Technology enthusiast Joe Issa has congratulated Elon Musk on the tremendous success of SpaceX’s latest space mission, in which it was able to land for re-use two of three rocket boosters used to fire Falcon Heavy into space at once, on their first try, while stating he shares the technology guru’s warning of earth’s unknown distant future.
“I am not a scientist; I only love the subject. I find technology fascinating and engaging. However, I also see its importance in transforming lives, such as the internet, smartphones and social media.
“In anticipation of such discoveries in the future, I think Elon Musk and his SpaceX must be applauded for their commitment to space exploration and for making the reuse of rocket boosters a reality, which is critical to making space exploration more affordable.
“Man landed on the moon just about the time I was born. Since then man has travelled through the stars and know more about deep space than ever before. Moreover, now, Elon Musk wants to start a colony on Mars.
“But the same device that may help us accomplish this and other unimaginable feats – artificial intelligence – may become our problem, as machines become smarter than man and begin to control us, such as what we have seen in science fiction movies.
“Also, as machines take over work currently being done by humans, and doing it even better, mass unemployment could become the norm. Moreover, being deprived of the socialisation that comes from having a job could pose a health risk, through depression and stress, for example,” said Issa, who has commented before on the use of artificial intelligence.
Issa was commenting on statements reportedly made by Elon Musk while speaking at the recently concluded World Government Summit in Dubai, as a member of President Donald Trump’s economic advisory council. Musk said that there are issues which civilisation will face in the next hundred years, including how to handle artificial intelligence so that machines do not take control of man, and the mass unemployment that will result from automation.
“One of the most troubling questions is artificial intelligence,” Musk reportedly said when asked about the challenges civilisation is set to face shortly. “Deep artificial intelligence or artificial general intelligence where you can have artificial intelligence that is much smarter than the smartest human on Earth. This is a dangerous situation.”
According to the article, the danger lies in what has been the subject of science fiction movies like I, Robot and Ex Machina: that humans will lose control of their creations and risk being subject to them.
About mass unemployment, Musk reportedly said that so many jobs would be lost so quickly that governments will have to introduce a “universal basic income” or an income for the unemployed. “I do not think we are going to have a choice,” he says. “I think it is going to be necessary. There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better.”
This will result in a proliferation of cheap, accessible goods, but it could also have psychological consequences. “I think universal basic income will be necessary, but the much harder challenge is: How will people then have to mean?” he says. “Many people derive meaning from their employment. If you are not needed, what is the meaning? Do you feel useless? That is a much harder problem to deal with. How do we ensure the future is a future that we want, that we still like?”
According to the article, despite how confident Musk seems in his view of the future, he makes sure to note that it is impossible to foresee which technologies society will develop, and what effects these technologies will have on everyday life. “Any predictions we can make today about what the future will be like in 50 years will be wrong,” he says. After all, who could have imagined, as the Wright brothers first took flight in 1903, that a little over half a century later, astronauts would land on the moon, and then later, play golf on it?
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