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MODULE 8 110

Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us?

HOW TO LEARN FROM

THIS MODULE
Here’s a simple guide for you in going about the module:
1. Read and follow the instructions carefully.
2. Read each lesson and do all the activities provided for you.
3. Perform all the activities diligently to help and guide you in understanding the topic.

4. Take the Learning Activity after each lesson to determine how well you understood the
topic.

5. Answer the Assessment Task at the end of the module to measure how much you have
gained from the lessons. You may answer it via the online link provided or write your
answers on a sheet of paper that you can physically submit, or you may take a picture of
your answers and send it via messaging platforms with which you agreed with your
instructor during the class orientation.

INTRODUCTION
In April of 2000, Bill Joy ignited a heated discussion concerning the role
of technology in modern society. His article in Wired magazine entitled “Why
the Future Doesn’t Need Us” became the focus of a growing concern that
technological advances are coming so quickly and are so dramatic that they
threaten the future existence of humanity itself. He argues that the 21st century
technologies such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology and robotics (GNR)
are a great threat that they might wipe out the human race from face of the
Earth.
In this module, we will focus in discussing the article of Bill Joy on “Why
the Future Doesn’t Need Us” and dig deeper on the concept of Artificial
Intelligences through watching a documentary film. After completing the
module, you should be able to answer the following:
 What are the strongest reasons of Bill Joy for expressing optimism in
his article?
 How far the world has gone into artificial intelligence and its further
advances in the future?

Science,Technology and Society (STS-

GEC 6) Isabela State University
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this module, the learner should be able to:

o Identify moral issues and standards in using modern technologies; o

Discuss the effects of the interplay between technology and humanity
through the dilemma(s) they face;
o Evaluate contemporary human experience in order to strengthen and
enlighten the human person functioning in society.

LEARNING CONTENT
In the Philippines, modern technology has gradually flourished. It is
something that we use in our everyday lives because it makes the tasks we
come across in our daily activities much easier. Without a doubt, technology
can help to make a society more productive, and growing productivity is a
major predictor for future increases in standards of living. However, technology
can likewise lead to large impact on a person’s physical, mental, psychological
aspect if abused thoroughly. It can cause harm to both the environment and
individuals.

LESSON 1. An Argument on Dangers of Technology to Humanity

Bill Joy argues that humanity is in danger from technologies that he

believes are just around the corner. His concern is that robotics, genetic
engineering, and nanotechnology present risks unlike anything we have
created in the past. The key to understanding these new risks is the fact that
these technologies share one remarkable potential; that is, self-replication.
Recently, some people have expressed concerns about the effects of
technology. The most dominant concern these days is artificial technology (AI)
that would replace people in jobs. Some people worry that robots and the
internet might eventually replace people in the work field. Joy believes that we
will have intelligent robots by 2030, nano replicators by 2020, and that the
genetic revolution is already upon us. We all have a picture of what an
intelligent robot might look like. Hollywood has given us many stories of that
kind of technology gone wrong; the Terminator series for example. Surprisingly,
Bill Joy concludes “The only realistic alternative I see is relinquishment: to limit
development of the technologies that are too dangerous by limiting our pursuit
of certain kinds of knowledge.”

After reading the article by Bill Joy on “Why the Future Doesn’t Need
Us”, make an outline using the format below and answer the given questions.
Write your output in word format and submit via ______________________.

Science,Technology and Society (STS-

GEC 6) Isabela State University
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Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us

LESSON 2. On Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is wide-ranging branch of computer science

concerned with building smart machines capable of performing tasks that
typically require human intelligence. AI is an interdisciplinary science with
multiple approaches, but advancements in machine learning and deep learning
are creating a paradigm shift in virtually every sector of the tech industry
(https://builtin.com/artificialintelligence).
In the paper published in the internet society organization, although
artificial intelligence evokes thoughts of science fiction, artificial intelligence
already has many uses today, for example:

• Email filtering: Email services use artificial intelligence to filter incoming

emails. Users can train their spam filters by marking emails as “spam”.
• Personalization: Online services use artificial intelligence to personalize
your experience. Services, like Amazon or Netflix, “learn” from your
previous purchases and the purchases of other users in order to
recommend relevant content for you.
• Fraud detection: Banks use artificial intelligence to determine if there is
strange activity on your account. Unexpected activity, such as foreign
transactions, could be flagged by the algorithm.
• Speech recognition: Applications use artificial intelligence to optimize
speech recognition functions. Examples include intelligent personal
assistants, e.g. Amazon’s “Alexa” or Apple’s “Siri”.

The advancement of artificial intelligence and robotics poses challenges

on its socio-economic impacts, transparency, bias and accountability, new uses
of data, security and safety, ethics and new ecosystems. With this, adoption of
ethical standard is needed to promote ethical considerations in innovation
policies

a. developments

Bill Joy’s article “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us” provides an extensive
analysis of the new technologies’ development in terms of their ethical
dimensions. Examining the nature of NGR technologies, the author defines
their destructive power as self-replication, which complicates or even makes

Science,Technology and Society (STS-

GEC 6) Isabela State University
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impossible keeping them under control. This power creates the weapon of
knowledge-enabled mass destruction (KMD), which is
dangerous enough to assume the extinction of humanity in the coming
years.
Joy suggests the establishment of new ethics as the possible prevention of
this threat. However, his belief in this is not convincing. As
NGR technologies have mostly commercial uses (Joy, 2009, p.294), they
would be developed with lucrative purposes even if the scientific community
accepts the common ethical rules regarding this researches.
Their extreme destructive power makes me rather pessimistic regarding the
future of the Earth.

 REFERENCES:
• ”How artificial intelligence is changing our society | DW Documentary”
accessed 8, July 2020 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ePZ7OdY-Dw
• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Policy Paper (April 18, 2017).
Internet Society Organization, accessed 8, July 2020 at
https://www.internetsociety.org/resources/doc/2017/artificial-intelligence-
andmachine-learning-policy-
paper/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwvb75BRD1ARIsAP6LcqtS4QFhJFYJ4S5BeLcTtks6o
FY93-kLnGGk8tH8AEGl44sQG2buapYaAgwNEALw_wcB
• Artificial Intelligence. What is Artificial Intelligence and How Does it Work?,
accessed 8, July 2020 at https://builtin.com/artificial-intelligence
• Does the Future Need Us? The Future of Humanity and Technology. (May 27,
2001), accessed 2 July 2020 at https://probe.org/does-the-future-needus-the-
future-of-humanity-and-technology/ /
• Joy, Bill. "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us", Wired 8.04 (April 2000),
accessed 2 July 2020 at https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/
• Reflection Evaluation Criteria (the rubric), accessed 17, July 2020 at
https://web.uri.edu/assessment/files/reflection_rubric.doc
• Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us Analysis Summary, accessed 2 July 2020 at
https://exclusive-paper.com/essays/review/bill-joy-s-why-the-future-doesnt-
need-us-the.php

Science,Technology and Society (STS-

GEC 6) Isabela State University