Future Today #096 - Musk. IA. Long term. Quantum Mechanics. Web3

Welcome to Future Today! A newsletter for those curious about social innovation, disruptive technologies and futures studies. In it I share weekly articles, reports and interesting links, and recommendations of books, movies, series, events and courses.

🤖 Elon Musk Signs Open Letter Urging AI Labs to Pump the Brakes. An open letter with signatures from hundreds of the biggest names in tech, including Elon Musk, has urged the world’s leading artificial intelligence labs to pause the training of new super-powerful systems for six months, saying that recent advances in AI present “profound risks to society and humanity.”

💥 The end of reality: what the next 10 years of artificial intelligence will look like (ES) The world is fascinated by ChatGPT, Dall-e, MidJourney, Lensa and the rest of the artificial intelligences that create text, images and video. But, as the experts we interviewed for this amazing episode of Control Z tell us, humanity is unaware of the dire consequences of their runaway development. Here's the timeline, just 10 years ahead, of what's to come.

👓 The Democratic Metaverse. We are likely to have immersive virtual reality and ubiquitous augmented reality in the coming decades. At least some people will use extended reality or “the metaverse” to work, play and shop. In order to achieve the best possible versions of this virtual future, however, we will need to learn from three decades of regulating the Internet. The new virtual world cannot consist of walled corporate fiefdoms ruled only by profit maximization. The interests of workers, consumers and citizens in virtuality require proactive legislation and oversight.

🔭 Against longtermism. There seems to be a growing recognition that humanity might be approaching the ‘end times’. Dire predictions of catastrophe clutter the news. Social media videos of hellish wildfires, devastating floods and hospitals overflowing with COVID-19 patients dominate our timelines. Extinction Rebellion activists are shutting down cities in a desperate attempt to save the world. 

💭 There will be fewer people alive in 2100 than now. A new report reevaluating the long-feared "population bomb" has found not only that such an explosion in birthrates is unlikely given our current trajectory, but also that the global population will likely peak within this century before falling.

Recommended book: Exhalation (2020) - Ted Chiang // Recommended tv series: Last of us (2023 - )

🧠 The Age of AI has begun. In my lifetime, I’ve seen two demonstrations of technology that struck me as revolutionary. The first time was in 1980, when I was introduced to a graphical user interface—the forerunner of every modern operating system, including Windows. The second big surprise came just last year. I’d been meeting with the team from OpenAI since 2016 and was impressed by their steady progress.

💡 Quantum mechanics: how the future might influence the past. In 2022, the physics Nobel prize was awarded for experimental work showing that the quantum world must break some of our fundamental intuitions about how the universe works. Many look at those experiments and conclude that they challenge “locality” — the intuition that distant objects need a physical mediator to interact. And indeed, a mysterious connection between distant particles would be one way to explain these experimental results.

🇬🇧 UK includes Web3, AI and quantum strategy in budgets (ES) The UK government is including Web3 technology in budgets for the fiscal period starting in April. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt pledged nearly £3.5 billion to turn the UK into a science and technology superpower. On Web3, the government is committed to leading its future and maximizing its potential.

👖 Levi’s to Use AI-Generated Models to ‘Increase Diversity’. Fashion brand Levi Strauss & Co has announced a partnership with digital fashion studio Lalaland.ai to make custom artificial intelligence (AI) generated avatars in what it says will increase diversity among its models.

🌱 Floating Farm Takes Sustainable Agriculture to the Next Level. Inspired by the 2012 food shortages witnessed in New York City following Hurricane Sandy, husband and wife team Peter and Minke van Wingerden came up with the idea for a sustainable farm that floats on the sea. Designed to produce food where there’s the greatest demand - inside a city - the Wingerdens’ three-story floating dairy farm bobs idyllically in the Netherlands’ Port of Rotterdam, an innovative beacon of sustainable agriculture. 

Asking ChatGPT

🧔🏻 Imagine you are a time traveler and you travel 50 years into the future, what do you see?

🤖 If you were to travel 50 years into the future, you would likely see many significant differences compared to today's world. Some of the possible things you might see are:

• Significant technological advances: over the course of 50 years, technology would have come a long way. You are likely to see new forms of transportation, such as flying cars, high-speed trains, and other means of transportation that have not yet been invented.
• Climate change: Climate change is one of the biggest concerns in the world today. In 50 years, it is likely to see the continuing effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels, extinction of some animal and plant species, and significant alteration of ecosystems.
• Further development in artificial intelligence: Artificial intelligence is likely to have come a long way in 50 years. We may see robots performing human jobs, such as cleaning and maintenance of homes, hospitals, and industry in general.
• Increased awareness of the importance of sustainability: in 50 years, awareness of sustainability is likely to have increased significantly. You could see new technologies and practices that enable humanity to live in harmony with the environment.
• Significant changes in politics and international relations: Political changes can be difficult to predict, but you may see new alliances between countries, new ways of governing, and greater international cooperation to address global challenges.

🤖 In short, if you were to travel 50 years into the future, you are likely to see many significant changes in technology, politics, the environment, and society in general.

🧔🏻 You say you would see the continuing effects of climate change but on the other hand an increased awareness of sustainability. How do the two coexist? Which do you think will prevail?

🤖 It is possible that in the future we will see both the continuing effects of climate change and a greater awareness of sustainability because they are related but not necessarily mutually exclusive phenomena.

🤖 On the one hand, climate change is a global problem that affects the entire planet and can have serious effects on people's lives and nature. The effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, desertification, biodiversity loss and air pollution, can be very harmful to the environment and human health. However, awareness of these problems can lead to positive changes in society.

🤖 Sustainability, on the other hand, refers to the ability to maintain a balance between human development and environmental protection over the long term. Awareness of the importance of sustainability can lead to positive changes in the way people consume and use resources, in the production and design of products, and in urban and rural planning.

🤖 As for what will prevail in the future, it is difficult to predict. However, I hope that sustainability awareness will prevail and that people and companies will realize the importance of caring for the environment to protect our planet and future generations. Technology can also be a valuable tool to help address climate change and promote sustainability, and I hope that we will see more advances in this field in the future.

Such exponential growth does not occur in the natural world, except maybe for cancer—and that growth ceases once the host has been consumed - Douglas Rushkoff

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