From my earliest days, I have been drawn to the minds of great thinkers. My intellectual journey brought me into contact with a remarkable tribe: from Socrates and Plato to Einstein, from Nigeria's own Awolowo, Azikiwe, and Ahmadu Bello to global icons like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. This diverse assembly shares one compelling trait for me: they offer a gateway to understanding the world and navigating the complex imperatives of societal reform.
The Legacy of Thinkers and the Weight of Truth
Socrates chose principled death over capitulation. Plato transformed personal grief into philosophical engineering. Martin Luther challenged foundational dogma. These figures, alongside Thomas More and Mandela, are defined by their audacity to speak truth to power, regardless of the peril. On another frontier, scientists from Copernicus to Einstein have dedicated themselves to unraveling the universe's laws, gifting us knowledge of black holes, relativity, and quantum mechanics.
In Africa, theorists like Claude Ake and Ali Mazrui have labored to excavate the meaning of our epochal events. These intellects shape my world, including my friendship with Professor Victor Chukwuma, a physics professor who nominated me for the Nigerian Institute of Physics's Award of Excellence in October 2015.
Stephen Hawking's Dire Premonitions for Humanity
My focus here is the profound foresight of Stephen Hawking, a mind deeply concerned with the societal impact of unchecked science. Hawking identified three critical issues we can no longer ignore. First, he posed a haunting question: “In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?” This query resonates with every keen observer of our troubled globe.
His unease extended to possibilities like alien invasion, with consequences mirroring Columbus's arrival in America, and the ever-present risks of nuclear war and climate change. However, the most immediate and terrifying threat he highlighted is the dizzying rise of artificial intelligence (AI).
AI: Humanity's Greatest Existential Threat?
Hawking's concern was so acute that in 2015, he joined over 1000 experts in signing an open letter at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Argentina. The letter warned that an AI arms race could become humanity's “biggest existential threat,” potentially spelling “the end of the human race.”
AI's emergence forces fundamental philosophical questions. As machines master tasks once uniquely human, we face economic displacement and a crisis of control. Two ethical implications stand out: the risk of AI replicating human biases and prejudices, and its potential to exacerbate global inequality when deployed solely by wealthy capitalists.
Yet, we must not ignore AI's benefits. It offers a collaborative framework, augmenting human cognition to complete tasks faster and more efficiently. This could free us to pursue nobler objectives. The challenge lies in embedding universal human values into AI systems, moving beyond the divisive frameworks that have led to countless wars.
Redefining Humanity in the Age of Intelligence
Ultimately, AI challenges us to rethink what it means to be human. Our humanistic complacency, which placed humans at the world's centre, is now endangered. AI blurs the lines between the natural and artificial, between consciousness and computation, forcing us to ask: Does artificial intelligence qualify as a person?
This 21st-century question has no easy answer, tangled in theological and existential biases from our past. Hawking feared the evolution of superintelligent machines that could set their own goals, possibly undermining humanity's future. The responsibility to avoid this risk lies with us—a species capable of creating atomic bombs, genocides, and pandemics, but also sublime inventions that pull us back from chaos.
Perhaps, as Hawking hoped, we still have time to step back from the precipice. The defining task of our era is to guide this powerful technology with wisdom, ensuring it serves humanity's enduring flourish.
