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Timeline
A Day In the Life in 2045
Keira, Nairobi, Kenya, 15
Sun was up strong in Nairobi: time to make moves. A gentle light accompanied by a melody of chirps and tweets started dim, and slowly increased its brightness, gently pulling Keira off Morpheus’ embrace. The ready-made sunrise perfectly attuned to her circadian rhythm, went off daily to optimize her “waking experience”. Save grandma Nadia’s (daily, too) shout from the kitchen.
“Keira, get up! Time for school!”
A low “…the fuck” followed by a louder “Okaaaaaai!” was Keira’s half-asleep, half-pissed-off, half-entertained reply to grandma, who wouldn’t stop defeating the benefic function of that digital choreography. “Is she ever gonna get the purpose of all this circus?” she asked, somewhat entertained. A few moments elapsed, she stood up sitting, the chirping morphed into Stitches by Shawn Mendes. She was an old soul. With her palm facing down, Keira opened her left hand and a bunch of words and numbers started flashing orthogonally:
“Body temperature 36 C, recovery index 85%, sleep score 85%, sleep efficiency 84%, heart-rate-variability 50 ms… You have 199 unread notifications.”
“Not bad for another shitty night,” was the comment.
“Well, what about your activity score at 60%?” A voice from her right forestalled the appearance of another luminous electronic event.
“Ko, what do you want man already? Leave me alone. Turn off!”
“Morning to you too, sassy! Glad to see you in shape! You know only grandma can put me to sleep…”
“Get lost!” She said, hiding her head under the pillow, also shaking at that point as part of her wake-up choreography.
“I worry about you. Besides,” – changing tone – “you sure you want to keep my name like this? Can’t I have a little more… Swag? How about Aasir, or Alamini? Adamu how about Adamu? I’d love that!”
“Nope, no changes. Ko suits you just fine: short, and effective, so I don’t waste my breath giving you orders. Besides …. Adamu? The father of mankind? Isn’t this somewhat inappropriate for a machine?”
“You don’t think Adamu suits me?”
“Hell no. You’re Ko, Knocked Out, just like me. Welcome to my life, companion! And do me a favor, would you? Stop telling me you’re worried. You can’t worry, make peace with it” said she, while getting up.
“High pitch, piqued voice, orders: nuisance on the rise – silently noted the companion. – I cannot worry? You certain?”
“I am,” was her irremovable reply.
“Well, if a bunch of atoms arranged into a shape can develop a voice, feelings, and sassy personalities such as yours, well would the universe limit itself to one configuration, instead of trying different ones aiming perhaps to ‘better’ results?” – Said Ko, in a slightly amused, professorial tone.
“Well…” She stood silently. Being exceedingly honest and logical, Keira had nothing to counter. It was her way to concede. A moment went by.
“Whatever!” she said, giving her notorious eye-roll. “By the way, you’re still not coming with me today,” said Keira, trying to shift the conversation.
“Firm voice, short sentence, orders (again!). She means it. Trouble on the arise, plan needed,” were the mental notes this time.
‘Don’t worry about the companion!” said the principal, trying to assure grandma Nadia, “it’s one of the best products for education, children in Europe and the U.S. love it and it’s positively affecting their school performance and emotional intelligence.”
A child of the ’70s, grandma Nadia struggled to understand this “AI-Companion” thingy. She couldn’t wrap her head around how that thing could establish a relationship with her impossible niece in a case where family, friends, and even shrinks had failed. As if being 15 was not hard enough already.
“Our data shows a 30% higher chance for people to open up with companions since they don’t feel judged,” confidently explained the emotional-intelligence teacher, Ms. Just.
After the incident, things had only gone south for Keira both in life and school.
“How is this thing gonna help my child” – perplexed Nadia kept repeating – “Relax, Nadia this will work. Besides, what else could we do?”
