Paradigm Shifts

Had a conversation IRL this afternoon with somebody I haven’t seen for quite a while, Covid and all, and it turned into a very interesting conversation, indeed. We started off talking about cryptocurrencies, which I have avoided from the beginning and intend to keep on doing so, but he’s eager to jump in the game. This led to a rich v. poor conversation, and he advanced the theory that eventually all the governments (and corporations and billionaires) will shift to bitcoin and at that point they’ll just dump real currency entirely and everybody who’s not invested in cryptos (or stocks and such) will just be shit out of luck, the Morlocks to their Eloi, I suppose, but it should be remembered that the Morlocks hunted and ate the Eloi, and not the other way around.
Anyway, that led to a conversation about the different paradigm shifts that could change humanity entirely. Of course, no one can predict the future with any degree of accuracy, but we discussed a range of things which could totally alter the world, and that was one.
Another was artificial intelligence, which we are both convinced is just around the corner. Also, we agreed that it’s not just AIs having as effective an intelligence as humans, but that, whereas humans think in a linear fashion, and can generally only process one idea at a time, an AI program will be able to see any situation holistically, and thus not only reach conclusions quicker, but reach conclusions that no human being would ever be able to dream of. They will be well beyond thinking outside the box, they will design their own boxes, much bigger boxes, and we will be left scratching our heads. Whether this will be a good thing or a bad thing for mankind is debatable, but it will be a very big thing.
Another was the end of racism due to the human tendency to breed, and with each generation the races will become a bit more mixed until eventually race will be a moot point, as we will all be such mongrels it won’t matter. He estimated that as ‘within 100 years,’ I’m a bit more pessimistic, but we agreed it was likely to happen.
Another was just the general advance of technology, and robots, making human labor unnecessary, and then what do we do with 20 billion idle hands? I have quite a few ideas on that topic, but perhaps that’s a blog for another day.