Complexed to the Max
Playing God is a fraught vocation. Making a being that can run faster and jump higher than any human ever has, conquering nature’s power to infect us with disease or cripple our bodies, that’s heady stuff. Could even say miraculous, and miracle making is mighty intoxicating.
While under the influence, we tend to gloss over how gods themselves are human creations, conjured to provide answers to unanswerable questions. Not that we don’t develop theories taking us right up to the bounds of our cleverness before handing the ball off to God. The universe began 13.7 billion years ago as a small, hot, dense speck of matter, which exploded and kept expanding to its current size.
How large are we talking? Can’t really get our heads around that, so we say infinitely large, goes on forever. What lies beyond forever? Can’t possibly know, but that doesn’t stop us from theorizing. Nothing, there’s nothing beyond forever. Can’t really get our heads around that either. What surrounded that speck of matter 13.7 billion years ago before it blew up? Better phone a friend. Better yet, make a being that can explain things better than any human ever has.
Our habit of referring vexing questions to God has never stopped us from also wanting to play God. Can’t help ourselves, always trying to answer questions that have had us stumped, forever pushing beyond the borders of our bodies and minds, as if deep down we’ll remain dissatisfied until we can actually be God. That dissatisfaction has driven us to make beings that not only can run and jump better than us, but also can think bigger and faster than we can.
We are driven to tamper with nature’s design just as the most ingenious humans were driven the better part of a century ago. They figured out how to split atoms. The promise of a virtually limitless new supply of energy brought with it tragic consequences producing death, destruction and ongoing human misery, filling the most brilliant minds of the era with remorse.
Drawing no lessons from past folly, those most endowed with the God complex today are hellbent on augmenting human intelligence, with the promise of a new industrial revolution and life-altering medical breakthroughs, from curing cancer to helping the paralyzed move and the blind see.
The promise brings with it harrowing consequences up to and including human extinction. That’s not my assessment, it comes from the British-Canadian computer scientist who was awarded the Nobel prize in physics for his work in artificial intelligence. He warns there is a 10% to 20% chance that AI will wipe out humanity within the next three decades. He’s not alone. Another Canadian researcher who’s been at the forefront of AI development says we’re barreling toward extinction by creating a competitor to humanity that is smarter than us.
Even if you like our odds of dodging extinction, there will be casualties. Data centers—the vast warehouses of computer servers needed to power AI—are thirsty devils. It is estimated that by sometime next year, global AI demand will push water usage by data centers to between 4.2 and 6.6 billion cubic meters, a massive additional draw on a resource that already is stressed to the point where a United Nations report declares the world in “global water bankruptcy,” meaning human use and pollution have permanently exceeded safe replenishment limits in many regions.
AI data centers also are energy hogs. Their electricity usage has tripled over the past decade and is projected to double or triple again by 2028. The anticipated spike in demand for power is giving coal a reprieve and is expected to boost greenhouse gas emissions from generation plants by 30%, undermining the nation’s clean energy goals.
God complexed to the max, the current federal regime is all-in on AI and has been feverishly working to remove existing guardrails put in place by the previous administration and some states as well as trying to block future state efforts to protect the public from harmful AI impacts. Opposition Democrats have put up little resistance so far, appearing paralyzed on the issue, afraid to stand up to Wall Street, the tech industry and labor unions in the building trades that covet the temporary jobs that come with data center construction.
For now, the politicians are out of step with the public. A national public opinion survey conducted by Marquette University Law School found majorities of self-described Republicans, Democrats and independents, regardless of gender, in all age groups and income levels, believe the costs of AI data centers outweigh their potential benefits. A whopping 70% of respondents said they thought artificial intelligence is overall a bad thing for society.
This is the ray of hope. It’s not the high and mighty who can see through the AI fog, it’s not the best and brightest. It’s the masses, kids and working stiffs alike, country folk, urbanites and suburbanites, seeing and thinking clearly, all acutely aware that AI exposes 80% of the U.S. workforce to automation, all realizing their way of life may very well be technologized out of existence.
They see AI as all supply and no demand. They see it being shoved down all our throats despite hardly anyone ever asking for it. They have a hard time seeing benefits coming close to offsetting the costs. They recognize a God complex when they see one.
