You can’t really blame doomers for upping their anxiety in this day and age, considering the hysteria being fed to them by mainstream-media outlets. So, is this the age of pessimism, or is there reason to believe we’re going to be just fine in the long run?
For most of human history, man’s capacity for destruction was limited by his technology. A deranged king could slaughter thousands. A conquering army could destroy a city. A plague could wipe out a large portion of a continent. But no individual, government, or movement possessed the power to end civilization.
Unfortunately, that comforting limitation no longer exists, because human beings have developed a number of ways to produce destruction on a global scale. Nuclear weapons can erase cities in minutes. Artificial intelligence may eventually operate beyond the effective control of its creators. Terrorists armed with biological, chemical, or cyber capabilities could cause casualties that would have been unimaginable to barbarians of earlier centuries.
The world has always had an abundance of fanaticism, insanity, and evil. What has changed is that fanaticism, insanity, and evil now have access to technology, which is what makes the present moment uniquely dangerous.
Nuclear weapons do not merely kill large numbers of people. They can destroy governments, communications systems, food supplies, electrical grids, and the economic infrastructure upon which millions of lives depend. Even a “limited” nuclear exchange could create consequences that spread far beyond the countries involved.
Worse, nuclear weapons are increasingly controlled or sought by regimes whose leaders do not share the West’s instinct for self-preservation. Deterrence works only when both sides prefer survival to martyrdom. Once religious fanaticism enters the equation, the comforting logic of mutually assured destruction disappears.
Artificial intelligence presents a different kind of danger. Nuclear weapons are terrifying, but they do not think. AI can analyze, learn, persuade, imitate, deceive, and act at speeds no human being can match. It can be used to manipulate elections, disable infrastructure, design biological weapons, automate warfare, and create convincing falsehoods on a scale that makes objective reality seem obsolete.
The danger is not that a computer will suddenly become “evil” in the human sense of the word. The danger is that it will relentlessly pursue a poorly defined objective or that evil human beings will use it to achieve their ends. A machine does not have to hate mankind to destroy it. It merely has to be powerful, autonomous, and wrong.
As to terrorism, it is less a technology than a method. Terrorism allows weak actors to inflict disproportionate harm by attacking open societies at their most vulnerable points. Its practitioners do not need to defeat a nation militarily. They need only create enough fear, disruption, and distrust to cause that nation to panic itself into submission.
Combine terrorism with AI, cyberwarfare, engineered pathogens, and/or nuclear materials, and the problem becomes exponentially worse. Yesterday’s terrorist needed guns, explosives, and accomplices. Tomorrow’s terrorist may need only a laptop, stolen access codes, and an artificial-intelligence system willing to provide instructions.
Given these realities, pessimism is not an irrational state of mind. In fact, one could argue that a certain amount of pessimism is evidence of sanity. The optimist who refuses to look at unpleasant facts is not courageous; he is merely anesthetized. Civilizations do not survive by pretending that danger is imaginary.
Nevertheless, pessimism is not a final verdict. Human beings have repeatedly approached the edge of catastrophe and stepped back from the brink. The Cold War produced moments when nuclear conflict appeared too close for comfort, yet prudence and good judgment on the part of people in positions of power prevented the worst possible outcome.
Terrorist movements have been defeated. Tyrannies have collapsed. Technologies initially feared as instruments of oppression have also been used to expose oppression and expand human knowledge in ways that have made life easier and safer for people all over the world.
None of this, of course, guarantees survival. It merely demonstrates that even though disaster is possible, it is not inevitable. This distinction is important because fatalism is among the most dangerous beliefs a society can embrace. If destruction is unavoidable, vigilance becomes pointless, courage becomes foolish, and moral responsibility disappears. People who believe the future is predetermined may have a tendency to stop trying to influence it.
For millions of people, this brings the issue of biblical end-times prophecy front and center. When they read about war, famine, pestilence, deception, and moral disorder, they often conclude that mankind should simply resign itself to catastrophe. But prophecy is not an excuse for passivity. Perhaps end-times prophecy is just a warning sign intended to affect human conduct.
The Bible does not tell people to welcome evil, ignore danger, or surrender responsibility. It repeatedly emphasizes watchfulness, courage, faith, discernment, and perseverance. Whatever one believes about the precise meaning or timing of end-times prophecy, its instruction is clear: remain awake, resist deception, strive to do the right thing, and do not allow fear to become your master.
Hope, therefore, is not the belief that nothing bad will ever happen. It definitely will, and to think otherwise is childish optimism. The healthiest outlook is the conviction that meaning, duty, and moral clarity remain possible even when the outcome is uncertain.
The future may contain horrors beyond anything previous generations have experienced, but it may also contain solutions, discoveries, courageous leaders, spiritual renewal, and acts of heroism we cannot yet imagine. No one is omniscient enough to know which possibility will prevail. We are not required to predict the future, but as the most advanced form of life on earth we are required to meet it with courage and moral clarity.
Pessimism signals us to recognize the danger. Wisdom tells us to prepare for it. And determination tells us that evil does not have the final word. Most important, the will to survive gives us the strength to continue acting as though courage, truth, and human decency still matter—because they do.
Fasten your seatbelts. We’re in for a hell of a ride.
Copyright © 2020 Robert Ringer
ROBERT RINGER is a New York Times #1 bestselling author who has appeared on numerous national radio and television shows, including The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, ABC Nightline, The Charlie Rose Show, as well as Fox News and Fox Business. To sign up for a free subscription to his mind-expanding daily insights, visit www.robertringer.com.
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