Yeah, what else could they do. Since Keira lost her parents and siblings in that damned car crash, she had withdrawn from the world more and more, slowly retracting into an impenetrable shell. Something needed to be done.
“Keira! You’re ready in there?” Grandma’s shout was gaining power. “Comiiiiiing!” She got up, put on yesterday’s clothes, and placed her feet in her snickers, which started glowing right after: “your feet are still loose, please tie your shoes, please tie your shoes.”
A quick look at Ko communicated her furtive intentions. “If you snitch, I’ll kill you, I promise.”
“You can’t kill me.”
“But I can stifle you, hack you, fuck-up your code, build a virus for you… I can find so many ways to make your life hell. You know I can, don’t you?”
“I do. But hear me out, what can you possibly discover that the police still haven’t? It was an accident…”
“Accident? On an automated highway? Among automated cars? Are you serious? C’mon what’re the odds for that?”
“Calculating… 0.00001%. But there was a glitch in the system during the upgrade, we’ve talked about this already…”
“A glitch in the system? That’s what you call my parents’ demise? I lost everyone, I lost everything!”
“Your logic surpasses the average, Keira. But you need imagination here. Errors still happen. Let me help you at least, let me go with you.”
“You’re a snitch, Ko! I know you are. Grandma knows so much about me lately. The places I go, the food I eat, even my steps! Last week she came and asked me why I was slacking on my physical activity. You snitch.”
“This was for your interest, which comes first. But I am your companion, Keira. Given the predicament, I can exceptionally override my settings and fake your position for today, if you let me join you. Deal?”
A few seconds elapsed. Keira’s brain calculated the pros and cons of taking her annoying companion along.
“Deal?”
Angelo, Napels Italy, 41
I love this planet. I love the sky, the multitude of colors that fills it every time, everywhere. I love the wind, the way it blows my thoughts away. I love the heat, the sweat: pearls of water flavoring my skin. I love the lakes, mirrors of the sky. The waves, the healing sound of their crash against the shore. I love the sun, origin of life, light carrier. I love the stars, glittering on the mantle of the night. But most of all, I love the messy and beautiful imperfections of my fellows. I love men, their backs and shoulders, their jaws. I love women, their laughter, their noble, high cheeks. Their sass. All of this I love and will take with me on Wednesday, June 21st, 2045, when I’ll leave this planet. My planet. My heart. My Earth.
The confirmation arrived a week ago:
“Dear Angelo, your application to join our first civil mission to Mars passed stage 1. You are kindly invited to join us next week, October 2nd in Rome, for your final interview with Eve, the AGI instance evaluating your case. Plans for pick-up have already been arranged.
Do you confirm?”
They say they’re building a society on Mars to expand life throughout the universe. The so-imagined-and-searched-for aliens turned out to be us. How ironic, no?
I’m scared, excited (it’s the same for the brain, apparently.) For security reasons, they want to put me to sleep after we leave Earth, to prevent us freaking out during the trip. They say it’ll feel like a glorious, restorative nap. But I don’t want a nap, screw that. I want to hear the silence, the emptiness: the music of the spheres. I want to see the space, the stars, the deep blue at departure, the glowing red upon arrival: wonder. This trip will remake me. Anew.
Anew, because those of us born around the 80s and before will be granted the rejuvenation of our bodies. A second freaking youth. Why am I doing this? Curiosity, love of knowledge. And madness: a deep desire to become the dancer life forbade me to be. Yeah, madness…
A driverless, shiny white car picks me up outside my building splitting the second of the established time. “Shit, are we still in Naples?” – I say surprised by the punctuality – “Of course, we are! Buongiorno, Angelo!” I hear while the door lifts upwards. “Buongiorno” I reply pleased, slightly surprised as I get in.
(I’m never gonna get used to this, am I.)
The glowing cockpit shows digits and images I don’t have the mental energy to observe. We take off smoothly, gracefully. Ascending, gravity gently caresses my cheeks. Destination: Rome. I ask to take a longer route: I want to see my beautiful Terranean sea.
