It is never easy to be anything but positive about the onward march of technological developments happening all around us. After all, over the past 200 years or so science and technology (ST) has vastly improved our lot - both materially and intellectually. It is all too easy to forget that the benefits of ST have not always come without hiccups - some recent examples come to mind as nuclear proliferation, thalidomide children, DDT, plastic pollution and of course the burning of fossil fuels. The problems can arise unexpectedly without warning - not that we should not have anticipated most of these but problems come because our civilization/system is not set up to properly analyse and act on potential threats. Even when threats are identified, our response is half-hearted and generally inadequate. We live in a divided world.
The new technologies include the digital- including artificial intelligence (DT), bio- & genetics (BTG) and nano- (NT). Working together, they promise to solve all problems facing mankind - that is what they say.
We already see the wonders of digital - its impact on our daily lives has been swift and massive. Communications, WWW, Sensors, Smart Meters are a few of the areas impacted by DT - the expected arrival of the Internet of Things (IoT) will transform the way we manage our lives. Threats to our privacy and to our institutions with unique legal and social systems, etc are very real. Advances in AI might make robots more intelligent than humans in our lifetime. The emergence of Super Intelligence is considered by many as given - the only question seems to be when? How this will affect our position in the Universe is the subject of some serious debate with many scholars warning about the possibility of the extinction of humans.
Carbon life making way to the silicon life!!
Our understanding of the molecular basis of life sciences has resulted in an explosion of advances in bio-technology and genetics. We hear about conquering diseases, personalized medicine, 3-D printing of organs without the dangers of rejection etc. In parallel, we also learn about creating new forms of life - genetic engineering will give us modified and also new plant species, new microbes. How these will interact with existing life forms?, will some of these be toxic? are questions we have no way to answer. Will some nefarious element release a highly contagious synthetic virus virulent to humans and how will we cope?
Ability to manipulate objects at nano scale has given us unimaginable array of new material objects - we are now able to move atoms and molecules individually and arrange them the way we desire. Nature could do it but we have begun to improve nature's nano-technology. Artificial photosynthesis promises to harness more of the Sun's energy for generation of food and everything else. Nano sized robots (nanobots) will self assemble and bottom-up manufacturing will result in zero waste and much increased efficiency. Nanobots will clean up our polluted planet, reverse climate change by removing carbon di-oxide from the atmosphere and the oceans - the list of benefits is endless. You identify a problem and NT will design a system to tidy things up! But what if nanobots get out of control and continue to replicate without stopping - will the whole world turn into an assembly of nanobots? - Drexler, the father of nanotechnology, was very worried - he called this scenario the grey goo!
The above scenarios could completely destroy the world and the human race, but I do not think that things will go that way - at least not in the short term. Super Intelligence threat is very real and could materialize in due course. But what I am sure is that we humans do not anticipate dangers well. We have survived by patching things up - most of the time not very well. New technologies will generate their own unique hazards - some of them might affect the whole globe very quickly, some might only be detected after it is too late and some of them might have no ready remedy.
I give here just one example to highlight the issues. Carbon Nano-Tubes (CNT) are wonder materials and have found many applications. One even talks about building a space-elevator with CNTs to launch payloads to build future space colonies! CNTs are tiny - a few nanometer (nm) or so in diameter and typically a few micro-meters in length. They are not unlike asbestos fibres which have caused serious illness in people who were unfortunate to inhale them. CNTs are no different and can easily find their way into the human and animal systems -are not dealt properly by the immune system and it seems that they also affect the hosts in a manner that is unpleasant and can be dangerous. There are many studies about the deleterious effects of CNTs on mice and humans.
CNTs are widely used in industry and the current production of CNTs is more than 10000 tonnes per year and increasing rapidly. The problem is that CNTs are also produced by catalytic converters in automobiles, burning of coal in houses in countries like India. They seem to be produced far too easily and unexpectedly in many systems. Because of their chemistry, CNTs can attach pollutant molecules and efficiently deliver them to humans. With increasing industrial production of CNTs with additional inventories coming from other human activities, it is only a matter of time when illnesses like asthma will be common. How will be deal with such a threat is not clear.
Below I have listed some useful references about toxicity of CNTs...
Anthropogenic Carbon Nanotubes Found in the Airways of Parisian Children
doi:10.1016/j.ebiom.2015.10.012
Study says Carbon Nanotubes as Dangerous as Asbestos
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carbon-nanotube-danger/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carbon-nanotube-danger/
By Larry Greenemeier May 20, 2008
A Review of Carbon Nanotube
Toxicity and Assessment of Potential Occupational and Environmental Health
Risks
Chiu-wing Lam et al. 2006
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110118092134.htm
Researcher warns of health risks with carbon nanotubes Date: January 19, 2011
Researcher warns of health risks with carbon nanotubes Date: January 19, 2011
As a parting thought, if human health is indeed affected by nano-material ingestion then the new generations will be less able to cope with stresses of life - stresses will also increase as rapid changes in technologies will create situations that human societies will find difficult to adjust. What will Super-Intelligence think of us then? - worth preserving or could do without!
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