Man's Inhumanity To Man Is Progressing In A New Form

Man's Inhumanity To Man by Kurt Wallach is about the Holocaust which killed 13 million people and tortured many others. Today we are experiencing dehumanization on a global scale but in a form different to the Holocaust. Hitler could not have foreseen such control on a worldwide level.

Here is the form of the new inhumanity:

• The Covid experience of masks, lockdowns, denial of effective treatment and almost forced vaccination

• Breakdown of sexual identity with sexual mutilation

• Mass censorship on a global scale

• Acceleration of global infertility

• The relentless erosion of religious institutions and their values.

• Unprecedented mass surveillance of all forms of communication, including phone, email and the internet.

• The explosion of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

All of the above have probably led to as many deaths worldwide as committed by Hitler. 

I want to address the latter point because it may be the most troubling––AI

2001: A Space Odyssey has consistently ranked as one of the greatest films. Its original big widescreen production was a visual spectacle; futuristic, philosophical and psychedelic—which fit in with the social fabric of 1968.

Perhaps the central character in the film is HAL 9000, a computer that controls the functioning of the spaceship on its way to Jupiter. HAL, however, has human-like qualities. The two leading astronauts on board sense a flaw in HAL because he reported a problem in an antenna they believed to be erroneous, so they quietly discuss disabling HAL. The problem was, HAL could lip-read their conversation––depicted chillingly–– and decided to turn murderous. 

HAL killed all on board except for the lead astronaut, Dave. Unfortunately, Dave was locked out of the spacecraft while trying to rescue his partner.

It's the ultimate class between man and machine. While HAL expressed free thinking and some emotion, there was no physical resemblance to a human. Today robots are very human-like, physically expressing feelings, and they are self-autonomous, with their programming reflecting the biases of the programmers.

Take Ameca, a life-like robot. The video clip below shows how the line between humans and machines is becoming quite blurred. Where do humans end and robots begin?

Why are we rushing headlong into this new dystopian world of Transhumanism where we lose our humanity, and whoever has control of the technology controls our future destiny.?

We have ourselves to blame because we demand the tools of modern civilization, the Alexia, the robotic vacuums, the self-autonomous vehicles, and much more.

One of my neighbours was thrilled by the latest super-duper robotic vacuum cleaner. You talk to it, and presto, it follows your command. I suspect it even cooks for you. The neighbour kept telling me that I didn't have to exert effort; the robot would do everything. I told her I had no problem with running a vacuum cleaner if need be. She came from a different value system, not necessarily mine. Is life just meant to be easy? It's all a one-sided illusion.

You see, we rationalize the use of all the gadgets and one day, we find those gadgets run us. Slowly but surely, on the current trajectory, we will be supplanted by artificial intelligence which could have sinister motives like HAL. We will progress from humanism to a state of dehumanization, and ultimately, we will become more and more inhumane.

No, thank you. I prefer living, breathing, real people any day over a machine.

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