Children of machine

The next hundred years are going to be defined by declining populations and low birth rates. Just as the past was defined by population growth, the future will be defined by population collapse. Things are going to snap back hard. Will humans finally learn to control the forces that control us? To master our own technology? Probably not.

Whatever happens, three worlds will emerge and inhabit the same Earth: the Luddites, the transhumanists, and the patriarchs. Each will be a response to collapsing birth rates.

The Luddites will take the Amish approach. They will turn against technology and birth control itself. If they also turn against reproductive technology, their approach has a chance of working.

The transhumanists will build artificial womb technology so they can continue to live their hedonistic liberal lifestyle. In the beginning, it may empower them; in the end, it may only empower corporations and governments. Governments already have the power of death. Soon they may also have the power of life.

The patriarchs are the term I give to Catholic traditionalists, the Taliban, the Islamic State, and any other hybrid religious, fanatical, male-dominated order. They will seek to raise birth rates through the oppression of women.

It's all going to be shit, and I'm not sure I even want to be here when it happens. Maybe Skynet will kill us all. Maybe God will have mercy on us. No matter which approach wins, humanity loses.

Brain organoid computation is becoming a reality, and if the economics work in its favor, the most valuable asset a human has might be the gray matter between their ears.

There are two parallel trends happening here. One is the collapse of humanity, and the other is the ascent of artificial intelligence. If the ascent is real, then the collapse becomes kind of irrelevant.

There are two futures: one where AI takes over and another where it does not. Within the category where AI does not take over are the three approaches to dealing with birth-rate collapse. Since reality is messy, something tells me that all four possible futures will exist simultaneously, living together and at war with one another.

Humans are incapable of fighting a force unless it wears a face. If artificial superintelligence exists, then a real face will be put on technology, giving humanity the ability to fight it—to finally control the technological forces we have unleashed that now control us.

That assumes, of course, that we have a chance of winning.

Even if we don't fight the AI, the mere presence of a superintelligence may cause humans to finally treat technology as something worthy of being controlled. There is a possible future where humanity lives side by side with AI and masters the technology that controls us. I mean all the other technology: birth control, screens, the internet, and so on.

Then there are the various horrific alternatives.

Control the forces that control you, or live like rats in the shadow of the machine.