Increased Computing Power Will Effect Humanity
The hypothesis linking additional computing power to financial security is an interesting one, that begs a closer look and requires deeper thinking.
The first question one needs to ask is what the definition of financial security exactly means?
There are two definitions relating to financial security: Economic Security and Financial Security (which either relates to financial products or the safeguard of the financial data).
Most of us will link financial security with economic and social security and expect financial institutions (Banks etc.)to guarantee our financial security (privacy data, digital financial balances etc.).
What does an increase in computing power actually mean and what is the impact of it on our financial en economic security?
The rise of machines has already drastically impacted on daily lives (in positive and negative ways).
The main reason for this being the rapid development and sophistication of the ability of computers to perform a wide scale of tasks more effective and efficient than humans. Lately Elon Musk, Bill Gates and others have publicly spoken about the fact that for the first time in history Artificial Intelligence (A.I) is capable of performing highly sophisticated tasks, previously only to be performed by humans.
More computing power means more opportunities to eliminate the human factor from many daily processes. Remember the ticket offices at train stations, airports? The last decade most of those have been replaced by machines and -we- accepted it without any problems. An increased human adaptability, combined with a demand for wireless, easy-to-go applications has seen the human race embracing technology. It is hard too imagine that 20 years ago people lived without a mobile phone, applications and accepted standing in a queue waiting to buy their tickets or check in.
However there is a downside to all of this. The increased computing power has made victims and will be making many more.
Increased computing power has seen economies all over the world boom over the last twenty years, yet unemployment has been on the rise, median incomes have stagnated. The group of humans that has actually benefited most of the increased computing power are those who are at the top of the human chain. The benefits enjoyed by this group far outweighs the benefits for the higher, median and lower incomes.
The real issue with increased computing power is not financial security, it is about wealth and income distribution, which as statistics show, increased computing power (over the last 30 years) has caused a negative effect on the overall wealth and income distribution. The main effect of increased computer power is one of disproportional economic and wealth distribution, which undermines the entire Western sense of both economic and personal security.
Is increased computing power the end of economic and social security? The first signs do indicate that increased computing power is developing faster than humans can comprehend.
The coming decades will create an even greater divide between those humans who are going to be able to adapt and those who will not.
In essence the economic gap between various classes will only increase, which will lead to social turmoil, effectively undermining the entire sense of security.
The great recession in the US (2007-2009) saw a whopping 12,000,000 jobs disappear. Only 1,000,000 of those jobs have returned, the remaining 11,000,000 have been made redundant due to bankruptcy, automation and increased computing power. Machines are taking over.
The real question one should ask is how far increasing computing power will benefit the entire human race or will it be the beginning of the end for the human race.