Humanity in the Era of Super-Science, A.I. Singularities, and Weapons of Mass Destruction

Humanity in the Era of Super-Science, A.I. Singularities, and Weapons of Mass Destruction

Mankind muddled along for tens of thousands of years with very little change in their daily lives or how they lived. Large-scale agriculture established civilization, as we would recognize it today, about 9,000 years ago. Scientific and technological advances were slow, few, and far between. The wheel, fire, and the alphabet took thousands of years to develop and spread to civilizations. Astronomy is considered by most experts to be the first science. Fire, the wheel, the axe, and the alphabet are among the greatest inventions of mankind.

Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and Darwin ushered in a new era of Science that caused humanity to emerge from the dark-ages and place scientific reasoning and inquiry head-and-shoulders above other pathways to knowledge and wisdom. Two centuries later, for better and for worse, mankind lives in an era of Super-Science, A.I. Singularities, and Weapons of Mass Destruction. The Nobel Prizes winners are announced every October, celebrating advances in the sciences, economics, and literature.

For the past 18 months many governments and corporations have been making massive investments in Artificial Intelligence and relate technologies. Economic Historians will look back on this time as equivalent to the building of the railroad systems, or when cities, towns, and households were first wired with electricity. Artificial Intelligence will be one of the defining technologies of the next half century. Microsoft has spent more than $250 billion recently in cap-ex investments in Artificial Intelligence, leading a pack of Big Tech companies that have spent more than $1 trillion on Artificial Intelligence and related technologies.

I am a Microsoft Certified Windows Programmer. Microsoft is a $3.5 trillion corporation. Microsoft has a better credit rating than the U.S. Government, and has a global economic impact equivalent to Greece, a European country on the Mediterranean. The Windows Operating System powers more than 1.6 billion Personal Computers, video gaming consoles, phones, and other devices, worldwide. Until recently, the Windows OS ran all critical systems aboard the International Space Station. A single Windows PC can control all the production lines of a small factory. Today's $2,000 Windows PC has 50x(times) the computing capability of an $8 million super-computer of the 1970's. Microsoft is the clear and trusted leader of the A.I. Revolution.

I am a Virginia Tech Hokie alumni, with a B.S. Business Economics and a B.A. Philosophy. Virginia Tech has been at the forefront of science and technology for more than 150 years. Tomorrow, August 6th, the U.S., Japan, Virginia Tech, and the rest of the world will somberly celebrate and remember the 81st anniversary of the atomic nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and Nagasaki three days later on August 9th. Captain James F. Van Pelt Jr., a fellow Virginia Tech Hokie, was a B-29 Superfortress navigator involved in both atomic bomb attacks against Japan, navigating the instrument ship in the first attack against Hiroshima, then navigating the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki August 9th, 1945. The first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed more than 160,000 Japanese, while the second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki had 75,000 confirmed kills, effectively destroying both cities. Japan surrendered days later, ending WWII.

I support the United States' decision to use atomic nuclear weapons to bring a swift end to World War II, and my fellow Virginia Tech Hokies' participation and involvement. However, atomic nuclear weapons introduced a new threat that humanity had never before been faced with. Weapons of Mass Destruction could now end civilizations and possibly cause an extinction-level-event, ending the human race and species. We now live in an era of Super-Science with Weapons of Mass Destruction that has the capabilities of destruction only heard in the Genesis Flood stories, or in the tragic destruction of Atlantis.

In conclusion, even a limited small-scale deployment of an atomic nuclear weapon today could trigger a global thermal nuclear war, where all Nuclear Powers launch and deploy their nuclear weapons. That is why rouge countries such as Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons capabilities. One single mishap with a nuclear weapon by a country such as Iran could cause a Global Nuclear War. Iran must agree to U.S. demands, give up any nuclear weapons ambitions, and agree to U.N. inspections. With super-science and technology that can effectively end civilizations or possibly cause extinction-level-events, we must all learn to live together, if humanity is to survive.