of our lives we used to have to deal with, from lots of details about maintaining your car to exactly how to adjust the TV to get your favorite show to come in clearly (there was “static,” remember) at exactly 8:30, which is how the whole operation worked and you could read it in the printed magazine you bought every week listing the schedule of shows. it’s not even the loss of the printed magazines that used to fill up cardboard boxes in your attic because come on, they’re sure to be be valuable someday. Either that or you’ll definitely eventually have time to read them.

Nope, it’s none of those things. Not even the chrome-plated robots. But there is something you should be afraid of. It people. Not everybody, though. Just the ones trying to get you to do what they want you to. Which typically ends up with more money in their pockets. They don’t seem to be scared, although I think sometimes they do put on a bit of a show about it. And would do they do that? Same reason; it ends up putting more money in their pockets. I think when we’re scared of something we don’t think as clearly as we can. One little thing might suddenly seem like the most. Important. Thing. In. The. World. Even though in our calmer, more serene and sensible moments we might well realize that little things are just that; not all that important, and things we can figure out, probably together.

There’s a wealth of history, which we’re supposed to have learned from, that says you’d be exactly right to be afraid of people with more power and wealth than you. That’s what people with power and wealth do; exploit those who don’t have either. They’ll do it selfishly, shortsightedly, ruthlessly, and carelessly, to the extent that their exploitation is enabled by the society they live in. That is, they (mostly) won’t break the law, but when there isn’t any law, they’ll take advantage any way they can. And technology moves fast, but the law moves slowly, so early on in the history of any technology, laws and rules are still forming. There’s plenty of room for exploitation, even if it’s only temporary.

I think at some level we must like to be scared. Or at least we’ve gotten so used to it that now it’s just something we do. But the scared versions of ourselves are not our best selves; they’re stupider, with tunnel vision; they focus on one single factor and ignore lots of others, and miss how everything fits together. And the scared versions of ourselves turn our backs to one another; we stop cooperating exactly when that’s what we need to do.

Look around. The bombs didn’t fall. Ebola didn’t get you, nor did any of the other scourges. The world did change, but we coped, without even really noticing what we were doing. It’s okay to be scared, but be scared of the right things, and in a different way; acknowledge your fear and examine it. You’ll see some faces in there; probably faces you’ve seen in the news, the business media, the technology review sites. Those people are thinking very clearly indeed, and not along the lines of your best interests. So you’ve got to think clearly too, and not let them get away with it again.

Share