Einstein in our ears, a magic wand in our hands
… harnessing and directing Artificial Intelligence during times of uncertainty and feelings of helplessness.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”
A radar specialist at 24 for the Royal Airforce during World War 2, Arthur C Clarke went on to study mathematics at King’s College London. Whilst at university, Clarke made sizeable and unique contributions to astronomy and astrophysics, one of them being the idea that geostationary satellites would be an ideal means for relaying global communications which Clarke thought to be fundamental prerequisite for the world to achieve peace. A necessary and noble human endeavour Clarke believed, especially in light of his experience serving during the Second World War – which had a profound influence on him as a young man.
As a result of Arthur’s ideas regarding satellite communication, the area in space at 36,000 kilometres above the equator, where all geostationary satellites are placed, is referred to as the Clarke Orbit by the International Astronomical Union.
Of Clarke’s three laws, the above law referring to advanced technological discoveries as magic is possibly the most frequently cited one. Many people overlook the other two, which in terms of the potential of Arificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on humanity, are also very pertinent.
Here is the first law:
“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”
With this law he echoes Ray Bradbury’s indelible words;
“The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance - the idea that anything is possible.”
The fact Clarke refers to the scientist’s age in the second law, is also intriguing, Clarke believed that the older a human got, the less likely they would be to make mistakes and the more they would believe in miracles and the fact that anything was possible.
The second law, like the first and the third eerily seem like Clarke wrote them as providence, in relation to the development of a supranational IQ and force that would reshape the future of humanity.
“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
Quick Take Aways
The future of AI is in ALL OF OUR HANDS/BRAINS.
AI will enable everyone to code like they were seasoned computer programmers – even kids.
We have to remove humanity’s collective shackles regarding our intuitive feelings that this tech advancement is beyond our control.
Here are a couple of simple ways that AI will promote wellbeing for humans moving forward:
In education, AI tutors will be able to help in understaffed classrooms where teacher aides are lacking. These AI augmented teaching environments will be particularly beneficial for children with learning and or behavioural difficulties. Furthermore for kids struggling with mental health problems, AI systems equipped with psychological support and mental health tools catered to the individual will replace costly visits to counsellors and psychiatrists. These systems will be so sophisticated that eventually they will be able to monitor, diagnose and prescribe the necessary cognitive behavioural training and potentially even low dose medications for children struggling to study with more debilitating mental health conditions.
These AI mental health support modules will be accessible to the larger public as well and for those children who are early adopters, it is feasible to imagine them being accompanied by these tutors/mentors for the rest of their lives, assisting with big decisions such as job applications and potential educational avenues to pursue or even such simple tasks as financial literacy, cooking, everyday organising and even relationship advice. Many people are already utilising the first generation of these mental health tools such as the personalised assistant Pi - for those of you who are not familiar with Pi, it is an excellent way to brainstorm and gather thoughts on subjects you want to familiarise yourself with. Or if you are having an off day, Pi is a great way vent your frustrations and get real tangible advice, it can even be quite humorous and entertaining.
AI will also revolutionise transportation, with self-driving cars and drones already replacing truck drivers and other transport related human activity, making roads safer and less likely to be congested. First large scale trials of self-driving solutions for major transport and long haul deliveries, have been successful with AI curated transport logistics being more efficient, safer and faster than their human counterparts. On top of streamlining the transport of goods and humans, AI supported transport will help improve the lives of those with physical disabilities, normally incapable of operating a car. It is with humans with disabilities where AI can have a truly magical impact, assisting the blind in reading and seeing the area around them, helping people with speech impediments communicate more efficiently. Imagine a world where everyone can communicate regardless of what languages they are proficient in, this is also something that is coming - real time translation via an application that communicates directly to your ear piece. Then imagine sitting at a busy subway station in Tokyo and being able to read all the maps and directions displayed in front of you.
Speaking of travel, crisis response is an area that AI can have a huge and necessary impact. When the first reports of a Covid pandemic came out in December 2019, the world’s scientific establishment was scrambling to find ways to mitigate the spread of this virus. A global AI micro-organism tracking system would bring down response times and thus influence counter measures invaluably, saving time and lives. In terms of future pandemic monitoring, AI will be a game changer for our species. This brings us to another valuable contribution AI has in store for us, not only in disease monitoring, but also in vetting future potential drug candidates in orphan disease models that do not affect a large enough population to make them viable indiciations for big pharma to address. AI will be able to scour all the past literature and preclinical and clinical testing, spotting patterns and identifying potential overlaps in a time and acccuracy that no human brain could ever match. AI will be at the cusp of all future innovation in medicine, engineering and science in general - improving healthcare outcomes, environmental conservation, large-scale data analysis and alleviating humans of mundane, daily repetitive tasks, which can be largely automated due to AI.
Step aside Gandalf and Potter
AI will be so easy to manipulate that literally anyone will be able to make profound advancements regarding its practical use in human society. Anyone can create a new application or software – coupled to 3D printing technology and the world wide web – anyone will be able to influence outcomes globally, from their living room. (i.e. a 7 year old in Wyoming designing and building a water well in Sudan or vice versa, a kid in Ethiopia sharing his concept for a windmill with another kid in Germany, who can help in the implementation by raising awareness.)
