WHY THE FUTURE DOESN’T NEED US?

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 21st-century technologies such as Genetic engineering,
Nanotechnology, and Robotics (GNR) are a great threat that they might wipe out the
human race from the face of the Earth.

In this chapter, we will focus on discussing the article of Bill Joy on “Why the
Future Doesn’t Need Us” and dig deeper into the concept of Artificial Intelligence.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the chapter, the students are expected to:

1. Identify moral issues and standards using modern technologies;

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

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 a large impact on a
person’s physical, mental, and psychological aspects of abused thoroughly. It can
cause harm to both the environment and individuals (Doira et al., 2018).

An Argument on Dangers of Technology and Humanity

Bill Joy (William Nelson Joy)

 An American computer engineer and venture capitalist.

 He is the co-founder and Chief Scientist of Sun Microsystem.
 Joy expressed his concerns about the emergence of new
technologies, their consequences, and their possible dangers. He
said that because of the complexity of our systems and our attitude
towards science and technology these problems may emerge.
 In particular, he was concerned with three 21st-century
technologies:
- Genetic Engineering
- Nanotechnology
- Robotics
 However, though the advantages of these technologies are
undeniable, the dangers they present and the issues that they raise
are also very concerning and alarming.
 They raise morale (job displacement) or ethical issues (privacy),
and safety concerns, and they might be used to destroy humanity.
 He cited the work of Theodore Kaczynski, entitled Unabomber
Manifesto, to illustrate the dangers of these technologies.
  In his work, he said that two possibilities could occur when
intelligent machines can eliminate human effort in doing work,
either:
1. we let these machines do decisions, or
2. we retain control.
Either way, the result would be the same: the ending of
humanity and the loss of the purpose of life.
 Bill Joy asserted that biological species will lose against
competition with new technologies.
 Gradually, but eventually, new technologies will take over.
 Though new technologies have already been introduced before,
such as nuclear, biological, and chemical technologies, Genetic
Engineering, Nanotechnology, Robotics (GNR) is much more
worrying.
 He asserted that we have not learned the lessons of the past, citing
the creation and use of the atomic bomb and its consequences as
an example.
 He was worried that we could be on the same path, if not worse.
 He warned of an impending arms race not against enemies that
threaten our civilization but against our wants and desires.

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 the development of the technologies that are too dangerous by
limiting our pursuit of certain kinds of knowledge.”

Criticisms of Joy’s Views

 A Response to Bill Joy and the Doom-and-Gloom Technofuturists by John

Seely Brown and Paul Duguid (2001)
- technology and social systems shape each other and social
systems have the capacity to direct these new technologies
For example:
o Genetic engineering - had some issues because society
has seen its potential threat
o Nanotechnology - not fully developed yet to pose any threat
o Robotics - cannot make decisions the same way that
humans can in their present state
 Others accused Joy of being neo-Luddite, some who reject new technologies
and technophobic leanings.
 Critics of Joy believed that Joy showed only one part of the bigger picture. In
this case, it is pre-eminently necessary that the scientific community,
governments, and businesses engage in a discussion to determine the
 safeguards of humans against the potential dangers of science and
technology.

On Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a 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 technology industry (Russell & Norvig, 2021).

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:

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

emails. Users can train their spam filters by marking emails as “spam”.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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 to its

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

Why The Future Does Not Need Us?

 Many new technologies have emerged and will emerge. The technological
advancement of the world is rapidly increasing. Wherever you look you will
see technology. It's either in doing work, studying, playing, or even doing
house chores. Truly that technology makes our lives easier. But if you will
look closely, at this rate of technological innovation, over time we will lead to a
world where machines and robots will surpass the abilities, skills, and
intelligence of humans resulting in machines doing all the work, and humans
will just enjoy their lives.

 There is no doubt that innovation is part of our nature as human beings.

Invariably we should, must, and will continue to build and ascend into the
acquisition of new capabilities for our society and the well-being of humans.
We have reached a challenging point, however, it is vital that we start thinking
considerately, and perhaps differently, about our approach to innovation.

 It is now important that we approach innovation such that we are clear and
intentional about what we are actually advancing. We do this so that we can
craft and escort ourselves into a future that we desire; presumably, one where
human beings will remain relevant.
Exercise 8.1. Answer the following questions:
1. What does the article “Why the future doesn’t need us?” say about modern
technologies?
2. What are the ethical concerns about the following technologies:
a. Genetic engineering
b. Nanotechnology
c. Robotics
3. What can we do to avoid the endangering of humans in the face of modern
technologies?

Activity 8.1. Read the article titled The Effects of Using the Facebook by Anne Gelene
Tobias-Domangsang. Then after reading, present the positive and negative effects of
Facebook in a tabular form.

Activity 8.2. Creative Work. Think of a device with special features that you can
develop to help improve the lives of people in our society. It could be something that
you can develop to help in communication, transportation, health, and the like. Illustrate
your device in a short bond paper. Show your output to the class and explain.