The Future of Humanity Is Our Responsibility

Image: Universal Future

The new book of Dr. Jayshree Pandya, a leading expert at the intersection of science, technology and security, and Founder and CEO Risk Group, “The Strategic Security Risk Report 2021” is all about the basics of studying risks, the ten main groups of existential threats humanity faces in the 21st century, and the responsibility of mankind to secure the future for the next generations.

We can’t have our lives, enjoy meeting our beloved, our freedom and success, if our body – the biological shell where we exist, is not intact. And like any other living creature, our biological shell is vulnerable.

The point in time when Homo sapiens emerged — some 300 000 years ago was the only moment in history when the human brain was fully adequate to accomplish its evolutionary mission – to survive and advance; at that time all the information necessary to recognize risks and opportunities were present within the range of our anatomical receptors. Human brain is the intelligence machine that has guided survival and advance of Homo sapiens from their life in the caves into the current Anthropocene, but Anthropocene comes with a new type of sophisticated high-tech based relevant environment, which is by orders more difficult to decipher by using our old model of brain, the anatomy and physiology of which were designed even before our life in the caves, and haven’t changed a lot since.

That makes the study of risk in the contemporary dynamics of technological advance even more essential to human survival. With no direct image of contemporary risks on our eye retinas, we need to monitor, measure, and process numerous informational components that are scattered around the planet, and conceptualize risk categories in their diversity.

Comprehensive, well-structured and concise, the book is an useful reading not only for professionals, but for anyone making decisions or researching a field associated with high technologies, strategic politics, and the future of Humanity. 

Excerpts:

“Like the existential threats our ancestors overcame thousands of years ago, our species is now at a crossroads where we can collectively ascend to the next chapter or lose everything that our forefathers fought so hard to build.” (p. 45)

“There is no doubt that the coming years are going to be highly turbulent. We will need to learn to adapt and manage complex changes and solve formidable security problems.” Pandya, Jayshree. Strategic Security Risk Report 2021 (p. 43).

“But, more important than anything is a need to develop civilization-based thinking. It needs to be understood that tribalism is a destabilizing force. It discourages thinking and individual decision-making and forces loyalty to regressive causes and not forward-looking efforts. While tribal cohesion was essential to human survival for tribes at the beginning of civilization, today, as we develop artificial intelligence and begin to dream of exploring the universe, the question is whether we should think and act as a single human species or in silos as different tribes. How we represent our species and what comes next in our collective journey will entirely depend on whether we act as a cohesive civilization. I hope humanity can count on us.” (p. 43)