Our Transitional Era

We are living at an unexpected turn in history; at a time when liberalism is losing credibility, the twin revolutions of information technology and biotechnology pose the greatest challenges to our species. On the one hand they promise solutions to global problems and the possibility of re-designing life, on the other hand their merger may soon throw billions of people out of the labor market, undermining freedom and equality. Big Data algorithms may create digital dictatorships with power in a small elite while the majority will suffer from its insignificance. Whoever owns the data will own the future. So perhaps the most important political question of our time is: how is data ownership regulated? For the foreseeable future the use of artificial intelligence will continue to depend to some extent on human consciousness. But companies or governments through it will be able to identify with great precision our deepest fears, desires or hatreds and manipulate us mercilessly, if they don't already. The real danger is that humans will become robots. So where are we going? Could networked algorithms be the scaffolding of a global human community that would collectively own the data and oversee the future evolution of life? Let's keep our fears under control and be critical and more humble about our opinions. The only counterweight is to realize our potential and creativity and resist being turned into subjects. Before algorithms decide for us who we are and what we need to know.