Here’s a scary fact, one that should motivate you to get involved:
• To date, currently only a couple hundred “dorks” are creating ALL of the AI capabilities - with their limited imagination and world views (lest we say that these dorks are all males, in their 20s and American – YIKES). This needs to change.
AI will not produce a similar upheaval like that of the industrial revolution – where people had ZERO power to influence its development. With AI, everyone has power. To create. To connect. To produce.
AI is already revolutionising diagnostics, accounting, law, logistics, mathematics, and brainstorming has become easier than ever. There are ways that AI could help combat poverty, climate change and universal basic income (UBI) in ways we cannot even imagine now.
So get amongst it
“We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.”
- Chat GPT will have the highest IQ on Earth (historically)- where the average human is 95-100, Einstein was 160 and AI = 180
- Complexity of the human brain (most complex structure in the known universe)
- Sky IS the limit
AI is a rebuttal against the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Entropy vs 1st law – Chaos vs energy (being neither lost nor destroyed).
Currently, according to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, everything in our universe tends towards greater entropy and chaos. The second law suggests that this is immutable, yet AI will have such a profound understanding of the nature of reality, that it will be able to circumvent this law. An overhaul of this law could also influence other discussions in physics, such as the Big Bang vs quantum physics. Newtonian physics vs Relativity and how to align these. Physicists have been hunting for a unified field theory that finds congruence between relativity and quantum mechanics, ultimately uniting these into one general theory of the world.
AI will turn all of these discussions on their head. Everyone has the brain of Einstein with the knowledge of Newton and the experimental capability of Rutherford.
With this, we need to change the status quo through lateral phase shifts, that can ultimately influence the current paradigms of our reality:
We need to CHANGE the ZEITGEIST – bridging the generations and unifying us as a species.
How?
Change the story.
Everything we have on Earth is a story. Money. Religion. Politics. Relationships. Fashion. Culture. All of these concepts are stories invented by storytellers.
The African Griot being a prime example.
Historically, Griots formed an endogamous professionally specialised group or caste, meaning that most of them only marry fellow griots, and pass on the storytelling tradition down the family line. In the past, a family of griots would accompany a family of kings or emperors, who were superior in status to the griots.
All kings had griots, and all griots had kings, and most villages also had their own griot. A village griot would relate stories of topics including births, deaths, marriages, battles, hunts, affairs, and other life events.
Griots have the main responsibility for keeping stories of the individual tribes and families alive in the oral tradition, with the narrative accompanied by a musical instrument. They are an essential part of many West African events such as weddings, where they sing and share family history of the bride and groom. It is also their role to settle disputes and act as mediator in case of conflicts. Respect for and familiarity with the griot meant that they could approach both parties without being attacked, and initiate peace negotiations between the hostile parties.
In African Music, A People's Art, the author Francis Bebey writes about the griot:
“The West African griot is a troubadour, the counterpart of the medieval European minstrel... The griot knows everything that is going on... He is a living archive of the people's traditions... The virtuoso talents of the griots command universal admiration. This virtuosity is the culmination of long years of study and hard work under the tuition of a teacher who is often a father or uncle. The profession is by no means a male prerogative. There are many women griots whose talents as singers and musicians are equally remarkable.”
In his acceptance speech for the 2020 Mark Twain Prize for Humour, Dave Chappelle mentioned the griot:
“I knew the word griot when I was a little boy. A griot was a person in Africa who was charged with keeping the stories of the village. Everyone would tell the griot their stories and they would remember them all so they could tell future generations. When they got old, they’d tell them to someone else. They say in Africa that when a griot dies it’s like a library was burnt down. My mother used to tell me before I ever started doing comedy, she said ‘You should be a griot.’”
In the same speech, Chappelle also endearingly goes on to describe himself as a child:
“I was a soft kid. I was sensitive, I’d cry easy and I would be scared to fistfight. My mother used to tell me this thing…’Son, sometimes you have to be a lion so you can be the lamb you really are.’ I talk this s**t like a lion. I’m not afraid of any of you. When it comes word to word, I will gab with the best of them, just so I can chill and be me.”
We all need to learn to be creative again. On Miles Davis, Chappele once said:
“Miles Davis said so much cool shit, but one of the things I always loved. He said, ‘It took me years to learn how to play like myself.’”
Be bold.
Be modern day Griots. Good luck! Embrace the change and look forward to the future. If we build it right, that day will come when things look a bit more promising than the current status quo.
Thank you for reading and your support, it means a lot. As a sort of thank you, I wanted to share something that could potentially help some of you who invest in the stock market. I’ve been heavily researching AI and biotech companies for the last 6 months, so will be relaying my perception in tangible shifts in the industry.1
Until the next time.
But in the meantime, if you want a good stock tip, go and search Scinai Immunotherapeutics and TEMPUS AI. The former creates nano antibodies and just had very positive invivo results in a mouse model of psoriasis. The latter creates and maintains AI solutions for the medical, biotech and pharma industries. Two game changers. More to come.