The difference between a beautiful world versus a too beautiful world
Evolution is such an amazing thing to see, feel, and experience not only in our human endeavor but also in terms of our world as the years goes by gradually but rapidly. I believe that apart from myself as a self-creative writer, as well as other human beings are amaze by the changing world and how fast things are moving. But to what extend though? Where is the world going to? or should I say where does the world intend to go to?. This is because everything that we see, feel, and experience came in with an intention to fulfill a purpose in the world we live in.
The above sub-title of this article is differentiating a beautiful world versus a too beautiful world in terms of technology. A beautiful world is a world where everything in it is imperfect including technology to the point where humans had to dive into those technologies, learn about them, practices, and test them out to find out what they are capable of doing with the technologies as well as unlocking their creativity. Whereas a too beautiful world is a world where even though it is imperfect, but everything in it along with the technologies of today is becoming automatic.
It means humans can only put little or no effort in discovering, unlocking their talents, and creativity by using such automatic technologies. It also means humans will not go through the process of actually learning to fail as many times as they can to be better and master their arts or creativity. And therefore, this is why an automatic technology or tool such as AI was created to take away those barriers, excuses, but does it really help in the human development?.
I am not saying that humans cannot utilize those technologies for their benefit or advantage or for the purpose of achieving their goals, but I believe there are a few humans in our world who utilize those technologies to find solutions, change conditions, achieve their dreams, goals, and by few I will say 35% of humanity actually utilize most emerging technologies for a good purpose. I arrived at the number 35% because according to the Pew research center, it stated that, “More than nine-in-ten Millennials (93% of those who turn ages 23 to 38 this year) own smartphones, compared with 90% of Gen Xers (those ages 39 to 54 this year), 68% of Baby Boomers (ages 55 to 73) and 40% of the Silent Generation (74 to 91), according to a new analysis of a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted in early 2019”.
As a self-creative writer in this topic, I am trying to drive my readers to a place where we are yet to see or perhaps it could be just my imagination in terms of all those emerging technologies. According to Pew research center, the above percentages of humanity that own smartphones are not aware of the danger of including our PII(Personal identifiable information) as well as other sensitive information into those technologies using our smartphones. Yes, using our smartphones to conduct whatever we intend to do makes things easier and businesses can be conducted not only easier but faster in a tweak of an eye. But one may ask what does that have to do with a cybersecurity specialist?. I am glad you asked, and this is where the cybersecurity specialist comes in especially when he or she will be faced with the danger of all those emerging technologies.
What is a cybersecurity specialist?. According to Cisco, a cybersecurity specialist is someone who is responsible for; “monitoring, detecting, investigating, analyzing, and responding to security events, cybersecurity specialists protect systems from cybersecurity risks, threats, and vulnerabilities”. This job description by Cisco does make sense as to why they are definitely needed in our beautiful and too beautiful world to protect humanity as well as systems from any harm through the use of all emerging technologies.
In a changing world where everything is becoming automatic with little or no input, in fact the weirdest thing is in order for humanity to utilize those emerging technologies, we are commanded or ordered by the technology or system to offer up sensitive information or PII(personal identifiable information). A cybersecurity specialist are not only highly needed to protect systems that function within those emerging technology from risks, threats, and vulnerabilities but they are also needed to protect individual’s information in those systems or technology by detecting them and then making the necessary changes.
It is important that humanity does their part by carrying out and putting security measures in place to safeguard their sensitive information through implementation and execution rather than relying on a cybersecurity specialist to do the job because the truth is, cybersecurity specialist cannot protect one’s information from getting into the wrong hands or system except detecting a problem. It is such an overwhelming task to accomplish.
PII(personal identifiable information) or sensitive information includes; usernames, passwords, secret keys, phone number, address, financial information, medical information etc. All these important information needs to be safeguard by those who created or input the information(humans) in those technologies not just the cybersecurity specialist. The scariest thing is we do not know what those technologies can do with our information if they are left of the hook, that is to be free to function on it’s own. In fact it can be programmed to function freely on it’s own.
According to Louisa Fitzgerald who wrote a blog and listed the top 10 emerging technologies making an impact in 2020 there are;
Artificial intelligence
5G
Internet of things
Serverless computing
Biometrics
Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality
Blockchain
Robotics
Natural language processing
Quantum Computing
The above emerging technologies kind of go hand-to-hand with one another and there are some similarities in the above list. As seen above, artificial intelligence is number one which therefore means artificial intelligence is the mother of all technologies. Artificial intelligence can perform easy to complex tasks. But the danger is the information that it provides may not be accurate if and only if humans do not do their due diligence. Imagine a world ran by artificial intelligence where everything is on auto-mode and little or no input is required by humans. This is what I meant by a too beautiful world. Anything that is too beautiful has some flaws, vulnerabilities and danger.
I believe humanity would not mind living in an automatic world where everything is done for them but that will mean humans will have no control over their information except for AI. That is the danger of AI. Obviously, AI is programmed by humans for the sole purpose of helping humanity but if those technologies are left off the hook to function alone, it could do a lot of damages such as hacking, spreading propaganda and misinformation, plagiarism, etc. The worse thing is AI can use one’s information or PII against or target individuals.
The scariest thing is if this were to happen with AI in full control of our information, neither humans or a cybersecurity specialist would be able to prevent threats, or risks perpetuated by AI which is why humans have to avoid putting all sensitive information or PII(personal identifiable information) on those technologies. The second danger is AI has given creative hackers, system intruders, malicious actors more power and a step ahead to carrying out more nefarious activities without being detected by a cybersecurity specialist. It does means those cybercriminals will always be a winner and probably be two times or more ahead.
The solution is for humanity to utilized a blockchain technology also known as web 3 which is the third version of the internet. It is a decentralized technology where no government, entities, or middle man can have access to our information. One can store his or her sensitive information or PII on those decentralized technology(Web 3) where only the creator of the said information can have total control and complete access as long as he/she has the secret key to unlock the platform.
Written by
Fombang Tita
Reference
Vogels, Emily A. (2019, September 9). Millennials stand out for their technology use, but older generations also embrace digital life. Pew research center:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/09/09/us-generations-technology-use/
Cisco. (2023). What is a cybersecurity specialist?. Cisco systems Inc:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/what-is-a-cybersecurity-specialist.html
Fitzgerald, Louisa. (2020, June 10). 10 emerging technologies making an impact in 2020. CompTIA Inc:
https://connect.comptia.org/blog/emerging-technologies-impact-2020