History Warns of the Deadly Threat to Humanity from Artificial Intelligence
Experts warn that AI poses an existential threat to humanity
An article published in Nature magazine in autumn 2017 makes for interesting reading. It reports on research carried out by Washington State University and Arizona State University, which shows that the wealth disparity in human societies was insignificant until the development of agriculture. That occurred in different parts of the world around 13,000 years ago. What happened next should be a warning to humans in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
Land cultivation started when groups of nomads stayed in one location probably due to illness, injury, bad weather, or fear of other tribes. A few individuals experimented with seeds and plants and discovered that they could grow edible crops in dedicated plots and repeat the process each year. That reduced their need to constantly hunt, fish, and search for wild fruit and vegetables. Some grabbed more land than others and became the wealthiest of the group. The wealth gap increased even more, when some people learned how to tame large animals like oxen and horses and used them to till larger areas and, in the case of horses, more effectively fight adversaries and, so, acquire more land.
