Asteroids

About 66 million years ago, an asteroid comparable in size to Mt. Everest collided with the Earth near what is now the Yucatan peninsula. That collision brought the age of dinosaurs to an end and set the stage for the rise of mammals, including the super-predators known as homo sapiens. It was the fifth major extinction event in Earth’s history. Five times, the living things on our planet “never saw it coming.” We humans seem to be the only species with that ability.

We’re also the only species that is potentially smart enough to prevent our extinction. And we are perhaps the only species that could cause its own extinction. We have invented nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and we have already had a role in the extinction of many other species. But that’s not the main point here.

Some of us have suggested that humans have been too successful for their own good; domesticated plants and animals (cows, chickens, and pigs now vastly outnumber their wild cousins); cities, roads, dams, bridges, parking lots, and so on now disrupt the natural world; and our extraction of resources (minerals, coal, oil, and gas) threatens to damage the Earth in ways that are beyond our capacity to repair. These are only a few examples.

We’re also the only species that can choose to give up its agency. And we can do that simply by not thinking, by not living up to the “sapiens” part of our name.

The choice begins when school children say, “I don’t have to know that” or when the class stops paying attention to key concepts. [No wonder we have so many conspiracy theorists, flat Earthers, and anti-vaxxers.] Next, we reject expertise and experience. Then our “leaders” choose to abandon excellence and accountability. Next, we renounce thought – we stop reading books and become addicted to entertainment on our screens. And we allow our young to do the same.

And each choice matters – signing over personal data to get a small discount on gasoline or an online membership, giving away personal information on social media, voting for politicians who refuse to reign in the surveillance state or who expand it in the name of “security,” adopting ideologies that irrationally demonize some while lionizing others, or allowing AI to take over human discretion and judgement. The results of our willful ignorance and apathy could be as devastating as another asteroid impact.

Alternatively, we can hit the brakes on AI development, particularly its questionable replacement of human decision-making and its consumption of resources that might better serve human beings. We can develop more efficient, non-fossil fuel sources of energy. We can use the planet’s resources more efficiently too. [Helium is too precious to use for party balloons!] We can control the use of our data. [Denmark has changed its Copyright Law to protect digital identity from AI.] We can overrule the predatory tech billionaires whose long-term vision of the world does not include the messy masses. We can rescue our brains from our screens and relentless political propaganda. We can accept responsibility. We can learn history. We can learn science. We can learn basic mathematics. And we can learn to read!

While it is not likely that a comet or an asteroid will strike Earth anytime soon, the probability is not zero. If humans had been around 66 million years ago, equipped only with naked-eye observation, like the dinosaurs, we would not have seen the asteroid until it was too late. But now we have a chance to detect and possibly deflect one. And we have an even better chance to overcome the “asteroids” of our own making. If we don’t, we might become as extinct as all the species that have gone before us.