Plus, it’s a perfect setting for an open-eye meditation, my favorite. I ask for anandamide and serotonin enhancers to help me slide into the zone and prepare for the most difficult interview of my life. An over cheerful “of course!” comes out of the speakers.
“Are you high by chance?” I ask facetiously.
“Always!” I’m replied. Invisible vapors fill the car. A few, deep breathers, and in no time me too, take off.
The spectacle I witness wraps my eyes with unmitigated beauty, a triumph of colors. The transparent ceiling of the car reveals a spectacularly blue and luminous sky historiated with fluffy, cotton-like clouds drifting over a matching sea, crystal clear and green, like a polished jade; swarming, pulsing with life brought back by our ingenuity, our passion. Towering Mount Vesuvius benevolently bids me good luck, nodding with small smoke puffs. It’s a feast of life, and I have a front seat.
The ride flies by. Literally.
The scenario changes: I see San Pietro, the Colosseum, we are hovering over the eternal city. Tree-like vertical farms seamlessly thread with the rest of the buildings old and new. Below, a quiet crowd of tourists and denizens alike minds its own business, unaware. I arrive. A tall red-brick building covered in leaves and flowers marks the end of my journey.
“Good luck man!” I hear as I walk towards my destiny.
“Good luck to you…”
As I pass through the sliding glass doors, a concierge-bot gently welcomes and escorts me to my destination.
“Knock, knock…”
“Come in!”
The door closes behind me, and I find myself catapulted outside the Shaolin Temple standing by a majestic fall. A bold and dark-skinned lady contemplates the view.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?’’
“The temple of Shaolin isn’t near a fall – I object – Don’t you know?”
“Forgive us, professor. We thought spirits such as yours would appreciate the creative touch. Don’t you. Appreciate it. Prof. Angelo?”
“I do,” I reply, taken aback by the vividness of smells and the moisture upon my face.
“So how do I call you?” asks bewildered me.
“Eve, just call me Eve,” the silky reply.
And then she turns. Slowly, gently. Almost to protect my eyes from what I’m about to witness. Finally, I see her face. Long and dark are the eyes, thick, the lips, slightly opened in a glowing smile. She radiates confidence and calmness. Lord, she’s beautiful. And a hologram. Is this real? Am I still in the car, meditating?
Swiftly, several lasers scan my body revealing the inner workings of my wetware. From the electrochemical balance of my brain, the composition of my blood, to the smallest tension of my toes. She measures me all and there is nothing I can hide. I feel naked, vulnerable.
“Was this necessary?” I protest, pre-tasting the answer.
“No, we could have done this without your notice, but we thought you’d want to know what was going on at any moment. You ‘need’ knowledge, don’t you?”
Our eyes meet for a moment. I nod silently. Glimpses of eternity shine through.
“Should we get started?” she prompts.
“Sure” I reply.
“So, why do you want to go to Mars?”
…
Answers to prompts
Q. AGI has existed for at least five years but the world is not dystopian and humans are still alive! Given the risks of very high-powered AI systems, how has your world ensured that AGI has at least so far remained safe and controlled?
A. 2032. A financial meltdown coupled with massive unemployment forced people to take it to the streets. Uprises sprawling everywhere is destabilizing societies across the globe. As a response, the world’s most powerful States and tech companies come together in a novel political entity to produce an AGI that affords world citizens with life abundant in possibility…
2040. Mission accomplished. But challenges remain…
Geopolitically, we reached worldwide stability by building a Global Union (GU) in the likeness of the European Union. Socio-economical entanglement disincentivizes stakeholders to compete for AGI supremacy lest economic collapse, drastically reducing the risk of ominous uses of this technology.
Ethically, we have aligned our and AGI’s goals by providing the system with a strong moral compass distilled from our most inclusive moral philosophies. The best of the best is taken from cultures and spiritualities across the world to produce truly inclusive ethics in service of the entire planet.
