To what extent do scientists, entrepreneurs and CEOs of large companies approve of the rapid development of technology, how do they see our future and how do they relate to the privacy of their own data?
techno-optimists
- Ray Kurzweil, Google CTO, futurist
“Artificial intelligence is not an alien invasion from Mars, it is the result of human ingenuity. I believe that technology will eventually be integrated into our bodies and brains and will be able to help our health.
For example, we will connect our neocortex to the cloud, make ourselves smarter and create new types of knowledge that were previously unknown to us. This is my vision of the future, our development scenario by 2030.
We make machines smarter and they help us expand our capabilities. There is nothing radical about the merging of humanity with artificial intelligence: it is happening right now. Today there is no single artificial intelligence in the world, but there are about 3 billion phones that are also artificial intelligence” [1].
- Peter Diamandis, CEO of Zero Gravity Corporation
“Every powerful technology we’ve ever created is used for good and bad. But look at the data over a long period: how much the cost of producing food per person has decreased, how much life expectancy has increased.
I’m not saying that there will be no problems with the development of new technologies, but, in general, they make the world a better place. For me, it is about improving the lives of billions of people who are in a difficult life situation, on the verge of survival.
By 2030, car ownership will be a thing of the past. You will turn your garage into a spare bedroom and your driveway into a rose garden. After breakfast in the morning, you will walk to the front door of your house: artificial intelligence will know your schedule, see how you move, and prepare an autonomous electric car. Since you didn’t get enough sleep last night, a bed will be laid out in the back seat for you – so you can get rid of lack of sleep on the way to work.
- Michio Kaku, American theoretical physicist, popularizer of science and futurist
“The benefits to society from the use of technology will always outweigh the threats. I am sure that digital transformation will help eliminate the contradictions of modern capitalism, cope with its inefficiency, get rid of the presence in the economy of intermediaries who do not add any real value either to business processes or to the chain between producer and consumer.
With the help of digital technologies, people will, in a sense, be able to achieve immortality. It will be possible, say, to collect everything we know about a famous deceased person, and based on this information make his digital identity, supplementing it with a realistic holographic image. It will be even easier to make a digital identity for a living person by reading information from his brain and creating a virtual double” [3].
- Elon Musk, entrepreneur, founder of Tesla and SpaceX
“I’m interested in things that change the world or that affect the future, and wonderful, new technologies that you see and wonder: “Wow, how did this even happen? How is this possible? [four].
- Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon
“When it comes to space, I use my resources to enable the next generation of people to make a dynamic entrepreneurial breakthrough in this area. I think it is possible and I believe that I know how to create this infrastructure. I want thousands of entrepreneurs to be able to do amazing things in space by significantly reducing the cost of access outside the Earth.
“The three most important things in retail are location, location, location. The three most important things for our consumer business are technology, technology and technology.
- Mikhail Kokorich, founder and CEO of Momentus Space
“I definitely consider myself a techno-optimist. In my opinion, technology is moving towards improving human life and the social system in the medium to long term, despite the problems associated with privacy and potential harm – for example, if we talk about the genocide of the Uyghurs in China.
Technology takes a big place in my life, because in fact you live on the Internet, in a virtual world. No matter how you protect your personal data, it is still quite public and cannot be completely hidden.
- Ruslan Fazliyev, founder of e-commerce platform ECWID and X-Cart
“The whole history of mankind is the history of techno-optimism. The fact that I am still considered a young person at 40 is possible thanks to technology. The way we communicate now is also a consequence of technology. Today we can get any product in one day, without leaving home – we didn’t even dare to dream of this before, but now technologies are working and improving every day, saving our time resource and giving an unprecedented choice.
Personal data is important, and of course, I am in favor of protecting it as much as possible. But efficiency and speed are more important than the illusory protection of personal data, which is vulnerable anyway. If I can speed up some process, I share my personal information without any problems. Corporations like the Big Four GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple) I think you can trust with your data.
