The several non-nuclear proliferation treaties and disarmament talks that have reduced the number of warheads down by about 2/3? Just because there may be more "threat actors" doesn't mean that we're not safer. Look at South Africa, it was a nuclear power and gave it back.
>- Genetic Engineering
There are many laws in place. Some that are even hampering valid benefit (Umbilical Stem Cells). Some that are straight up asinine (Abortion Bans legal again) and some that should be observed but allowed (Crisper) as what we knew even 30 years ago is magnitudes more than the previous 30 to that. What will we learn 30 years from now?
>- Chemical production and pollution
When was the last time the Ohio river caught literal fire? It's been a while. My whole lifetime. But it did at one time. That one case was a tipping point for the formation of the EPA. The plastic island in the Pacific? It's being cleaned as we speak. Will we be zero pollutants in our life time - probably not, but the same could be said about racism or wealth inequality which is much easier to education and manipulate in contrast.
>- AI
Again, much easier to legislate and manipulate. The biggest problem: public understanding of how it's made and capable of to an uneducated population. Where it can go wrong? The profit motive. Where it can save us? It's already happening today in medical diagnostics.
>- Social Media
Same deal here... legislate and manipulate. The biggest problem is engineers and lawyers actively pursuing ways to game the system once sold to business people. It's already benefitted us to help provide places to discuss and connect in ways that were never possible without resorting to being held by a geographic or cultural chain.
>- Nanotechnology
See the other answers. However when the robots do a better job of co-habitation and evolution than humans, better be ready to swallow one's pride as they hit singularity before us.
You have vastly more faith in the ability of human society to manage these technologies than I do. The problem is not a question of whether the vast majority of actors will do the right thing the vast majority of the time. It's that very small groups of people can do incredible amounts of damage, on purpose or even just accidentally.
Given the horrors we've seen committed by large groups of people over protracted time frames, I absolutely believe horror magnified by technological leverage is inevitable.
Life is pretty great right now, but we are living in the aberration. I expect that I'll live to see the end of the equilibrium that has allowed this aberration to persist.
> The several non-nuclear proliferation treaties and disarmament talks that have reduced the number of warheads down by about 2/3? Just because there may be more "threat actors" doesn't mean that we're not safer.
That's exactly what it means. That the US and Russia can only kill the world two times over instead of three times is irrelevant. It only takes one actor for a nuclear catastrophe.
> Look at South Africa, it was a nuclear power and gave it back.
And if think any more contries are going to give up their Nukes after how well that is working out for Ukraine, think again.
>- Nuclear Weapons
The several non-nuclear proliferation treaties and disarmament talks that have reduced the number of warheads down by about 2/3? Just because there may be more "threat actors" doesn't mean that we're not safer. Look at South Africa, it was a nuclear power and gave it back.
>- Genetic Engineering
There are many laws in place. Some that are even hampering valid benefit (Umbilical Stem Cells). Some that are straight up asinine (Abortion Bans legal again) and some that should be observed but allowed (Crisper) as what we knew even 30 years ago is magnitudes more than the previous 30 to that. What will we learn 30 years from now?
>- Chemical production and pollution
When was the last time the Ohio river caught literal fire? It's been a while. My whole lifetime. But it did at one time. That one case was a tipping point for the formation of the EPA. The plastic island in the Pacific? It's being cleaned as we speak. Will we be zero pollutants in our life time - probably not, but the same could be said about racism or wealth inequality which is much easier to education and manipulate in contrast.
>- AI
Again, much easier to legislate and manipulate. The biggest problem: public understanding of how it's made and capable of to an uneducated population. Where it can go wrong? The profit motive. Where it can save us? It's already happening today in medical diagnostics.
>- Social Media
Same deal here... legislate and manipulate. The biggest problem is engineers and lawyers actively pursuing ways to game the system once sold to business people. It's already benefitted us to help provide places to discuss and connect in ways that were never possible without resorting to being held by a geographic or cultural chain.
>- Nanotechnology
See the other answers. However when the robots do a better job of co-habitation and evolution than humans, better be ready to swallow one's pride as they hit singularity before us.