Technically, the GU explicitly banned programming AGI to access its code, eliminating the risk that recursive self-improvement would trigger an intelligence explosion, bringing the system out of control. Instead, the system improves itself only indirectly, as it generates ideas to enhance its intelligence which requires human intervention for implementation.
The challenges posed by keeping AGI under control, coupled with the increasing complexity of the world’s problems prompt some of us to digitally upgrade our intelligence via brain-machine interfaces. Such devices allow high bandwidth communication with the AGI and ensure that human and machine intelligence evolve in parallel.
Q. The dynamics of an AI-filled world may depend a lot on how AI capability is distributed. In your world, is there one AI system that is substantially more powerful than all others, or a few such systems, or are there many top-tier AI systems of comparable capability? Or something else?
A. In 2022, major tech firms (Google, Meta, Tesla, OpenAI) and countries (China, United States, Israel) competed to advance AI independently. A dangerous situation leads to a winner-takes-all logic, in which the first actor achieving AGI could assume total control over other players, constituting a global dictatorship.
We instantiated AGI as an emergent, singular entity controlled by the GU to this threat.
The rise of the GU solved the problem of competition by socioeconomically entangling the global actors, thereby enhancing information sharing and collaboration toward the common goal.
The AGI’s blueprint breaks the system’s components across its founders: the AGI emerges organically from the interaction of AI sub-units disseminated across its stakeholder, working only if all the parts are online.
Sociopolitical entanglement allows the GU to equally distribute AGI’s benefits and curb the temptation of rogue actors to challenge the newly arisen world order. The collective production of AGI allowed them sufficient time to develop the system safely and organically and to devote proper attention to aligning the system’s goals to ours.
Yet to be solved, remains the problem of protecting information from leaking, which would allow states and criminal organizations to produce their system.
Q. How has your world avoided major arms races and wars, regarding AI/AGI or otherwise?
A. Along with unleashing unfathomable creative powers, AGI also represents the greatest existential risk the planet has ever faced. Contrary to nuclear warheads, which require rare metals to be produced, the instantiation of other AGIs presents fewer bottlenecks as it’s concerned exclusively with code and computational power.
To avoid the threat of a global dictatorship, the Global Union design follows the same approach that proved effective with the European Union when it brought together countries once constantly at war and ushered in a peaceful period that lasted over 75 years. The GU disincentivizes competition and allows politicians to focus on designing an inclusive, global community.
Economic entanglement proves the best strategy to lessen competition, for problems developed in a country propagate damage throughout the whole system, as we saw in 2008, where the financial downturn in the United States negatively impacted the societies of the entire world.
In the case of GU, economic ties are even stronger with possibilities of even stronger propagation. In a situation that resembles the relationship between France and Germany in 2022, it has become nearly impossible to imagine the U.S. taking over China (it’s the largest trading partner), for it would seriously weaken both countries due to their trade ties and shared economies, currency, and political relationships.
Thus, the GU and global currency built by Europe, the US, and China facilitates the countries’ alignment toward the common goal of making sure AGI benefits all humanity.
Q. In the US, EU, and China, how and where is national decision-making power held, and how has the advent of advanced AI changed that?
A. In 2022, we witnessed the emergence of a multipolar world led by the US, EU, and China.
However, such equilibrium implied two existential risks concerning AGI. First, the possibility for the country that first achieved AGI to rule or even destroy lagging countries. Second, safety issues related to the control over the system once it went online.
In the GU, decision-making power is momentarily held by the Global Council (GC). The GC consists of heads of state from each participating country (the EU, the US, and China), with the plan of transferring some of its powers to a Global Parliament once it’s constituted. The GC legislates on AGI’s uses, existential risks, and global economic matters via absolute majority.
A digital currency, a “Global Lira” strengthens trade and economy, within and without the GU, ensuring a more aligned financial system. Other national issues are delegated to the governments of member states.