I am against modern data protection laws. The requirement of permanent consent to their transfer makes the user spend hours of his life clicking on cookie agreements and using personal data. This slows down the workflow, but in fact does not help in any way and is unlikely to really protect against their leakage. Blindness to approval dialogues is developed. Such personal data protection mechanisms are illiterate and useless, they only interfere with the user’s work on the Internet. We need good general defaults that the user could give to all sites and would approve only exceptions.
- Elena Behtina, CEO of Delimobil
“Of course, I am a techno-optimist. I believe that technology and digital greatly simplify our lives, increasing its efficiency. To be honest, I don’t see any threats in a future where machines take over the world. I believe that technology is a huge opportunity for us. In my opinion, the future belongs to neural networks, big data, artificial intelligence and the Internet of things.
I am ready to share my non-personal data in order to receive the best services and enjoy their consumption. There is more good in modern technologies than risks. They allow you to tailor a huge selection of services and products to the needs of each individual, saving him a lot of time.”
Technorealists and technopessimists
- Francis, Pope
“The Internet can be used to build a healthy and shared society. Social media can contribute to the well-being of society, but it can also lead to polarization and separation of individuals and groups. That is, modern communication is a gift from God, which entails great responsibility” [7].
“If technological progress were to become the enemy of the common good, it would lead to regression—to a form of barbarism dictated by the power of the strongest. The common good cannot be separated from the specific good of each individual” [8].
- Yuval Noah Harari, futurist writer
“Automation will soon destroy millions of jobs. Of course, new professions will take their place, but it is not yet known whether people will be able to quickly master the necessary skills.”
“I am not trying to stop the course of technological progress. Instead, I try to run faster. If Amazon knows you better than you know yourself, then it’s game over.”
“Artificial intelligence scares many people because they do not believe that it will remain obedient. Science fiction largely determines the possibility that computers or robots will become conscious – and soon they will try to kill all people. In fact, there is little reason to believe that AI will develop consciousness as it improves. We should fear AI precisely because it will probably always obey humans and never rebel. It is not like any other tool and weapon; he will certainly allow the already powerful beings to consolidate their power even more” [10].
- Nicholas Carr, American writer, lecturer at the University of California
“If we are not careful, the automation of mental work, by changing the nature and direction of intellectual activity, may ultimately destroy one of the foundations of culture itself – our desire to know the world.
When incomprehensible technology becomes invisible, you need to beware. At this point, her assumptions and intentions penetrate our own desires and actions. We no longer know if the software is helping us or if it is controlling us. We’re driving, but we can’t be sure who’s really driving” [11].
- Sherry Turkle, social psychologist professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Now we have reached the “robotic moment”: this is the point at which we transfer important human relationships to robots, in particular interactions in childhood and old age. We worry about Asperger’s and the way we interact with real people. In my opinion, technology lovers are just playing with fire” [12].
“I am not against technology, I am for conversation. However, now many of us are “alone together”: separated from each other by technology” [13].
- Dmitry Chuiko, co-founder of Whoosh
“I’m more of a techno-realist. I do not pursue new technologies if they do not solve a specific problem. In this case, it is interesting to try, but I start using technology if it solves a specific problem. For example, this is how I tested Google glasses, but did not find a use for them, and did not use them.
I understand how data technologies work, so I don’t worry about my personal information. There is a certain digital hygiene – a set of rules that protects: the same different passwords on different sites.
- Jaron Lanier, futurist, biometrics and data visualization scientist
“The approach to digital culture, which I hate, will really turn all the books in the world into one, as Kevin Kelly suggested. This could start as early as the next decade. First, Google and other companies will scan books to the cloud as part of the Manhattan Project of cultural digitization.
If access to books in the cloud will be through user interfaces, then we will see only one book in front of us. The text will be divided into fragments in which the context and authorship will be obscured.
This is already happening with most of the content we consume: often we do not know where the quoted piece of news came from, who wrote the comment or who made the video. The continuation of this trend will make us look like medieval religious empires or North Korea, a one-book society.
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