Is this the end of the world as we know it? Theorist warns humanity is on the verge of collapse and advancement

By Lucas

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Is this the end of the world as we know it Theorist warns humanity is on the verge of collapse and advancement

When will humanity come to an end? Whether it’s due to a nuclear holocaust, exceeding a critical climate threshold, the hands of artificial intelligence-powered robots, or the “Don’t Look Up” asteroid, the question pervades our thoughts, research, and Facebook posts.

Now, one theorist warns that the human civilization of 8.2 billion people is at a tipping point, teetering between authoritarian collapse and superabundance.

“Industrial civilization is facing a ‘inevitable’ decline as it is replaced by what could turn out to be a far more advanced ‘postmaterialist’ civilisation based on distributed, abundant clean energy.

The main challenge is that industrial civilization is declining so rapidly that it may derail the emergence of a new and superior ‘life-cycle’ for the human species,” Dr. Nafeez Ahmed, bestselling author and journalist and distinguished fellow at the Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems in the United Kingdom, said in a statement.

Ahmed, who has spoken at United Nations summits in recent years, wrote the paper, which was recently published in the journal Foresight.

Gaya Herrington, a sustainability and dynamic system analysis researcher at the consulting firm KPMG who was not involved in the study, told The Independent she agrees with all of Ahmed’s main points.

“We live in a historic now-or-never moment, and what we do in the next five years will determine our wellbeing levels for the rest of this century,” she told the crowd.

Using scientific literature, the study presents a theory of civilizations’ rise and fall, concluding that humanity is on the verge of the next “giant leap” in evolution if progress is not stifled by authoritarianism.

The study concludes that civilizations progress through four stages: growth, stability, decline, and eventual transformation. Today’s industrial civilization, he claims, is in decline.

According to Ahmed, the rise of authoritarian politics and efforts to protect the fossil fuel industry, which emits greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, are two factors that could jeopardize civilization. The global decrease in energy return on investment is a major contributor to the decline.

Investing in carefully designed clean energy and new material capabilities such as that industry, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and lab-grown agriculture has the potential to create new forms of networked superabundance, which protects Earth systems by making an abundance of resources available via networks.

However, Ahmed claims that they cannot be governed by traditional, centralized industrial hierarchies.

Finally, he discovers a growing divide between the so-called emerging new system and the “industrial operating system,” resulting in political and cultural disruption and global crises.

“An incredible new possibility space is emerging, in which humanity can provide itself with abundant energy, transportation, food, and knowledge without harming the environment.

This could be the next big step in human evolution. However, if we fail to truly evolve as humans by rewiring how we govern these emerging capabilities responsibly and for the benefit of all, they may be our undoing,” he warned. “Rather than progressing, we would regress, if not collapse.

The rise of authoritarian and far-right governments around the world raises the serious risk of collapse.”

In his new book A Darwinian Survival Guide, University of Toronto Professor Daniel Brooks claims that, despite the fact that the danger is great and the time is short, humans can bring about change.

His perspective, he told The Independent via email, is that, while utopia is unattainable, an apocalypse will not occur even if technological humanity collapses dramatically.

He believes that the world has a “no-technological-solution problem,” and that if there is a collapse around 2050, people who continue business as usual will “all be to blame – regardless of politics, economics, or beliefs – and those who manage to be part of the survivors and rebuilders will all share in the credit.”

“We agree with those who say that we have sufficient technology to solve the problems now and although technological advances are helpful, the accelerating pace of global climate change is outstripping the rate of technological advance – the solution to maintaining technological humanity lies in changing our behavior (not electing anti-science authoritarians would be a good behavioral change at the level of elections, a point with which we agree with Dr. Ahmed),” Brooks tweeted.

Ahmed’s paper follows dire warnings about the Earth’s rapid warming future. Last year, a group of international scientists reported that six of Earth’s nine planetary boundaries, which define a safe operating space for humans, had been crossed.

“This update on planetary boundaries clearly depicts an unwell patient, as the planet’s pressure increases and vital boundaries are breached.

We don’t know how long we can keep pushing these critical boundaries before combined pressures cause irreversible change and harm,” said co-author Johan Rockström, director of Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

According to research published earlier this year, maintaining at least net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2100, a level that can be absorbed by nature and other carbon dioxide removal methods, is critical to reducing the risk of climate tipping points and ensuring planetary stability.

“Multiple wars, extreme inequality, a looming climate collapse, and new technologies capable of transforming our very existence have brought humanity to a crossroads,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard declared in September.

“We have no time left for complacency or defeatism — only a shared responsibility to salvage the world that we owe to future generations.”

We’ll have to wait and see if there is any other Hollywood-style research predicting the end of the world due to AI systems.

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