By

John Wright

As I consider technological, business, social and political changes in the past fifty years, both in the USA and globally, I have tried to make sense of seemingly stupid events and what are to me harmful societal directions. I am thinking about unneeded population expansion, jihadic war, socialism in previously capitalistic countries and hyper-capitalism in previously and superficially current communist countries. I'm thinking about the pandering at least in the USA on racial differences and gender and gender identity differences, and the actual polarization of the various cultural segments of the USA population. I am also thinking about globalization effects, now and long range, both positive and negative.

Were I from an alien intelligence I would not think very highly of humanity, for as a species most of us at least appear to be utterly confused and locked in hopeless, continuous squabbling, nationally and internationally, and foolish behaviors, ergo get fat and blame soft drinks instead of lack of exercise? Respond to people losing their sanity, not by figuring out why, but instead by blaming their access to guns!

The level of maturity that I experienced as a child and then as a young man declined in the USA to loss of class, where class is the demonstration of high goals and honorable behavior in the face of problems and opportunities. Our cultural decline is pathetic ... Something I didn't notice quantitatively until I visited Japan, and saw respectable and polite behaviors and classy dress codes virtually everywhere, that existed in the USA when I was a child. Suddenly, I was ashamed about our cultural decline, and that was over twenty years ago.

We have declined further. Failure to stand during the playing of the national anthem at major sports events is extreme disrespect. It obviously leads to other worse forms of disrespect, by example. For example, cops killing black people and black people killing cops, like it is some kind of sick sport. Then we have news media that attacks politicians without substantive, demonstrated proof, instead only from negative opinions, and that is not respectable. Slander and libelous actions appear to have no negative consequences. It is as if we have lost all sense of belonging to anything honorable. Basically, for the First Amendment to make any sense, expectations forced on media should include high probability of accuracy, ergo truth. Yet we realize we cannot apply that yardstick to ordinary individuals as so many individuals lack the mental horsepower and/or personality and reliable experience to even know what they are talking about. Yes, that latter problem is another huge problem. A democracy with ignorant and typically irrational or short sighted (and misdirected/lied to) voters is not at all good. But that is what we now have.

Then we have drug problems that seem only to get worse through time. The answers as to why are most depressing, yet understandable, as people lose identity and purpose when they learn they are not wanted or needed. Also, meddling by government and religions into scientific/technical domains where they have no aptitude or educational expertise is flat out wrong. It is not their role to define the purpose of life, whatever it happens to be for anyone outside the immediate domain of their believers. For that matter, loss of privacy and loss of respect for privacy are ultimately destructive to the individual's sense of self. Do I exist as an entity with rights to be what I choose to be and the right to express my beliefs, or am I being herded into a life where we all tow the line to some form of "acceptable group social beliefs and behaviors?" Well, I am being herded. It is called political correctness. And media control makes my individual voice "dust in the wind."

The above paragraphs paint a pretty sad picture, and an incomplete one at that, when we also consider the atrocities (hate crimes and genocide) committed in Middle Eastern and African countries due to utter ignorance, greed, fear and the lack of any form of healthy culture. The list goes on, with the robbing of tax dollars taken from productive workers here and given freely to increasing populations of noncontributors, from here and via destruction of immigration rules and policies. Then, one must also include the out of control profit motive that permits corporations to offshore jobs and in the process undermine the lives of previously productive families ... and it isn't a matter of technology. Instead, it is escape from socialism in the form of government controls and high expenses, and also escape from USA litiginous lawyers who will do anything to dine on the assets of profitable companies.

One might very reasonably ask, "What happened?" One might also ask, "Where is all of this going, and most of all, why?"

I will attempt to provide some answers. I certainly do not know all the answers. But I think I understand the whole, and that is the most important consideration of all. At the least I have been able to explain to myself the underlying meaning of the various absurdities I now encounter. The answer is most interesting. It has been far too easy to see the trees instead of the forest. There actually is a reasonable explanation for all of the situations I identified earlier. And there is a reasonable path to a successful future for humanity.

