After listening to several well-known technology pioneers, I was shocked at their actual lack of vision. This was until I recognized a common denominator I can’t believe I never noticed… ego. Their ego was their cloud of ignorance. The cheering captivated audience was who they now think for, and then speak to. Our technology leaders and perhaps political leaders all seem to lack vision due to the fact that we humans always seem to have a powerful emotional element of some variety lying in wait to trump our intellectual triumphs and imaginative breakthroughs.

Our emotions, the breakthrough in evolution that provided our species enormous advantages, now is our Achilles heel as we move into a time of convergence with machines.

In a world of food scarcity, our bodies evolved preferential taste for foods high in calories (fats, sugars, carbohydrates, etc.) and efficient means to transport these foods to our vital organs (heart, brain). These traits are exploited by the commercial food industries of today as a built in weakness, a conduit by which more profit can be harvested from the “consumer,” without regard for health or the welfare of the community. These same commercial food industries target their advertisements to our emotions, linking their brands with happy, healthy, positive emotions… Santa Claus gleefully enjoying a Coca Cola, McDonalds loves to see you smile, and your kids will be happy if provided a “happy meal,” on and on, the examples are nearly endless.
Where is the logic and calculated decision making among the masses? The cold hard truth is an overwhelming majority of people are fully capable of making sound rational decisions, the problem is that more often than not, these would be rational decisions are superseded by irrational emotion. This is well understood in industries such as marketing and advertising, this phenomenon is not an opinion, it is fact, proven by countless examples.

When machines possessing artificial intelligence fully “understand” this fact, they will become our complete masters and we will become complete slaves. A complete slave is one that is fully controlled, but has a complete belief they are free. When sufficient emotional variables are thoroughly understood, each one becomes a string by which the puppet may be made to respond. The more strings there are attached, the more fine-tuned the responses become.

So, if human beings, at our current intellectual limitations are more than willing to exploit other human beings by leveraging knowledge of human psychology and physiology, would not machines of comparable or superior intellectual capability be able to do the same?

The only way to prevent this is have social change where ethics and morality become highly values human traits. All is not lost, would you like some real vision? How about this; we teach ethics at all levels of education and make it a top priority within the sciences! This is visionary, and it is what we should do.