The Sputnik Generation

 I'm reading a book right now by Michio Kaku- if you know who that is, congratulations on knowing one of the best scientific minds of our generation- called "The Future of Humanity," which is fascinating because human beings have been around for about 1 million or 2 million years or so (depending on how long ago "Homo Habilis" or "handyman" was around, but in the next 100 years humanity can accelerate so quickly that we totally fizz out, let AI take over, run out of natural resources, destroy the Earth so that it becomes uninhabitable, any number of pessimistic-sounding scenarios. Michio Kaku accounts for all of this as the natural course of a species: 99.9% of living things on Earth have gone extinct, and we're likely to be as well, at some point. But maybe human beings are the exception, and we can evolve to combat all the challenges we face, develop a way to get to other planets, other galaxies, or even.......other universes. That's right, Kaku considers the idea of living in a... wait for it......MULTIVERSE that's not even of this universe, if the laws of physics allows humans in the future to travel to it. What a concept. 

Kaku also described the history of space exploration and that in the 1950's and 60's there was a generation of young people in the US who were affected by the launching of the Sputnik, the Soviet space program that sent the first rocket into space. Americans were so disturbed after winning WWII but then letting the Soviets take the first step in the space race that many vowed to study physics, astronomy, and math just to defeat the Soviets and win the Space Race for the U.S. Talk about OK Boomer. The previous generation was sent to battle in World War II, and then the next generation was fighting to fight the intellectual battle. Inspiring stuff.....and now we have the Youtuber generation, the ones fighting to get the most likes on their Youtube channel or social media platform, the Me generation, the internet generation. I often wonder what it must have been like growing up in Michio Kaku's generation as a young kid hearing about all these scientific advances, that the world is changing for the better, and being a part of the zeitgeist, that feeling of infinite possibilities, of upward movement. Nowadays, young people seem so complacent or resigned (probably a better word) of humanity's eventual trajectory to let AI pass us and just let the Earth's doom happen, as long as we can keep our Iphones and our social media accounts. I think the Sputnik generation, if it traveled in time to this decade, would recognize the problem as rapidly expanding AI but then try to fight for humankind like studying up on how to control AI, how to take control of our addictions to our smartphones and get smarter, not more dependent on the AI to do everything for us. It's kind of the genius of AI: first give us petty humans everything we need to feel satisfied so we don't feel threatened by AI, (as Gene Hackman said in the movie Runaway Jury, "let the cable TV wash over us") then gradually invade our lives and eventually control us. Just the fact that I go to the library and "The Future of Humanity" book by Kaku remained relatively untouched (open the pages and it feels like a new book, despite being available starting in 2018) kinda tells me about this generation. 

Hey but the stock market is benefiting form the AI boom- a few of the biggest AI players (Microsoft, Oracle, Nividia) have been way up in the stock market this year, lifting all other stocks too. I guess if the thesis is that AI is going to take over, might as well be invested in it and profit while they're taking away your job, your life, everything. 

My pessimism about our generation is not mutually exclusive with desire to have a child and aim to allow that child to lead a fruitful and happy life; I'm optimistic about plenty of things in the future like better medical advances, (technology can slow down aging- will I be in time for that?) faster travel (beat traffic and go on vacation much quicker)