A historical clue was the impact of the Industrial Revolution, where mechanization of previous manual processes reduced so many areas of manual labor to near zero that almost all historical crafts and even agriculture suddenly didn't need very many people to produce bountiful supplies of products. We see that today with the tiny number of people involved in farming ... where by far the vast majority of our food comes from corporate farms and very large farming cooperatives. Why did people from farms migrate to the cities? Was it opportunity for a better life and better income with non-farm jobs? Turn that thought around. Migration happened to avoid starvation, economically and in actual life, not because the culture offered nice alternatives in the city. The conclusion was obvious ... far fewer people were needed in agriculture and industry to produce an abundance of food and products. Thus, the USA and other countries had to undergo some form of employment transition to give displaced workers jobs with at least some decent income.

I will cut to the chase. If you think the Industrial Revolution created major problems related to what do we do with all these unemployed people, and it truly did, "You ain't seen nothin' yet!" So now you have a pretty strong clue as to where this article is headed. It is not a pretty picture. It is about the human animal becoming obsolescent in a modern, truly automated society. Merely project into the future the impact of self driving cars on taxi drivers, including those of Uber and Lyft. Almost all people with common jobs are becoming superflous in the age of Artificial Intelligence, with computers and robotic machines basically doing everything of consequence other than "entertainment." Or maybe not ... It depends a lot on how we develop or fail to develop the skills of our people as we move into the future. But, at the moment, our status is disgusting.

Have we instead arrived at a modern version of the "Garden of Eden?" Oh, if only it were so! You see, no one ever explained the payback for any God in creating anything of consequence. Oh my, ... how interesting. He (or she) who can do anything and thus needs no help anywhere and for some reason decides to create people? Was it boredom? Is this really something we mere mortals should not question, or, is the whole story a fairy tale? Draw you own conclusions, remembering to take into account the beneficial effects of Judeo-Christian religion/obedience for government as well as religious rulers who want to keep their followers in line. And that is the nice story compared to the suicidal idiocy of Islamic jihadists. "Hey, since life sucks (for them), and everyone not like us is, by definition rotten, then let's throw it away by fighting them and dying and going to heaven!" Those idiots are certifiably insane.

You might think me a cynic. You would be right. I surely am cynical about almost all non-scientific things of human origin that I have encountered in my adult life. I'm kind of sitting in the same corner as the aforementioned alien. Just what is the beneficial purpose of all this confused mess? Does anyone have a clue as to any important distant goal for all that does not involve meaningless dying? Maybe now you are starting to understand the problem ... the big problem. The purpose of life ... in which, if evolution hasn't provided anything substantive other than reproductive dominance, and a few brains capable of creating a powerful future, then we are on tap to define the purpose of life.

And that, my friends, is what this is all about. The negatives become obvious as we muddle our way into the future, without solving any of the real problems of the past except food and medicine, and progress with the latter one has been primitive compared to the need. No, don't give me the song and dance about how far we have come. Instead, let's talk about how far we have to go! That will force a rational look at our "progress." So now let's take a look at the best that humanity has been able to develop from our environment and our basic aptitudes.

I will again cut to the chase. We have not been developing humans "en masse" to become superior to their ancestors. We have instead created technologies that demonstrate and prove how irrelevant humans can be made to their own existence. Thus, many years ago I wrote about the use of genetic engineering to improve the raw intelligence of all humans. And at least publically our presumed government and religious leaders throw stones at researchers who make substantive progress in genetic engineering and actually try to apply it.

Transient temporal power is so addicting that leaders are stone frozen regarding genetic engineering so as not to lose their apparent but weak actual power. They are so mentally limited in scientific and mathematical aptitudes that they can't begin to understand the complexities of science ... hence they can't be expected to make rational judgments about that which they simply cannot understand in concept, progress, or implications for the future. They are out of their depth now, and powerless to change that reality ... unless they embrace the very thing they are fighting against. If they don't move to help us evolve mentally then non-human intelligence will ultimately take over, possibly in the form of AI and multiple forms of robotics. Welcome to total obsolescence!

All right ... If I am right then how does the reality I describe parse with the changes in human societies, so called advanced human societies, in the past 50 years? Now things get very interesting.

What you just read above was a sad but true statement about the leaders. And for the rest of us? Just exactly what are we facing as we become ever more irrelevant to anything outside of our individual wants? Have you any idea how you might become meaningful to society in the future? If the expressed fears of people like Stephen Hawking or Bill Gates regarding Artificial Intelligence come to pass, just how do you expect to promote anything, even your self interests, if/when no one else needs you for anything?

You just received a long needed blast of reality. It does not feel good, does it?

Continued under Part Two of the same article title ...