Today’s fear of technological development is nothing but a renewed echo of human fear with every major technological leap, and history proves that every technological leap seems destructive at its beginning and later turns into opportunities and entirely new fields of work that no human being had previously imagined.
In the Industrial Revolution, the fear was immense because the machine replaced human muscular effort and strength, whereupon a fanatical group called the Luddites emerged — a group of English workers who attacked the textile factories in Britain between 1811 and 1816. They believed that the introduction of modern textile equipment in the early nineteenth century had created unemployment and lowered the standard of living of textile workers. But the result of the Industrial Revolution was the creation of enormous job opportunities and new fields: engineering, maintenance, and services, and it raised the standard of living and wealth.
To take a simpler example: the entry of the tractor into agricultural work did not take the farmer’s place; rather, it developed the farmer’s abilities and talents. He used it, increased his production, and shortened his time. Only the farmer who did not learn to use the tractor lost out. The tractor did not abolish agriculture; it abolished the old way of working. And although this example is simple, it constitutes the rule by which history moves.
I know, on the other hand, that this example remains inadequate if we say that technological development today possesses two features: the first is speed, and the second is the kind of replacement.
On the first point, the real fear is in speed. Technology today develops quickly, whereas industrial development in the past moved relatively slowly, so man adapted to it slowly. But development today moves at high speed, requiring us to develop and adapt very quickly. What we forget here amid the state of panic is that technology does not develop by itself; rather, it is man who develops it every day and every hour, seeking new innovations and solutions to his problems, and his continuous striving to expand the bounds of the possible. Technological development happens because man is in continuous development of his abilities, talents, and creativity, and with every development man develops. When printing and books appeared, human memory and the way people processed information and knowledge changed, and with the internet, research skills developed. The tool does not precede human beings; rather, it changes their way of seeing reality. Man, whenever his tool develops, does not sit idle; rather, he raises the ceiling of ambition. Despite the speed of technology, man is the one who rides behind the wheel. If man stops creating, technology stops developing. Therefore, speed frightens only him who cannot adapt to it and develop his own speed.
I know that some see artificial intelligence as developing itself. Yet despite that, artificial intelligence does not develop itself in a creative, inventive way like human beings; rather, it develops as a continuous mathematical improvement — that is, it searches for the optimal way to achieve the goal that man has set in advance. Man, however, does not search for the best way, but possesses the ability to change the rules themselves and to invent goals that did not exist beforehand. It is true that artificial intelligence may produce dazzling solutions for man, but these solutions result from immense and complex processing speed, whereas human creativity is linked to purpose, to meaning, to life. Man creates as a result of a lived experience, while artificial intelligence does not know what it produces and does not understand its meaning; it is imprisoned within the box. Artificial intelligence’s development of itself is a quantitative and mathematical development, while man’s development is a “qualitative and existential” development that can reshape the box and expand its reach without limits.
The second point is the kind of replacement that artificial intelligence carries out today: it does not replace man’s muscular effort, as the tractor does, but takes the place of his mental and intellectual skills. Yet despite that, artificial intelligence will not replace man here; rather, man will be replaced by another man who knows how to use artificial intelligence, just as a farmer is replaced by another farmer who knows how to use the tractor. Technology is not the end of work; it is the end of the old ways of performing work.
As for the idea that artificial intelligence has replaced man’s talents and mind: in the midst of this fear, we forget that however much intelligence develops, it cannot take man’s place. Man is a creative (inventive) being, whereas artificial intelligence, however complex, powerful, and vast it may be, remains imprisoned and governed by the data on which it was trained. It recombines, analyzes, and infers from this information it possesses, and circles within the space of mathematical probabilities; its limits are what man has deposited in it of knowledge.
Man alone possesses” the ability to ask questions”, that spark which transcends the bounds of the world itself. He possesses the ability to create meaning from nothing. This ability to create is what distinguishes man even from artificial intelligence. This is the secret of humanity that cannot be reduced or replaced, for man possesses the ability to feel and to have lived experience, to soar beyond the bounds of logic, and he is capable of expression, love, and facing suffering.
The secret of human existence lies in his being creative by nature; he has a unique ability that transcends all algorithms, makes meaning, and breaks the rules to create new worlds that did not exist before. Sovereignty remains for that free human ability, however much technology develops. But there is no doubt that technology will drive out of history whoever does not know how to drive the tractor.