Science & technology, driven by human’s intuitiveness, has landed humanity to the apex of development. But today humanity is at an intersection encroached by the negative impacts of all the processes of development innovations. These include artificial intelligence, climate change and extremely intrusive technology that could endanger human’s very existence. There are other lesser but equally important variables that are pushing humanity to the brink inch by inch on a daily basis such as industry of war, economic policy without ethics resulting in extreme economic inequality, and the self-righteousness of people promoted by the idea of individual rights ignoring obligation. Meanwhile the only global multilateral institution that has been providing global guidance on all issues concerning humanity is being challenged & is in peril. How long can humanity defy the collective threats of these lethal projectiles?
Development dividends
We all have enjoyed the products of development in every sector. We must all be grateful to the scientists and industries for what we have enjoyed. People are better educated than ever before, people live longer than ever, diseases are prevented and cured, organ transplant has given new life to the dying, the agroindustry has managed to feed the growing population and man, after stepping on the Moon, is now aiming to colonise the distant planets. Indeed, people’s aspiration aided by technology has been like Moore’s law where the dividends of development multiply every few years. But we remain oblivious to the fact that development is not an open tunnel with no consequences. Every positive result we notice also has a negative component which we conveniently ignore. For example, people have more education but it does not equate to intelligence; people are living longer but the quality of life is not guaranteed; agroindustry is able to feed the growing population but the same industry is killing soil fertility, etc.
Artificial intelligence and Human Nature
The work on AI and its application is progressing with an exponential scale across all sectors. However, the machine-based AI may never be able to replicate 100 percent of human intelligence which is founded on individual specific cognitive ability such as learning, planning, thinking, reasoning & judging which the data driven AI simply cannot replicate as it does not have the capacity to ‘feel’ like a human brain. Nevertheless, whatever the AI has done thus far is enough for us to worry as it is encroaching on human’s thinking ability, which could modify human behaviour. Humans cumulatively develop intelligence partly based on genetic inheritance with the rest depending on environment such as family & parental guidance, education, societal norms, skills, motivation, opportunities, continuous learning, conceptualisation, reasoning, abstraction, judgement, etc. which people acquire at various stages of growing; it is a never-ending process. With intensive application of AI at work, study, pleasure, leisure and media, humans are most certainly vulnerable to be impacted in every aspect of learning. People’s personality types are classified based on psychometric measures. Is it then likely that people’s personality types are changing - can be changed - or has changed with the current AI ambiance? If so, how does it impact work ethics (?) family relations (?) personal relations (?). Since the entire global population is exposed to the same AI environment, is it likely that in the next few generations everyone will have a fair share of overlapping personality types which can have serious impacts on how people decide with just minor variation derived from genetic constitution? Artificial Intelligence which is still very far away from Human Intelligence is already having serious impacts on how people think, distorting human behaviours.
AI has no ethics. The ethics, if at all it has, simply follows the ethics of the developers, whose interest is in the bank balance, not ethics (Anthropic for example recorded $16.8bn in the third quarter of 2026 with current AI however imperfect it may be). There are enough examples of how AI driven social media is abusing the ethics and the moral values driven by market economy. No matter what the governments say or do there is no reinforcing mechanism of any laws on this lifeless entity. AI is being used in pursuit of profit in social manipulation, military dominance and political control. These are the greatest dangers humanity is facing today.
AI in developing world
The recent World Development Report 2026, ‘The Promise of Artificial Intelligence’ suggests that AI could have a revolutionary impact on low-income countries to accelerate (economic) development. The President of the WB says ‘AI has thrown developing countries a lifeline’ but also warns that without the right preparation countries could miss AI’s benefits while becoming exposed to its risks’. Given the speed with which AI is intruding in all aspects of people’s lives and the lack of ethics in AI, the proposed lifeline of AI could most likely become the noose rather than a lifeline. The warning attached in the above statement may just be window dressing with no value. Just imagine how application of AI in mining of natural resources industries will end. There is a fierce competition for mining of rare earth minerals for hi-tech industries; mapping of mineral resources with AI will accelerate depletion of these finite natural resources in no time leaving nothing for the next generation.
Powerful versions of AI are being released routinely by different developers which can be applied in developing bioweapons, nuclear weapons and in regular military industry. Politicians talk about regulation and developers talk about safe use. But for all practical purposes we are seeing the results of how AI is destabilising people’s behaviour, society and facilitating war industry. AI is the last nail in the coffin with the social contract between the government and the citizens.
AI is here to stay, no doubt, but countries’ bureaucracies are not organised to legislate on how to make it work for the betterment of the majority while preventing its misapplication. Meanwhile the AI industry is always a few steps ahead of the government bureaucracy. The application of AI in business, administration & finance will speed up income inequality which is already in a very bad shape globally. Compared to these risks the fear of job loss due to AI is just a minor rash. Sooner or later AI could become the biggest political risk for governments worldwide.
Climate change and freshwater supply
Messages on climate change are now a broken record replayed. Some leaders even think that climate change is a hoax. Recent breaking of the glacial lake barrier in Nepal-China border on 26 August 2026 is the living example of warming air causing extreme damages. In recent weeks there were similar incidents not as widely reported due to less damages were in Kazakhstan & Switzerland in September and again in Nepal on 11 October. These events are the warning for potential shortage of fresh water supplies beyond physical damages and loss of life. Glaciers and glacial lakes are present in all continents except Australia providing steady supply of fresh water complementing springs and rivers. There are more than 200,000 glaciers in the world of which 67,300 are located in Himalayan region supplying fresh water to some 2.3 billion people.
Drinking water is a public good, nevertheless it has already become a monetised product. Should there be dramatic melting of glaciers due to rising atmospheric temperature it will have serious consequences in availability of freshwater. What will be the state of public drinking water supply networks? This scenario may not be imminent but is likely in the coming decades. The news and views on warming atmosphere, desertification, loss of biodiversity, loss of soil fertility, etc. dwarfs compared to the potential loss of freshwater for the billions with serious consequences. Technology to clean waste water for human use will be promoted, like experimenting on lab grown meat or growing lettuce in vertical farming but it is not a solution to stop or recover loss of nature. Needless to say, this technology will also require massive input of energy which is the main cause of global warming. There are limits to how far we should promote technology. The world needs to reset our economic governance to save us from disaster.
We are at a stage when returns from investment are providing us negative dividends.
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Thank you Ramesh for this thoughtful article, which approaches the world from a deeply caring and human perspective. With so many variables and so many actors at play, the challenge of even framing things in a clear perspective is considerable.
ReplyDeleteHow can you conclude that humans have reached the apex of development? The human journey has gone through peaks and valleys. Perhaps the journey is not yet over ?
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