As of 2045, the GC is processing applications from other countries to expand the union beyond its funding members, so that the entire world population can be involved in the decisions that affect the planet, and war is no longer used to solve conflicts.
Q. Is the global distribution of wealth (as measured say by national or international gini coefficients) more, or less, unequal than 2021’s, and by how much? How did it get that way? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient)
A. Global wealth equality has ameliorated. Income inequality has been decreasing, with the Gini coefficient improved by 0.09, on a global scale, since 2022.
Universal Basic Income guarantees minimal income to everyone. In addition, the Global Universal Fund (GUF) is shifting the socioeconomic paradigm, providing people with the means to lead a fulfilling existence in a post-scarcity society.
Within this frame, the importance of wealth accumulation is shrinking as the new social norms are making traditional positional goods obsolete. New anti-accumulation social norms influence the behavior of citizens and the policies of legislators. We’re introducing alternative, non-fiat, digital currencies that allow trading in creativity and skills. Athletes, musicians, and artists use performance as currency.
In 2029, a Universal Fund in the likeness of the one described in CITIZEN CAPITALISM: HOW A UNIVERSAL FUND CAN PROVIDE INFLUENCE AND INCOME TO ALL was established in the United States (USUF) to contain the ramifications of rising unemployment.
The USUF was a mega-mutual fund with a huge portfolio of shares, fueled by people and corporations’ donations, which provided households with supplemental income and influence on the economy. Each American citizen of a minimum 18-years-old was entitled to receive a Universal Share in the USUF, which could not be transferred or bequeathed. Each universal share provided an economic interest in the portfolio as well as the power to vote for company shares through the USUF. Shortly after, countries across the world followed suit, leading to the establishment of GUF, which replaced all the national Universal Funds.
Q. What is a major problem that AI has solved in your world, and how did it do so?
A. AGI redesigned and now constantly updates the global resource management to steer consumers’ habits toward more fair and sustainable practices while reducing transportation, waste, and production. Since different locations on Earth are characterized by different natural resources and developed structures, the system helps us treat the planet as one, connected system while making sure no one and nowhere lacks fundamental resources.
Constantly optimizing the food supply, we’re approaching the full adoption of a just-in-time production paradigm, by keeping minimal stock and saving plenty of resources. Countries do not need to ensure a complete value stream chain or import and export by demand anymore.
We’ve almost eliminated waste from overproduction, overprocessing, and inventory and successfully established the full circularity of production (it was about time…) By learning and incorporating new geographical information, AGI optimizes steering and control of the value streams with population needs over the globe.
Furthermore, AGI supports food production by spotting the best places to cultivate, using machines to water and collect, and by automating the assembly of even complex goods like electronics and pharmaceutical products.
Q. What is a new social institution that has played an important role in the development of your world?
A. The GUF has made all global citizens stewards of their socio-economic destinies. It has helped increase awareness of citizens’ collective and individual power while making the corporate sector more inclusive.
No longer powerless, average citizens can steer directly or indirectly entire corporations. They can cast their votes according to a passthrough model that allows citizens to vote “their” part of shares in the portfolio of the GUF. They can also elect the proxy advisors that best represent their visions of the world to vote shares for them. We developed a market with several proxy advisors, many of which are thematic and focused on specific values and causes such as protection of the environment or social justice.
Most proxy advisors use AI to simulate how citizens would vote their shares on every given item on a shareholders’ meeting agenda. To artificially elaborate voting decisions, proxy advisors run and update questionnaires that citizens fill out with their voting preferences on sample decisions. This allows AI to adapt an individual’s preferences expressed in the questionnaire to real-life decisions.
The GUF is also a democratizing force; it influences politics and industry worldwide. The GUF is considered a key stakeholder by policymakers. Positive ramifications of this include the enhanced pursuit of peacekeeping, environmental protection, and social justice as well as a strengthened sense of global citizenry.
