War, Climate Crisis and AI
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has."~ Margaret Mead
War (& Peace)
Peace requires law. Enforceable law. In a perfect world, we wouldn't need law to "keep the peace". We do not live in a perfect world. The reason many of us are free is because of laws. You may think that laws restrict your freedom, and in fact they do, they for example, restrict you from committing murder. But without those same laws, other people would not be restricted from committing murder upon you. So it’s the law that protects you from murder, that allows you to walk through the streets unafraid. It’s the law that gives you freedom.
Unfortunately, enforceable laws only exist within nation-states. The rule amongst nations is anarchy. Which is why we have war. Unresolvable conflicts have no effective court to settle disputes. There are no enforceable laws to guide the parties to a peaceful resolution. And where there are laws, they can be ignored as there is no organization to enforce them.
Within nation-states, we have laws and a police force to enforce the laws and courts to settle the matters. This works fairly well in large parts of the world. What would make us think that we don't need any of that for settling disputes amongst nations?
What if war (effectively state-sanctioned murder) was illegal? Not just "war crimes" but war itself. What if we, an international community of people, decided that nuclear weapons and all other military weaponry were prohibited?
Enforceable laws between nations are exactly what we need to prevent war. Prevent war. This is what the UN was meant to do. It has failed. It was doomed from the beginning. It had neither the power nor the legitimacy to make that work.
We desperately need supranational, enforceable laws, and we need them now. And for that, we need a democratic World Federation.
We often feel helpless to do anything, but we must take responsibility. We must make radical changes.
Peace on earth is actually attainable - if we really want it.
The Climate Crisis
Guess who is not going to solve the climate crisis? The United Nations is not going to solve the climate crisis. Our national governments are not going to solve the climate crisis, and big corporations are not going to do it either. We know this for certain because they have known about the climate crisis for decades, and they have known what the solutions are, and they have not even scratched the surface. We are in fact, continuing to move in the wrong direction.
We can solve the climate crisis. We already know how to do it. But we need enforceable international laws.
Unfortunately, enforceable laws only exist within nation-states. The rule amongst nations is anarchy and competition. Serious competition. Especially for resources. Under such circumstances, why would any one country take actions that might put them at a competitive disadvantage? They wouldn't and they don't.
This is why we cannot get any serious agreements on preventing further climate change. And the agreements we do get are often not met or ignored entirely. Treaties do not work.
Unresolvable conflicts have no effective court to settle disputes. There are no enforceable laws to guide the parties to a peaceful resolution. And where there are laws, they can be ignored as there is no organization to enforce them.
We desperately need supranational, enforceable laws and we need them now. And for that, we need a democratic World Federation.
The thing about the climate crisis is that we know how to halt it - we just don't have the right political infrastructure to execute the policies.
We often feel helpless to do anything, but we must take responsibility. We must make radical change. We must, and we can.
AI
Artificial Intelligence is a problem we have never encountered before. At least in terms of scale. And it is truly a global concern.
Regardless of whether or not you believe that AI will one day rule humanity (for better or for worse), the very short-term implications are of considerable concern.
AI is a powerful tool and, as such, can be used for good but also for evil. We need to worry about the evil piece. But even there, it's not necessarily only malicious intent that we need to concern ourselves with. Unintended consequences of such a powerful tool are also possible if not likely (think of The Sorcerer's Apprentice). And AI development and deployment do not require enriched uranium or millions of dollars of equipment to create. A $1,500 PC and a mother's basement will work.
Many of our societal systems are built on a foundation of trust. Our monetary system is built on trust. Our very civilization is built on trust.
What would happen if we couldn't trust these systems anymore? What would happen if we could no longer trust what we see? What we read? What we hear?
What if that fraudulent email or text became indiscernible from a real email or text. What fools your parents today, might very well fool you tomorrow.
What if you get a call from your daughter in urgent need of assistance? Her voice. Her intonation and rhythm. But it's not her.
What if you log into your bank account and all you see are zeroes? What could you do? And then there is a run on the banks?
What would happen if a video of Joe Biden declaring that he had just minutes ago made the tough decision to fire missiles at Russia. And that we should all take cover. And 5 minutes later Joe Biden is "live" online declaring that the video is a deep fake. It wasn't him. Everyone relax. Which would you believe? More importantly, which would the Russians believe? And when.
OK, enough with the scare tactics. You get the point. We need to have a central authority to heavily regulate AI and build safeguards around its development.
This is urgent and will require a functioning World Federation to achieve.