Humans and the Road from Asset to Liability
A Troubling Parallel
From the essay
Much of the current discussion about artificial intelligence focuses on power: how capable machines will become, how fast they will improve, and whether they will threaten us. I want to shift the question in a different direction–one that is quieter, less dramatic, and far more uncomfortable. What happens when humans themselves cease to be necessary? Not morally necessary. Not symbolically important. But functionally unnecessary for the continuation of human civilization. This essay is about that transition: the possibility that humanity may cross from being an asset to becoming a liability–not to machines, but to itself.
Adapted from PDF pages 1.