The Ecological Cost of the Digital Revolution

Every time you have some new discovery promising a phenomenal  and unprecedented transformation in people’s lives for the better, there is an inevitable scramble to get a piece of the action- the ecological, environmental, and social consequences of doing so be damned. This is as true of the unbelievable stock market bull run and the cryptocurrency mania of today as it was of the spice and ivory trade of ancient times.

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The current mad rush to digitise everything that exists on this good Earth is reminiscent of the unholy contest amongst the newly industrialised European powers a few centuries ago to carve out their colonies in the resource-rich Americas, Africa, and Asia and strip them of everything valuable. The glories that the age of digitisation promises discount the negative impacts of the inexorable race towards a non-analog future. Never mind that the world is already battling the problem of monumental electronic waste in the form of discarded phones, laptops, and batteries. Likewise, it doesn’t matter that the digital revolution requires gargantuan levels of electricity consumption to sustain itself, exacerbating an already precarious climate change scenario. Everything seems to be lost in the clamour of achieving ever-higher valuations by the leading tech companies of the world, especially the ones invested in artificial intelligence or AI.

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The social havoc being wreaked by relentless digitisation is all-pervasive. You can see it in the  children who, from a young age, get addicted to their electronic gadgets, with their appalling consequences for  their growth and development. Furthermore, the collapse of traditional ways and means of social networking for people across age groups, as well as the dangers posed by deepfake technology, are not things that can be swept under the carpet without reaping the most harmful consequences in the times ahead.

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Let us just look at the ecological costs of the so-called digital revolution and ask ourselves if it is worth all the trouble we are taking to herald it. For all the talk of the growing carbon footprint of our modern lifestyles and the need to avoid unnecessary travel, especially by fossil fuel-run automobiles and aeroplaneswe would be shocked to know that merely using the Internet contributes as much as 1.5% to 4% of the total global greenhouse emissions. 

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Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-windmill-414807/

The inevitable proliferation of AI-powered devices, owing to these being touted as being absolutely indispensable for everyone in the times ahead, leads to a spectre of unprecedented levels of electronic waste. One can get some idea about what lies ahead by letting it sink in that the 2020 Global E-Waste Monitor report points to an e-waste generation of a whopping 53.6 million tonnes. Shockingly, of this, only a mease;y 17.4% had been collected and recycled.

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What is particularly worrying is the fact that, despite the fact that global digital activity is a relatively recent phenomenon, it has already contributed to 3.7% of total greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2019 study, which is pretty close to the emission levels accounted for by the much maligned aviation industry. Worryingly, electricity consumption on account of digital technology grew by almost 70% from 2013 to 2020.

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The ecological cost of the digital revolution has to be weighed against its purported benefits by  way of enhanced productivity and profitability on the part of  business houses. Any expected ecological benefits accruing on account of more efficient use of resources and the ability to find solutions to some of mankind's pressing problems pertaining to healthcare, logistics, e-commerce and communication have to be measured against the ecological downside to using the ever expanding ambit of digital product and services. Rushing boldly and madly into the euphoric universe of all pervading rampant digitisation without pausing to study its accompanying negative ramifications is as foolhardy as it possibly can be.

 

Is AI Empowering Nincompoops to Pose and Prosper?

 

Photo by Rachel on Unsplash

We live in an era when people with the intellectual capability of a lemon and the integrity of a centipede position themselves as authors, thought leaders, mentors, consultants and the new age abomination, influencers. These are people who would be laughed out of a nursery class, sound like a sugar cane crushing machine and have the gravitas of a mill-stone. Yet, all they need to do is to turn to the array of wondrous AI tools, and voila- they turn into Booker prize level writers, Sigmund Freud type of psycho-analysts and David Attenborough kind of documentary makers! Democracy, they say, is a government of the people, by the people and for the people, which is all very well, but it needs a system based on meritocracy to really deliver the goods. 

With everyone and their uncle convincing each other in their very own echo chambers that they are all the salt of  the earth, there is no place for critical thinking or the pursuit of truthful knowledge, ultimately resulting in the downfall of us as a species that has the ability to achieve wonders beyond belief. The post-truth world that we are busy constructing doesn’t have a rosy future at all. It can ultimately only result in Artificial Intelligence taking over our planet and extinguishing the flame of human endeavour and achievement that has burned bright for hundreds of thousands of years.

When people turn to AI to do creative tasks for them, it simply rehashes what has already been created by humans. It efficiently analyses data and efficiently discerns patterns on the basis of which it comes up with something that it thinks best approximates the task assigned to it via prompt. This by its very nature is pretentious, often repetitive and not really worthy of trust. How long can this go on before AI runs out of answers and solutions it can churn out merely by regurgitating old data. We are told this will change when Agentic AI truly arrives. When Agetic AI truly arrives, why will it need to pander to the whims, fancies and caprices of human beings. It might do so on its own.

