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Serfs of the XXI century. Who will rule the world in 50 years
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Sergey Leskov

[REGNUM] On January 30, a large-scale Internet outage occurred in Russia. Several dozen popular sites and services have become unavailable. Business activity was paralyzed. Banking and financial platforms, as well as marketplaces, froze. Experts say that this is the largest disruption in the Russian segment of the Internet.

The Domain Coordination Center reported that the unavailability of sites in the ru domain zone. is related to problems with the DNSSEC protocol suite, which ensures user security and is used to prevent cyber attacks. The analogy is simple - you installed an anti-theft system on your car, it hit a false note, and when you started the engine, the security service took you under the thumbs.

Fortunately, there were no shocks. Roskomnadzor announced that on the morning of January 31, the system returned to normal. Can we breathe a sigh of relief? Let computer scientists understand the defects, and sensible minds cannot help but wonder about dependence on the latest technologies, which were invented to make our existence easier, but in reality make people completely dependent on them.

Mysteriously, the Internet outage coincided with International Internet Day, which is celebrated on the last Sunday of January. Conspiracy theorists can come up with their own versions, but it must be recalled that the Day Without the Internet was not conceived to fight it, but for the humane purpose of reminding people that in addition to the delights of the virtual world, there are many simple values. It may seem strange to some, but life is richer than the most beautiful computer. In addition to social networks, the luxury of live communication remains, which in modern times seems anachronistic. There are sports, theater, nature, excursions and intimate conversations. Have you forgotten what it is yet?

However, on that cloudy day when we lost the Internet, many panic-prone citizens plunged into the abyss of technophobia and were reminded that dependence on the latest technology can take a dangerous turn. Our life in the real world becomes scarce and transits into the virtual world. In a modern city, it is impossible to refuse the Internet for a thousand reasons. You will wander around helplessly, like old man Hottabych in industrial Moscow. Shopping, news, salaries, webinars and seminars, loans and fines, work and tickets, payment of utilities, training, books and movies, even reports on children’s education - everything is online.

It must be admitted that in the 21st century, a city dweller is a serf. A person has become enslaved to the Internet and social networks. A day without the Internet is a day erased from life. In Shakespeare's tragedy, King Richard exclaims: “Horse! Half a kingdom for a horse!” Nowadays, if King Charles III goes for a walk from Buckingham Palace without a phone, he will have to shout: “iPhone! Half a kingdom for an iPhone!” I don’t know a single person who, having forgotten his phone at home, would not turn around his route.

But there is no need to sprinkle ashes on your head. The current era is no exception. Man has always been dependent on many things and circumstances. If you don’t have a dog, your neighbor won’t poison it, if you don’t have an aunt, and so on. Life is an endless chain of our dependencies and burdens. Is there any reason to believe that the onslaught of information technology has increased our vulnerability?

In 1910, newspapers wrote about Leo Tolstoy’s escape from Yasnaya Polyana: “ The Count’s nerves were worn out by cinematography, cyclists and airplanes.” In the era of the frontal advance of machines, society was inclined to be tempted to explain the collapse of patriarchal foundations by the invasion of technology. In England, the threat of a drop in milk production from cows due to locomotive whistles was discussed. In the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, hatred of machines was expressed in the Luddite movement, which destroyed looms. More troops took part in the suppression of the Luddite uprising in 1811 than in the Napoleonic War. 17 Luddites (more than Decembrists!) were hanged for damaging equipment, hundreds were exiled to Australia.

Fear of the new and unknown is characteristic of every living creature. However, the fear of progress at the dawn of the scientific and technological revolution and outwardly the same fear in our time are fundamentally different. The difference is that previously, poorly educated people trembled before the onslaught of machines. Now this feeling has infused the souls of the enlightened strata. In my opinion, common misconceptions of this century include fear of GMOs, radiophobia, and the anthropogenic factor in global warming. New phobias include the fear that the Internet is encroaching on human nature itself and threatens to destroy our universe. Accidents and failures happen in all technical systems, but it cannot be denied that they are improving and becoming more reliable. Cursing the Internet because of a technical glitch is like lashing a stumbling mare with a whip.

In my opinion, in the field of information and computer technologies, the real danger lies in artificial intelligence, which politicians are talking about excitedly. There is an authoritative opinion that the one who first creates real and full-fledged artificial intelligence will become the ruler of the world. Authoritative futurist Michio Kaku, who recently spoke at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, considers the inevitable all-out offensive of robots and the displacement of humans from their centuries-old homes. In the coming years, 5 percent of traditional professions will be occupied by robots. 800 professions will be digitized and automated. According to forecasts, the profession of journalist falls into this sad row. But for now these lines are written by a person, although it is becoming increasingly difficult to prove this.

Deep down, we believe that there will be areas where artificial intelligence cannot penetrate. But the computer is already tearing apart chess champions like a hot water bottle, although Botvinnik believed that the ceiling for a robot was the first category. The great prophet Arthur C. Clarke predicted that by 2025 all feelings and emotions will be digitized. Stephen Hawking had no doubt that robots would learn to believe in God. Michio Kaku believes that a turning point in the relationship between man and robot will certainly come, and the robot will want to take power. Therefore, a person must still have access to the secret switch, that is, to the last microchip.

What naivety! Deceiving artificial intelligence is the same utopia as catching up with Savransky. The father of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener, warned his descendants: “The logic of a robot is to eliminate everything that interferes with its expansion. ” Simply put, the robot will try to eliminate its creator as soon as it notices that he is about to pull the plug out of the socket.

Personally, I do not rule out the possibility that teenagers who play with computers today and complain about glitches on the Internet will be the last people on Earth. After them, artificial intelligence will take power. And he won’t have any failures.


Posted by: badanov 2024-02-02
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=690257