The Economist (September 17)
“Two things should make you consider what artificial intelligence could mean for humanity. One is that those working with the technology are warning about it leading to a catastrophe—human extinction, even. The other is how technological innovation is aggravating the destruction of Ukraine. These things offer conflicting lessons for whether AI’s rapid progress can or should be slowed down.”
Tags: AI, Catastrophe, Conflicting lessons, Destruction, Human extinction, Humanity, Technological innovation, Technology, Ukraine, Warning
The Guardian (September 11)
“Humanity cannot outsource its survival.” AI must be controlled, but that’s no easy feat. “Keeping people in charge means little if supercomputers determine the evidence, choices and time on which their decisions depend.” Yet we must. “The dangers of AI-enabled pandemics or attacks on nuclear systems are real. Countries need not agree on democracy or trade policy to accept this.”
Tags: AI, Attacks, Choices, Controlled, Dangers, Decisions, Democracy, Evidence, Humanity, Nuclear systems, Outsource, Pandemics, Real, Supercomputers, Survival, Time, Trade policy
The Guardian (December 31)
2023 was “the hottest year on record” and may mark “the year humanity put its stamp on Antarctica in ways that will be felt for centuries to come.” The continent “has suffered dramatic shifts that raise serious concerns about its immediate health.” These coincide with “evidence that longer-term transformations linked to the climate crisis have started much sooner” than expected. Beyond “ramifications for local wildlife,” there will be ripple effects “across the globe in ways that are often less well understood.”
Tags: 2023, Antarctica, Climate crisis, Concerns, Evidence, Hottest, Humanity, Ramifications, Record, Shifts, Transformations, Wildlife
New York Times (September 18)
“Children born today will very likely live to see the end of global population growth.” Estimates range from the 2060s to 2080s, but “all of the predictions agree on one thing: We peak soon. And then we shrink. Humanity will not reach a plateau and then stabilize. It will begin an unprecedented decline.” It’s not too soon “to start talking about what this means. “Waiting until the population peaks to ask how to respond to depopulation would be as imprudent as waiting until the world starts to run out of fossil fuels to begin responding to climate change.”
Tags: 2060s, 2080s, Children, Depopulation, Fossil fuels, Global, Humanity, Peak, Population growth, Response, Shrink, Unprecedented decline
Newsweek (May 11)
“Business leaders are particularly enthralled by AI’s growing capabilities,” but the general public is unsold. “Two-thirds of American adults—across all income and education levels—don’t trust generative AI and believe it presents a threat to humanity.” The urgent challenge must be addressed. “As was the case at the dawn of the nuclear age, we all have a role to play in demanding governance of this new technology. Scientists, along with society more generally, have made it clear that now is the time.”
Tags: AI, Business leaders, Education, Enthralled, General public, Generative, Governance, Growing capabilities, Humanity, Income, Scientists, Society, Technology, Threat, Trust
Investments & Pensions Europe (January Issue)
“The scientific evidence is unequivocal that if humanity continues along its current path, it is likely that, by 2100, global average temperatures will rise by between 2.7°C and 3.6°C. A rise of 4°C could lead to a cost of as much as $31trn (€29trn) per year in 2100… apart from the costs of loss of life and destruction of habitats.”
Tags: $31trn (€29trn), 2100, 4°C, Destruction, Evidence, Habitats, Humanity, Loss of life, Rise, Scientific, Temperatures, Unequivocal
Washington Post (April 28)
“Not since an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs—along with at least half of all other beings on Earth—has life in the ocean been so at risk. Warming waters are cooking creatures in their own habitats…. If humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase…roughly a third of all marine animals could vanish within 300 years.”
Tags: Asteroid, Dinosaurs, Earth, Emissions, GHG, Habitats, Humanity, Life, Marine animals, Ocean, Risk, Vanish, Warming waters
Denver Post (August 5)
“The known total of global coronavirus infections surpassed 200 million Wednesday, a daunting figure that also fails to capture how far the virus has embedded itself within humanity.” Official death figures are also imperfect but useful markers and now stand at over 614,000 deaths in the U.S., 550,000 in Brazil, 425,000 in India, and 4.2 million worldwide.
Tags: Brazil, Coronavirus, Daunting, Death, Embedded, Humanity, India, Infections, Official, Surpassed, U.S., Virus
New York Times (September 19)
“No sensible person can dispute that Covid-19 is a great tragedy for humanity,” And yet measured, “by the cold logic of evolution: The career of SARS-CoV-2 so far is, in Darwinian terms, a great success story…. Bad luck for us. But evolution is not rigged to please Homo sapiens.”
Tags: Cold logic, COVID-19, Darwinian, Dispute, Evolution, Homo sapiens, Humanity, SARS-CoV-2, Sensible, Success story, Tragedy
Chicago Tribune (March 6)
“We walk the Earth’s crust, we erect vast cities, we boast of our achievements. We see ourselves as the mistresses and masters of our fate.” With the coronavirus, however, “nature once again reminds us who’s boss.” The “little living form that now roils humanity is a virus” and it does not discriminate “in selecting its victims; great wealth has its privileges, but immunity from epidemics isn’t one of them.”
Tags: Achievements, Boss, Cities, Coronavirus, Earth, Fate, Humanity, Immunity, Nature, Victims, Wealth
