“Good luck with the Impending Apocalypse!” were my passenger’s leaving words as I dropped him off last night. We were talking about the unavoidable effects of climate change that we are beginning to feel, the rise of AI, and his autism, ADHD, and divorce. He told me he is GRATEFUL for insisting on not having kids with his ex-wife, seeing how the world is getting progressively worse. These types of doomsday/AI (the two words are becoming increasingly interchangeable) questions have been on my mind a lot lately. I used to think the signs were there, that they were becoming evident. Now, the signs are like the stop signs and yield signs that I see every day, right in front of my face. It is obvious our society is damaged and crippled. To prove this all I must do is point to the fact that the government has protected child rapist, including our president, and blatantly lies to our faces every hour. Now, they’re (billionaires, lizard people, whatever you want to call them) focusing their time and energy on moving the next big technology forward without one thought about fixing the colossal issues that are current.
What I find most scary is how we all just proceed with normal life as if nothing is happening. I do it myself. I hold on to this “normality” to avoid the fact that this “normality” may soon become extinct. I cling to it. I want life to continue as it is, for me to have a real chance at making something of myself, of accomplishing great things. If shit hits the fan, this will no longer be possible; at least not likely. I wonder if the whole world who also clings to this normalness has similar feelings to mine?
When I was younger and naturally more naïve, I had a belief that we had the power. That we could all unite and stop this. Stop this use of AI, this blind and desperate use of phones, this conformity to the system that relies on exploitation of the poor, and this insatiable greed that has lead us beyond the depths of hell. Now that I’m older, I see that I couldn’t have been more wrong. Yes, in theory we have the power, but in reality, we can never unite, never collaborate on such a scale as to use our power to have real impact and influence. Probably by design, possibly due to human nature, we all have walls that block us from one another. Walls that don’t allow us to see each other as humans, but we can only hear others identities through the walls. And because of these noises we hear we create judgements, biases, presumptions, and hate. We must destroy those walls and see each other as we truly are. But destroying those walls is nearly impossible and practically not possible. To begin to do this we would need real collaboration and unity from our leaders; not just leaders of our country but of our world. Then, I could imagine a world where through extraneous efforts we could truly come together and see each other as humans, humans with different skin colors, languages, and cultures. However, when and how could Trump, Kim Jung Un, and all other world leaders genuinely unite?
Now, we are in a state that seems bleaker and bleaker with the passing of each minute. Yet, I hold on to hope, and I cling to this “normality”. Maybe I should change my approach. Maybe I should return to my naivety and attempt to create a change, however unlikely I am to succeed. Just writing that is scary and revolting. I want a good, safe, and comfortable life. Not one ridden in paranoia, poverty, and despair. I’m not sure what I should do, except for continuing to aim for my goals of mission and financial success. Am I wrong?