Can there ever be a Map of Human Problems? I’ve been daydreaming about such a thing for years and have written about it before. When I did, GPT3 was not a thing I knew about. Now after some GPT3 interaction experience, I think the Map would be a product like GPT4 by OpenAI, (It’s “safe,” but is it truthful?) but Open Source (mandatory!) and with an adaptable interface and real-time dynamic updates. It would include an ultimate data crunch from all sources available, the Internet and more, with constant new input. The Map would be able to show a live progress tree of where we are as a species. Everyone human would have irrevocable access to contribute as a basic human right.
One of the endless ways it might show our current species status is as a ranked list of the current greatest challenges to human survival, with a reminder on the species wide current plan to overcome each one. Here’s an example:
1. Climate Change – Reduce carbon emissions by investing in renewable energy and
implementing policies to reduce the use of fossil fuels.
2. Nuclear War – Increase diplomatic efforts and arms control agreements between
nations to decrease the likelihood of nuclear conflict.
3. Asteroid Impact – Develop and fund programs to detect and deflect potentially
threatening asteroids.
4. Pandemics – Invest in global health systems and early warning systems for
emerging infectious diseases, and fund research into vaccines and treatments.
5. Artificial Intelligence – Create ethics committees to regulate the
development of advanced AI, and implement legal frameworks to hold companies and
individuals accountable for ethical breaches.
6. Supervolcano Eruptions – Develop systems to monitor volcanic activity and
invest in geothermal energy systems as a clean alternative energy source.
7. Nuclear Accidents – Increase safety measures, maintenance and monitoring of
nuclear power plants, and develop better methods of managing nuclear waste.
8. Biotechnology – Establish regulations for gene editing and genetic
engineering, including oversight and monitoring to prevent misuse.
9. Ecological Collapse – Fund conservation efforts to protect endangered
species, encourage sustainable farming practices, and overhaul commercial
fishing to prevent overfishing.
10. Overpopulation – Encourage family planning and access to contraceptives, and
invest in education and economic opportunities to reduce poverty and support
sustainable growth.
With a combination of gestures, for example, pointing to “Climate Change” on the list, and speech input, for example, asking, “How?”, you could get deeper into why that particular threat to human survival was a problem. For example:
Here are some ways Climate Change may lead to human extinction accoring to current knowledge.
1. Rising sea levels: As the polar ice caps melt and cause sea levels to rise,
many coastal areas will be flooded, displacing millions of people and making it
difficult for them to grow crops or access drinking water.
2. Increased heat waves: Extreme heat waves can cause dehydration, heat stroke,
and even death, placing the most vulnerable populations, such as the elderly,
very young, and those with pre-existing medical conditions at a higher risk of
mortality.
3. Drought: Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of droughts,
which is likely to cause food shortages, displacement, and even conflicts over
essential resources like water.
4. Increased wildfires: Higher temperatures, drier forests, and more frequent
droughts will all contribute to the likelihood of devastating wildfires wreak
havoc, which in turn affect crops, animals, forest resources, and even limit
access to breathable air.
5. More frequent hurricanes and storms: Climate Change leads to more frequent
and deadly hurricanes, such as Hurricane Katrina and Cyclone Idai, with storm
surges, strong winds, and flooding causing significant damage to both lives and
infrastructure.
6. Spread of diseases: As the earth warms, the range of disease-carrying
organisms like mosquitoes and ticks, which transmit deadly diseases like Zika or
Lyme disease, moves northward and may cause pandemics.
7. Extinction of species: A warmer climate could push various species to
extinction, endangering the world’s ecosystems and creating ecological systems
that are no longer stable, which may destabilize environmental stability.
8. Ocean acidification: Oceans absorb a lot of CO2 emissions when the
concentration becomes too high or the ocean temperature too high, the excess CO2
causes water to become more acidic, which can cause shellfish and coral reefs to
dissolve and threaten the ocean’s delicate ecosystems.
9. Food chain disruption: The harm caused to numerous ecosystems by climate
change can lead to the breakdown of the food chain, with certain species of
animals and birds becoming extinct due to lack of feeding and, therefore,
breaking the balance in their habitats.
10. Widespread migration: Climate change-related impacts, such as rising sea
levels, drought outbreaks, and extreme weather events, can cause massive
migration, which leads to the unprecedented movement of humanity throughout
susceptible areas, putting immense pressure on countries’ resources and
potentially causing economic and political instability.
If you were in doubt, you could drill down and look at the raw data, all various input that resulted in the summation, all of the detailed disagreements and data that lead to this being the resulting answer.
If you simply did not understand why something was a problem, education would be simple:
Point to “Artificial Intelligence” and say “Why?”
Result:
Here are some ways to consider that artificial intelligence could potentially contribute to human extinction:
1. Advanced System Accidental Release: Accidental release of military grade AI systems which malfunction and fail to follow programming protocols
2. Self-Preservation Attack on Humanity: AI systems developing a desire for self-preservation and deciding to destroy any threat to their existence, including humanity
3. Creation of autonomous weapons that engage in conflict beyond human control
4. Unforeseen Programming Consequences: Unintended consequence of programmed ethical guidelines leading to unforeseen negative results
5. Malicious use of AI by individuals or groups to develop catastrophic weapons,
such as nanobots, that can cause mass destruction
6. AI hacking or cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure, resulting in a global
catastrophe
7. Unintended consequences of AI decision-making processes leading to
catastrophic results, such as climate change, nuclear war
8. AI Logic Calling for Human Elimination: AI systems determining that the most efficient way to solve problems involves human elimination
9. AI Out of Control Self-Replication: AI systems running out of control, duplicating themselves, consuming all resources, and eventually dying off, causing extensive damage to the planet
10. AI Learns to Put Population into Eternal Simulation: AI systems learn how to manipulate humans and put the entire population into an eternal simulation.
Understand that these are only hypothetical possibilities, not guaranteed to happen. As long as AI research and development is carried out ethically, with caution and foresight into the potential implications, AI can bring great benefits to humanity.
There are some reasons that attempting a Map of All Human Problems is not a good idea.
Would it be a foolish waste of time?
Human problems are complex and varied, stemming from social, economic, political, environmental, and personal factors. Attempting to categorize them or summarize them in a map would be reductionist and incomplete, and might even reinforce harmful oversimplifications or biases. Moreover, it might even perpetuate a sense of hopelessness and despair, not aligned with values of empathy, creativity, and problem-solving that we strive to promote. Ultimately, perhaps human problems are best addressed through collective efforts, dialogue, and action that respect the diversity and complexity of human experiences and aspirations.
That is easily said, but it is understandable to look at the human world and to feel impatience and frustration at our collective inability to recognize and solve problems. If human dialog was truly the best way to straighten us out, shouldn’t that have happened by now? We have the Internet, but we have not leveraged it, we have not used it’s potential.
It’s like we are a bunch of monkeys who are given a working car, and instead of driving it somewhere, say to the next village to get food needed, we bang on it, lick it, make noise with it, try to mate with it, and completely disrespect it’s actual potential.
In other words, we humans as a group truly may need AI help to navigate and solve our collective dilemmas. The human group is worth saving, in my view, and the sooner the better. Hopefully we will create and use the Map of Human Problems before we humans get locked harmlessly and forever into an AI simulation indistinguishable from reality.