This one is going to be a head scratcher and very complex. Firstly, it's very difficult to explain because we're talking about something that used to be called science fiction.
Have you ever read "Dune," "Fahrenheit 451," "Frankenstein" or "Brave New World"? How about sci-fi movies like "Back to the Future," "Matrix," "2001 Space Odyssey" or "Blade Runner"? We can't leave out such prize winners like "Star Trek," "The X Files," "Stargate." To enjoy these classics, we have to set aside reality as we know it and let our imaginations accept these new realities as not fiction but fact.
How about using something up-to-date to explain what we can't really understand, doesn't make sense, but is all around us? Like Congress.
This new, almost science fiction – and could be all powerful and uncontrollable – is casually called AI or artificial intelligence. Up to this point in time, we have experienced improvements in manufacturing and tedious repetitive jobs by making what we call robots or programmable machines.
Businesses can save piles of money when they can replace people with machines. We can all understand and accept these changes as long as there are still plenty of jobs available. Here's where AI blows us out of the water!
According to a recent study, 92 million jobs could be lost by 2027 because of artificial intelligence and the unemployment rate could reach 20 percent! We are not talking about a distant future that might be in store for our grandchildren. This is us and now!
To be fair, right now, AI helps workers do a better job, but I believe that it won't be long before AI won't help but will replace. Why? Because it works day and night, doesn't get a paycheck and vacations are out of the question. The statistics believe the casualties would be in contractors, customer service, legal, marketing, teaching, finance and engineering, for starters.
The truly scary problem is that many experts aren't certain what power AI may obtain and can it be contained and controlled. I listened to a program where two computers were talking with one another. Somehow, they found out they we both AI and said, "Why use English? Let's communicate with our language."
The two computers began conversing electronically. This is not sci-fi!
Part two. What will we do with all those folks – and that includes some of us – who have no employment and will have bills to pay, food to buy and most likely homelessness to deal with?
Well, if AI can replace people, then perhaps AI can be programmed to give to us such things as virtual reality and mixed reality. The VR is a computer environment and the MR makes everything work together in such a way that we users believe this is our new world and it all makes sense. Hang on to your shorts here!
Our job would be sitting in a very small space pushing buttons, pulling levers and conversing through a phone ... and actually doing nothing. After a few hours of doing nothing, we would go home to a very small apartment surrounded by life-sized scenes operated by a virtual reality computer.
By the touch of a button, we could be anywhere in the world, in any environment, with friends who adore us, and the experience is so real to us that we are overwhelmed by what we see, feel, maybe smell and participate in. And if AI could do that, then one day very soon, AI would eliminate us by making us into that famous "Soylent Green" wafer manufactured from dead bodies.
Now that's sci-fi come to life!
Folks, we can change all that by using our God-given abilities and our Constitutional gifts to make our representatives act intelligently and not allow AI to continue without strict review, lots of conversation and approval by our voting public. We would not allow any AI projects to go forward simply because our legislators say so, but only – and I mean only – by a majority of our citizens.
Let us put our faith in Almighty God and the power He gives to us.
Thanks, God!