Humanity
Which Century is Most Critical Over All Time?
What we do or fail to do in the next few years will affect human beings forever.
I think the century we are in will be the most crucial of all time, at least up to now. This is what I believe. However, I know some of you might argue and say: what about the Renaissance? The Industrial Revolution was an era of such significance that art and science were forever changed, which transformed our ways of living and working. However, many authorities consider this current century to be possibly the most important time ever in human evolution.
Think about living in a world where robots can do almost anything humans can do — from cooking your breakfast to performing brain surgery on themselves. This may be a reality we face if artificial general intelligence (AGI) emerges within decades to come. AGI refers to robots that can think like humans, reason like us, learn from experience across different domains, and adapt flexibly to perform any intellectual task according to their skill level (Yampolskiy, 2020).
Though these super-intelligent robots sound like fun toys, they pose significant risks because they could become too powerful and see human beings as threats, thus leading to tragic consequences (Bostrom, 2014). On the other hand…
