MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/. Modern technological progress is unprecedented in its speed, and humanity was not prepared for such rapid changes, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said in an article for the Expert magazine.
He opined that breakthrough innovations pose threats that could radically affect the future.
TASS has compiled the politician's main statements.
Western Russophobia
The collective West is gripped by "Ukrainian madness" and Russophobia, but this cannot continue forever: "The Ukrainian crisis, actively supported by a group of Russophobic countries eager to see Moscow defeated, will end sooner or later. Just as all conflicts in human history have ended."
Technological development
Modern technological progress is unprecedented in its speed, and humanity was not prepared for such rapid changes: "Humanity hardly expected such rapid changes, and, to tell the truth, was not prepared for them."
"Human progress requires making deals with part of ‘that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good’."
"Technological progress and innovation not only provide comfort and convenience, but also "pose threats that could radically affect the future of all humanity."
There is no certainty that the rapid development of technology and progress in the 21st century will continue to lead to prosperity for humanity: "Will this be the case for the rest of the 21st century? There are serious doubts."
In the short term, humanity may begin extracting resources on the Moon: "Presently, humanity may begin extracting resources on the Moon and transporting people and cargo there."
Space threats
Moving critical infrastructure into space will create "new vulnerabilities."
The risks that will arise when moving critical infrastructure into space "will be cumulative" and will lead to "a growing variety of threats, vulnerabilities, and potential consequences."
As the space services sector develops more actively, more players will become involved: "And each of them has the potential to harm other participants in the space race and entire states."
Risks can arise in all elements of the production and operational chain, including satellite manufacturing, the launch industry, satellite services, and ground services: "A physical or cyber threat in any of these four areas could limit access to space."
Threat of biolabs and new bioweapons
The US has gained the ability to control the spread of major epidemics thanks to the creation of a network of military biological laboratories in various countries around the world: "The US is known to have formed a global military biological network, using other countries as testing grounds. As a result, millions of people have unwittingly become hostages to deadly threats. The results of this research allow the US to control the spread of epidemics and study the genetic factors that affect people's resistance to various diseases."
The infrastructure, which was developed in collaboration with the Pentagon, comprises approximately 400 dual-use BSL-class laboratories operating in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the CIS.
"Advances in synthetic biology, genome editing, and virus assembly techniques" pose unprecedented risks, including the potential development of new biological weapons.
In this case, "the threats associated with the creation of biological weapons and their falling into the hands of terrorist groups also increase exponentially."
New ethics of war
The use of drones on the battlefield creates "a fundamentally new situation in terms of the rules and ethics of warfare."
As drones change the landscape of war, humans feel themselves apart from it, which leads to the threshold for the use of force being lowered and moral responsibility being blurred: "In the near future envisioned by experts, drones will radically distance the killer from the victim, turning the act of violence into a kind of exciting ‘shooter’ game. This ‘remote warfare’ creates a dangerous psychological barrier, lowering the threshold for the use of force and ultimately blurring moral responsibility."
Delegating such issues to AI algorithms in autonomous combat systems, "which do not experience mercy or compassion, creates an eschatological paradox of granting machines the right to independently decide issues related to human life and death."
Challenges associated with development of drones
The widespread use of drones in everyday life will be fraught with many risks, for example, it "could lead to mass drone collisions, drones falling on crowded places, or drones being used as battering rams."
Being relatively cheap and accessible, drones "are becoming the ideal weapon for terrorists and criminal networks: "Smuggling, drug delivery, industrial and military espionage - all of this is moving to a new, high-tech level that law enforcement agencies are struggling to cope with."
AI threats
The potential transfer of AI control over large-scale production facilities using critical technologies "carries global risks" that are much greater than the threat posed by hackers.
The introduction of AI and the automation of routine tasks will inevitably lead to the demise of many professions, resulting in unemployment and disruption to the division of labor: "It is clear that the widespread use of AI threatens the jobs of millions of people and creates conditions that could lead to exponential growth in unemployment and disruption of international chains of labor."
Among those at risk of extinction are "elite professions such as traders and financial analysts": "AI is just as effective as real crypto investors at increasing portfolio volume."
In the future, AI may be able to make decisions independently, and it is uncertain whether it will adhere to the laws of robotics formulated by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov to protect humans: "AI that has reached the level of superintelligence is not at all obliged to follow Isaac Asimov's three famous Laws of Robotics, since it will owe its origin not to humans, but to itself.".