Humanity

I often use the word human in my blog because it encapsulates what we are at the essence level. It is our common denominator, hence I agree with the essay author Nassim Taleb that, the worst thing that can happen to a person, is not the individual death or the one of a close group of people, but the extinction of the human species. When evaluating risks, this one must have no tolerance.

Investigating the more general view of the human species, it is easy to fall into the trap of our natural biases and focus only on the current negative events in the world because of the everyday noise of news. Taking a step back, it is sufficient to take decades as a time span to see improvement in every critical area. Factfullness is an excellent book to change perspective based on statistics, which can directly affect reality since our actions depend on it.

Still, recently a key concern rose to my mind: what might happen if the human species is overwhelmed by the current advancements in technology?

After all, the modern Homo sapiens dates back hundreds of thousands of years, and our fundamental instincts and cognitive abilities have remained largely unchanged since their emergence.

One reasoning gave me hope: if we think of the average human beings even as close as 200 years ago, they would have been illiterate, ignorant of most of what today is common knowledge, and living on subsistence. Today, most human beings have proven to be able to engage in far more complex technologies and concepts thanks to their ability to mentally adapt. Even if in a slightly different realm, the hedonistic treadmill is also proof of our natural tendency to adapt to anything. Hence, I am confident we can deal with emerging technologies as long as we evolve with them and do not tolerate any extinction risk.

PS: I recently watched a short film made by a senior high school student that I would share with an alien if asked to describe humans in 13 min. Enjoy the masterpiece.