The end of the world as we know it? Theorist warns that humanity is teetering between collapse and progress

When is the end of humanity? Be it through a nuclear holocaust, through exceeding a critical climate threshold, through robots with artificial intelligence or through… “Don’t look up” Asteroid, the question occupies our thoughts, our research and our Facebook chatter.

Now a theorist warns that the human civilization of 8.2 billion people is at a critical crossroads: teetering between what he predicts as authoritarian collapse and excess.

“Industrial civilization faces an ‘inevitable’ decline as it is replaced by a potentially far more advanced ‘post-materialist’ civilization based on distributed, abundant clean energy.” “The greatest challenge is that industrial civilization faces one “The decline is so rapid that it could derail the emergence of a new and superior ‘life cycle’ for the human species,” Dr. Nafeez Ahmed, the best-selling author and journalist who is a distinguished fellow at the UK-based Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems, said in a statement.

Ahmed, who has spoken at United Nations summits in recent years, is the author of the article recently published in the journal Foresight.

Gaya Herrington, vice president of Schneider Electric, who was not involved in the investigation, said The Independent that she agrees with all of Ahmed’s key points.

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“We are living in a historic now-or-never moment, and what we do in the next five years will determine our well-being for the rest of this century,” she said.

Using scientific literature, the study offers a theory of the rise and fall of civilizations and concludes that humanity is on the verge of the next “giant leap” in evolution unless progress is thwarted by authoritarianism.

The research concludes that civilizations develop in a four-stage life cycle: growth, stability, decline and finally transformation. In his opinion, today’s industrial civilization is in decline.

The rise of authoritarian politics and efforts to protect the fossil fuel industry – which produces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change – are factors that could threaten civilization, says Ahmed. The global decline in energy returns is central to the decline.

Investments in carefully designed clean energy and new materials capabilities like this industry, artificial intelligence, 3D printing and lab-developed agriculture could create new forms of networked abundance – when an abundance of resources are available through networks – that protect Earth systems. But they cannot be governed by old, centralized industrial hierarchies, says Ahmed.

Ultimately, he finds that the gap between the so-called emerging new system and the “industrial operating system” is widening, leading to political and cultural disruptions and global crises.

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“An amazing new space is emerging in which humanity could provide itself with abundant energy, transportation, food and knowledge without harming the Earth.” This could be the next great leap in human evolution. But if we fail to truly evolve as people by redirecting the way we manage these new capabilities responsibly and for the benefit of all, they could be our undoing,” he warned. “Instead of evolving, we would regress – if not collapse.” The rise of authoritarian and far-right governments around the world increases the risk of collapse.”

In his new book A Darwinian survival guide, Daniel Brooks, a professor at the University of Toronto, says that while the danger is great and time is short, people can make change.

His perspective, he said The Independent via email, is that while utopia is unattainable, the apocalypse will not occur even if there is a major collapse of technological humanity. He believes that the world has a “problem for which there is no technological solution” and that if there is a collapse around 2050, “all people who continue as before – regardless of politics, economics or whatever – will be to blame Faith – and so on.” Anyone who manages to be among the survivors and rebuilders will all share in the credit.”

“We agree with those who say we now have enough technology to solve the problems, and while technological advances are helpful, the acceleration of global climate change is outpacing the speed of technological advances – the solution to preserving technological humanity lies in changing our behavior.” (It would be a good behavioral change at the electoral level not to elect anti-science authoritarians, a point with which we agree with Dr. Ahmed),” Brooks wrote, referring to his co-author, Salvatore Agosta, an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

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Ahmed’s article follows dire warnings about a rapidly warming future for the Earth. Last year, a team of international scientists said that six of Earth’s nine planetary boundaries – which define a safe space for humanity to operate – had been breached.

“This update on the boundaries of the planet clearly shows that a patient is not well as the pressure on the planet increases and vital limits are exceeded. “We don’t know how long we can continue to exceed these important limits before the combined pressure leads to irreversible changes and damage,” said co-author Johan Rockström, director of the German Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Research published earlier this year found that reducing net greenhouse gas emissions to zero – a level that can be absorbed by nature and other carbon dioxide removal methods – by 2100 is critical to reducing the risk of Minimize climate tipping points and ensure the stability of the planet.

“Multiple wars, extreme inequality, a looming climate collapse and new technologies that can transform our existence have brought humanity to a crossroads,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said in September. “We no longer have time for complacency or defeatism – only for the shared responsibility to save the world that we owe to future generations.”

We’ll have to wait and see if there is more Hollywood-like research predicting the end of the world through AI systems.