Extreme inequality, the rapid development of AI, climate change and ecological degradation, as well as nuclear proliferation pose serious threats to us all. Governments around the world must be forced to take these risks seriously. The complacency has to end.
The inequality crisis
Effort deserves reward. People who work hard should be fairly remunerated for the contributions they make to society. Alas, the relationship between effort and reward is grossly distorted.
- Huge numbers of people around the world work to exhaustion every day, yet struggle to pay the rent and put food on the table.
- At the same time there are some who receive vast sums of money for simply owning property and assets, enabling them to enjoy a life of leisure and unimaginable luxury without having to lift a finger.
- Some rich entrepreneurs and executives do work extremely hard, but their enormous financial rewards are often very hard to justify – in many cases their efforts do more harm to society than good.
- The deeply unfair relationship between effort and reward combined with a lack of economic opportunity for the majority is immensely harmful to society – it is fuelling levels of social dissatisfaction and mistrust that are now at crisis levels.
The excessive rewards received by a limited few give them exorbitant economic and political control over what is produced, for whom it is produced, and who is blamed for the resulting injustices. The casting of blame deliberately misses the real culprit, which is the grossly unequal distribution of resources.
- It targets instead the very public sector institutions that are designed to correct the injustices, in a cynical attempt to further weaken society’s ability to deal with this crisis.
- It callously deceives the public into believing that reducing taxes, eliminating government interference, stopping immigration, and returning to traditional values will solve their problems – it won’t.
- In reality it is the grossly unequal distribution of the world’s resources that is preventing people from having a decent standard of living.
The reallocation of productive resources that is needed to achieve the 10 basic rights is being strongly opposed by the rich and powerful. This is a crisis that our global movement needs to confront unreservedly, and without fear or shame.
The AI crisis
The capabilities of artificial intelligence is advancing at astonishing speed. It is widely agreed that this presents potentially very large benefits for society as well as enormous risks. The risks stem from the frantic race to become the first company or country to develop super-intelligent AI. The pressure to win the race is putting us all in grave danger.
- One of the greatest dangers is that as soon as AI becomes more intelligent than human beings, we will lose control over it. Unless the AI’s interests are closely aligned with our own, such a scenario could pose an existencial threat to human civilisation.
- Another major threat is that AI replaces humans jobs at a much faster rate than our societies can respond to the resulting shock. This could also be utterly devastating.
- An initial wave of unemployment might be just the beginning of a vicious downward spiral in which reduced spending by the unemployed and an inability to pay mortgages and service debt causes many businesses to go under, leading to further unemployment, further reductions in spending and yet more bad debt.
- If it happens quickly, this chain of events could culminate in rapid economic collapse, which in turn could precipitate a breakdown of law and order, with governments no longer able to prevent the growing spread of violence caused by mass unemployment.
- Some governments might resort to extreme violence of their own in an effort to maintain some level of control.
- Another growing risk of AI are the tools it offers to malign actors. Hacking into people’s bank accounts, cyber-extorsion, manipulating elections, and the development of biological weapons could all become much easier. This, too, poses an existencial threat to modern organised society.
- Less dramatic, but an already very present danger, is AI’s huge demand for energy and water. The growth in AI data centres is already causing significant hardship for people who lack the purchasing power of the big AI firms and are increasingly being hit by higher energy bills. Data centres are also putting considerable pressure on natural ecosystems that also need water and space to function.
There is great uncertainty about the precise magnitude of the above risks or the speed at which they might evolve, with some suggesting it could take less than 5 years and others pointing to longer time horizons.
- Nevertheless, large numbers experts in the field of AI insist that the risks are very real and escalating at a terrifying pace.
- They are highly critical of governments for failing to take the risks seriously and are urging immediate action to slow down the pace of AI development.
Our movement must take the risks extremely seriously – we need to rally support from every sector of society to ensure that governments do so too. AI offers huge potential for accelerating the achievement of the 10 basic rights for all, but only if it is managed with high levels of both public oversight and international cooperation. We need to ensure that AI operates within safe boundaries and is used for the public good rather than to enrich the few.
The climate and ecological crisis
The 10 basic rights will never become a universal and sustainable reality if we do not tackle the problem of climate change and ecological breakdown. Without concerted and urgent action to deal with this crisis a growing percentage of the population will face increasingly severe physical and economic hardship.
- Global food production will become ever more precarious and unpredictable, leading to dangerously escalating food prices.
- For the average household, the damage and destruction of homes due to flooding, fire and other extreme weather events will become ever more common and costly.
- The health of the population will suffer heavily from the climatic assault on food production, housing, infectious disease control, and increasingly constrained household budgets
Climate change is not the only environmental problem we face. Our human civilisation could not exist without the complex natural ecosystems that give us food, water, shelter, clothing and infrastructure.
- Unfortunately the inexorable pursuit of profit and financial gain by the elites who control our economy is slowly destroying our ecological life-support system.
- Private profit is the driving force of the economy and the destructive exploitation of natural resources is a major source of profit, especially for large corporations.
- Investments to protect our ecosystems from the ravages of the economy are often unprofitable for private business, and therefore fall far short of what is needed.
As long as climate change and ecological destruction continue unbated, achieving the 10 basic rights for everybody will remain out of reach. Tackling the climate and ecological crisis must therefore be one of the main pillars of our movement.
The nuclear proliferation crisis
During the cold war the spectre of mutually assured destruction felt like an ever present threat. When the cold war ended that threat seemed to subside. However, the threat remained, and as international trust across the geopolitical sphere visibly begins to deteriorate, the risk is now growing again.
- The international nuclear disarmament agreements between Russia and the US have begun to break down.
- Relations between the big nuclear powers are under severe pressure, exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US invasion of Iran, and the growing power of China.
- The persistence of conflicts involving smaller nuclear powers, such as North Korea, Israel, India and Pakistan, creates the very real possibility of nuclear escalation.
- With growing distrust amongst nations, an increasing number of them may now see nuclear weapons as the only way to protect themselves from foreign aggression.
- AI adds considerably to the risks. With its help, rogue states and terrorists may find it much easier to develop nuclear capabilities, and the ever-present dangers of an accidental nuclear exchange may be amplified by the presence of autonomous AI agents.
Given the horrific consequences of any nuclear exchange and the growing risks of nuclear proliferation, international nuclear disarmament is now more important then ever. Our movement must serve as an international vehicle to force our respective governments to renew their commitment to the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Governments around the world need to sit down with each other and work together on our behalf to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all.
Conclusion
All the crises discussed above can be overcome, if our abundant supplies of human ingenuity and resourcefulness are applied to the task. This will only happen once there is a globally united political movement that can communicate clearly to the wider public…
- the true nature of the crises we face, combined with
- an optimistic and exciting vision of how much better the world could be when we overcome them
A better world is possible once we tackle the gross inequality that has disempowered our governments and prevented them from acting on behalf the citizens they are supposed to represent. Once governments are free to act on behalf of the people rather than a rich elite, they can begin to the deal with the AI crisis, the climate and environmental crisis, and the nuclear proliferation crisis. This will pave the way for the universal achievement of the 10 basic rights.