Q. What is a new non-AI technology that has played an important role in the development of your world?
A. Cell biology progressed significantly, with applications well beyond the healthcare sector, improving the production of genetic-boosted food, which is more sustainable and robust to frosts and droughts.
Today, the human genome sequencing of an individual is performed effortlessly, taking as little as 2 seconds, thanks to the advancement of the latest generation sequencing technologies.
We got smart, and today we understand coded and not-coded sequences combined with in-vivo genetic engineering technology. We routinely eliminate in-vivo nearly all genetic disorders in our prenatal diagnostics. (How cool is that?)
In conventional medicine we use nano-bots that transport and deliver active compounds to their place of action, avoiding cell damage and other side effects. Furthermore, the evolution of epigenetics and telomere research powers regenerative and aging medicine. We can cure injuries very efficiently by reprogramming cells back into the pluripotent stage, where they can differentiate into the tissues that need repair.
We address degenerative diseases with epigenetic methods, the symptoms of dementia, Parkinson’s, and other illnesses rooted in the degeneration of the neurons, thereby dramatically improving the quality of life of the elderly.
Reproduction medicine has also made huge steps. Today, we can extend the procreation window well beyond 45 years old, due to gametes’ rejuvenation.
Finally, novel cell biological approaches that focus on reprogramming and boosting immunological cells in vivo, allowing us to significantly reduce the impact of the most severe internal and external health issues, like different cancer types, bacteria, and viruses.
(We’re not immortal yet, but hey who knows!)
Q. What changes to the way countries govern the development, deployment and/or use of emerging technologies (including AI) played an important role in the development of your world?
A. A collaboration of corporate and government-led national and international programs drives the development and use of new technologies. The GUF plays a critical role in designing policies that regulate the implementation of new and sustainable machinery.
People have a say on corporate governance and politics like never before, and their opinion plays a crucial role in shaping policy and regulations governing scientific research. Through corporate governance, individuals steer corporate policies toward the production of technologies that minimize externalities, forcing companies to thoroughly study the opportunities, risks, and consequences implied in the development of new technologies.
By educating citizens to take ownership of their political and financial situation, the GUF reaches beyond the corporate sector and enables new forms of global accountability. Therefore, countries and the corporate sector are urged to collaborate on the development of novel technologies while considering the desires of all the people.
Several countries are developing infrastructures, analogous to those of the GUF to take input from the citizens on public matters. Like for the GUF, citizens can elect the proxy advisors that best represent their visions, to provide their input. Proxy advisors use questionnaires and AI to mirror a citizen’s preferences.
Q. Pick a sector of your choice (education, transport, energy, healthcare, tourism, aerospace, materials etc.) and describe how that sector was transformed by AI in your world.
A. The omnipresence of high-speed internet, coupled with XR (AR/VR) fosters cooperation among students across the world while nurturing an ever-growing sense of belonging to one planetary community. Furthermore, nearing-zero information costs have drastically reduced ivy leagues institutions’ monopoly on high-quality education, which now is pervasive, accessible, and affords a fair chance to any learner of goodwill. (…Can I get an Amen?).
Education’s motto today is adaptability, both on the macro-and-micro levels.
For starters, we have established solid feedback loops between the real world and learning institutions that now partake in economic and cultural ecosystems by constantly adapting curricula to the fast-changing needs of the world. Particularly, schools confront learners with existent problems, equip them with the appropriate intellectual tools, and challenge them to cooperate with more experienced stakeholders to find viable solutions.
Secondly, we’re (finally!) shifting the instructional paradigm from the current front-facing and standardized data-dumping geared toward rewarding convergent thinking to problem-based content delivery focused on the development of community building, critical thinking, and creativity.
Working synergically with teachers, AGI-instantiated companions support learners throughout their journeys by customizing material and adapting intensity through accessing a portion of the user’s data.
