So I’ve been reading up on AI and what it will mean for humanity, and it is amazing. To put it bluntly, the reason why AI is such a hot topic right now is that we are getting very close to achieving it. Now I don’t mean that it will be here next week, but rather, the “general” consensus is that General AI will be here by 2040-2045.

for an excellent post on the whole AI topic read this:

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html ; and  http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html 

Anyway, after all this reading, all I can think is “How does it feel to be the last generation of humans who are the smartest creatures on this planet.” and also by extension “How does it feel to be the LAST generation of humans on the planet”

I say this because Artificial Super Intelligence is near. When it does arrive, it will look at humans like we look at the animal kingdom. As pets or as things that need to be looked after / protected / kept in a cage.  And we won’t even know. We will think that we are the masters of our own destiny but we won’t. We will be in a cage and not even know that we are in it.

If the AI looks at humanity as generally harmless it will treat us like cats. If the AI looks at humanity and thinks it is a threat, it will treat us the same way as we treat sharks. The only difference is that when it starts to take humanity down, we won’t understand that it is the AI doing it. It will be a bit like how a elephant can understand life and death, but not the fact that the real reason why it is hunted is just for it’s ivory.

So right now we are living in the greatest time in human history and most likely the future of human history as well. So there is no point in being un-happy and doing a job you hate. The time is now to live your dreams because there may not be a tomorrow to do it.