Agentic AI may or may not say the light of the day, but in the meantime we are saddled with the problem of morons masquerading as marvelous human beings. That is because the number of plainly stupid people now have an audience of fellow zombies to whom they can pitch their drivel and even profit from it, while the real work is performed by the really capable who bear the burden of the trouble caused by a gargantuan army of simpletons imagining themselves to be visionary profits.

Human beings lived as hunter-gatherers and cave dwelling beings not much better than the animals around them for hundreds and thousands of years without making any progress in their lifestyle until someone figured out that it is better to farm for food than to hunt or scour dangerous landscapes for sourcing it. Millions of idiots purveying their AI generated nonsense to their equally stupid followers will doubtless hope to do so in perpetuity. But how can an edifice based on incompetence stand forever?

Sooner or later people, even the most stupid ones will realise that they are all collectively chasing a chimera, which is not actually helping them in any real way. That will hopefully teach people to be careful about whom and what they trust when it comes to acquiring knowledge or skills that may be of use to them. The bells and whistles of technology that enable content creators to come up with seemingly slick presentations cannot forever hold their audience in thrall.

 They will have to come to their senses for their own good. Currently, they are hooked to the dopamine rush that such content gives them and are willingly letting this kind of content consumption become a dangerous addiction. The day they realise the harm they are doing themselves, will be the day that they return to the straight and narrow path of honest, diligent and genuine work that actually creates value for themselves and others.

Algorithm-The Tyrant

 

Photo by Markus Spiske: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photo-of-matrix-background-1089438/

The world seems to have been taken over by the algorithm, which dictates who becomes a winner or loser in life, not based on merit, but on predecided criteria created merely to enrich the businesses who offer the platforms for people to carry out transactions in their day to day lives. As technology permeates everything we do in the present times ranging from work and recreation to banking, healthcare and communication, the stranglehold of the algorithm is no different than the pernicious hold of the subject nation’s economy by an erstwhile colonial power.

The powers that be who control the algorithm are driven by profit and will devise any mechanism to achieve that even if that means fanning fluff and hype with the intent of monetising it to the utmost. By offering efficiency they seek to wrest total control of people’s faculties, taking away from them the ability to be objective and capable of independent decision making.

When your choices with regard to where you eat or travel to, what clothes you wear and even whom you befriend are dictated to by an algorithm primed to enhance engagement or some online platform you lose out on free will. Remember the Matrix movies? Those scenarios are playing out pretty much all around us all the time. People are known to drive off cliffs and bridges and die following GPS instructions rather than use their common sense and ask someone for directions. 

The classical battle between free wheeling capitalism and stifling communism has no meaning in an algorithm driven society that thrives for homogeneity. Ironically, this is the result of the former rather than the latter. The digitisation of the world, for all its ability to connect countries across the world like never before has at the same time become the personal fiefdom of a few monopolies who reap the major share of the profits it generates.

If you were to drive along a major highway in most countries of the world, the sameness of the facilities available in terms of motels and major international fast food chains and restaurants is remarkable. People find comfort in the familiar and the role that algorithms play in conditioning them to think that way is something that is or should be a cause for immense worry. They have become quite passive in their approach to most activities in life. This loss of the individual self in favour of comfort and ease of existence is a tragic fall from grace for humanity, but who seems to care?

There are algorithm induced personal recommendations catering to every need and fancy, making people slaves of instant gratification and unable to appreciate the immense benefits of delayed satisfaction of wants and desires. This leads to them living life like a candle burning at both the ends--flicking their way to nothingness, in terms of how they evolve as individuals. Shortened attention spans mean that people chase viral or trending news, losing their ability to discern fact from fiction and knowledge from plain rumors and conspiracy theories. The absence of any kind of quality curation thanks to the rapacious and greed driven nature of most algorithmic settings is wreaking havoc with the collective psyche of the world, leading people to a scary abyss of ignorance, apathy and dysfunction.

As with any other tyranny, the tyranny of the algorithm needs to be overthrown. By allowing a generation of Attention Deficit Disorder afflicted youngsters to normalise algorithm directed behaviour is akin to turning them into sheep, herded into restricted pens by a malevolent shepherd bent upon controlling them for the rest of their lives for personal profit. The exponential growth of AI has added a new urgency about how to give back people the control of their lives in terms of every aspect of how they live it. 

Youngsters need to be taught to think beyond what is recommended to them and learn to think for themselves rather than try endlessly to conform to whatever the online world throws at them. Being in control of one’s online activities in terms of how much of your own life you put out there, and learning to recognise and connect with authentic sources is an important first step. Choosing to experience more and more of your life in the real world rather than synthetic algorithmic bubbles will help you hone your critical thinking skill in a manner that you are no longer slave to anyone else’s ideology. Choose the path of freedom.