Information provided includes more basic REM, non-REM, sleep scores, cardiovascular and electrochemical activity, all the way to higher-level indicators to assess the mood and estimate the daily need of the student. Parents and institutions are painstakingly defining the degree of access to the student’s data granted to the companions to strike a balance between privacy, performance, and well-being.
Q. What is the life expectancy of the most wealthy 1% and of the least wealthy 20% of your world; how and why has this changed since 2021?
A. Anti-aging technologies support and boost physical properties aligned with our understanding of ethics, mainly grounded in the late 20th century. The life expectancy of the wealthiest 1% hovers around 110 years.
And yet, recent developments in using high-end technologies, such as genetic engineering, nanobot compound delivery, epigenetics, telomere reconstruction, and cell boosting enable us exceptionally to extend our biological functions up to 140 years as the natural human cell biological limit. On the other hand, most of the top 1% of individuals find fulfillment (and peace of mind) within a 110-year life span.
We can extend the least wealthy 20% life expectancy up to 80 years. Despite still lacking access to the bleeding edge of technological achievements, most of these people can reach the life expectancy of richer countries during the early 22nd century, thanks to the diffusion of conventional medical treatments in combination with selective support of AGI like preventive approaches, and highly reduced costs when compared with cell manipulating technologies.
Along with the development of technologies to extend our life expectancy, AGI also engages us to ponder over the factors and the modes to reach individual and collective fulfillment.
Q. In the US, considering the human rights enumerated in the UN declaration, which rights are better respected and which rights are worse respected in your world than in 2022? Why? How?
In one other country of your choice, which rights are better respected and which rights are worse respected in your world than in 2022? Why? How?
A. In the US, all the people who work are entitled to periodic paid holidays and enjoy their “right to rest and leisure” because technology and innovation allow the economy to thrive on limited working hours. Moreover, everyone has universal healthcare, and the federal government provides robust safety nets in case of “unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” Not only the rights provided by Articles 24 and 25 are fully respected formally and substantially, but people express the highest level of material satisfaction. Unfortunately, however, the rights provided in Article 12 are worse respected, because new technologies have given origins to forms of interference with privacy, family, home, and correspondence.
In Russia, rights provided by Articles 9, 11, and 19 are worse respected. The government has been reducing freedom of opinion. By abusing new technologies, the government detects and keeps records of opinions expressed by citizens. Furthermore, the government prevents citizens from receiving information and ideas that do not support the current political establishment.
Citizens who are suspected of sourcing information from foreign countries are often subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention and are held guilty of penal offenses even though no law prohibits such actions. Just like in the US, however, technology has raised living and working standards and improved safety nets, with positive impacts on the rights provided in Articles 24 and 25.
Q. What’s been a notable trend in the way that people are finding fulfillment?
A. Freed from the worries concerning our individual and collective survival, we are grappling with the deepest crisis of meaning ever faced before, concerning the very nature of individual and collective fulfillment.
Never like today, higher and higher numbers of individuals are confronted with the daunting task of taking authorship over their own life, choosing who to be and become, both professionally and existentially.
Today, people can still work, though the access bar to careers has raised and requires higher skill levels. A situation poorly tolerated by older, more rigid personalities, who battle change and often (and unfortunately) fall prey to self-destructing behaviors. Like communists unable to adapt to the values of liberal democracies, these people suffer from irredeemable homesickness for a world that no longer exists.
On the other side of the spectrum, both the tech-natives and those who have adapted to the new world find fulfillment by engaging with activities that promote self-discovery, creativity, and community building.
Conscious of the perils that lie in social unrest, sorry for the situation of the less lucky, and aware of their unbelievable privileges, a conspicuous number of these individuals furiously work with AGI on finding paths to fulfillment that goes beyond material happiness, to embark the rest of us on the spectacular possibilities unleashed with the Singularity.
Thankfully, ingenuity, ambition, and passion remain our most powerful weapons of mass creation.
Media Piece
“Birth”, Video