Humanists of the XXII Century

The current technological revolution requires a new humanism. Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Technology are radically transforming our existence—how we behave, who we are, and why we exist. I'll repeat it: nothing will be the same. Nothing. And our children will live in a radically different world that today we are unable to imagine, and perhaps unable to understand. We are at a crossroads of decisions in our daily lives that will end up defining that world.

At this fork in the road, we must choose between building on the established system, working to grow the production machine, or, alternatively, humanizing our work and creating value to improve our existence. Sometimes, both can be achieved simultaneously for an indefinite period. However, it is common for the former to end up dominating. It prevails because, in the 20th century, we established the materialistic race and economic growth as the fundamental bases for the well-being of every society. Show me your GDP growth, and I will tell you the condition of your nation.

What would happen if we promoted a modern humanism that ensures that innovation not only comes from us but is also for us?

When Elon Musk launched SpaceX, he didn't just want to boost the reusable rocket business, achieving incredible technological advances in a very short time. He was thinking about how to take humanity to Mars. He had it clear: to conquer space, we need many more minds and companies working in space, and that is only possible if the cost per kilogram of sending material beyond the atmosphere is reduced. It's about creating an ecosystem. Google started with human values such as "don't be evil," which were atypical for a company, putting employees first in every decision and trying to make all the knowledge in the world accessible to anyone, anywhere. It succeeded (as long as you had internet access). It was a humanist transformation as powerful as the creation of the printing press in terms of the value it brought to society. This goes beyond big tech companies. Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, the California-based clothing company, is well known for doing business while always prioritizing nature and the human being.

However, those were different times. The late 1990s and early 2000s. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, until today, there has been no great international competition in science and technology, no geopolitical need to win at all costs. With Russia recovering, China addressing its internal poverty, and Europe becoming the United States' tourist market, we could afford it. Things have changed. We are in the middle of a new race for global scientific and technological leadership, similar to the nuclear and space race between the two blocs in the past, where stopping is not an option. At this pace, human values are being left aside.

To transmit that business philosophy in the technological race we are experiencing, we need an army made up of philosophers, artists, creators, and historians to ally with the engineers and scientists who are creating these new tools. The goal is to create polymath teams, almost a mythological impossibility, to bring the essence of Da Vinci, Aristotle, Galileo, or Isaac Newton, forcing us to question our principles. And also, to help us integrate conscience, ethics, and soul into the decisions when creating new tools at the service of man. If I may invent a word, we need to create "art-technology": a symbiosis of the best of both worlds to build lines of code that distill our essence, and in this way, form human technological solutions. Humans are experts in getting lost in day-to-day operations and losing perspective, so much so that we can grow old without realizing that a whole life has passed. By stopping to ponder the deep questions of a philosopher, by admiring an artist's painting and trying to feel, our brain creates new synapses that later, unconsciously, will connect with those of creation. For this, we need to keep artists close.

Training AI models is testing us. It forces us to review our values, our principles, our concepts of ethics, morality, truth, good and evil, and our conscience. What should AI answer? How should it act? What does it mean to be human? Finding that answer and integrating it into the technological revolution would be a turning point in human history. There is no correct answer, no absolute truth. That is the challenge.

For centuries, the majority of the population lived to serve. In theocracies, to God. In monarchies, to the King. And in capitalism, some would say, to money, productivity, or consumption. In the future, if we want to serve ourselves, we need more than ever a modern humanism.

That means understanding that not everything is about zeros and ones (the language of machines), and that there are concepts we are still unable to explain, not even with the atoms of quantum physics. The success of the revolution we are immersed in will depend on empathy and understanding of our environment. Only then will we be able to create integrated technological solutions for human beings and nature that foster a positive outcome for life. To all of you, creative and multidisciplinary thinkers, we extend our hand to build the future together.

This is a translation by ChatGPT of the original article written in Spanish and published by RETINA.