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José Antonio Marina, (Toledo, 1939), philosopher, writer, pedagogue and intelligence expert. In his new book Visual History of Intelligence , he analyzes how our mind has progressed and how it will do it with artificial intelligence and genetic engineering.

In his book he examines our past, our present and especially the future that awaits us ... Yes, because it is repeated repeatedly that by 2040 there will be a transcendental change in the human species, transhumanism will appear. Human nature will be completely transformed. The application of genetic engineering technologies, neurological implants and artificial intelligence systems will transform us greatly. Some say that we will achieve immortality, the most pessimistic that we will live 140-150 years. Recently, former Facebook president Sean Parker literally said that only God knows what we are doing with the human brain. What I have intended in this book is to explain that before saying goodbye to "humanity", we must know how we got where we are, how human intelligence has evolved, to know what we must keep. You call for caution and warn that there can be a brutal increase in social inequalities ... Yes. In these technologies to extend life and improve brain functions, the owner of Tesla and many departments of American universities dedicated to Human Enhancement are already working to improve the species. They are all very expensive procedures and only those who have a lot of money can benefit from them, those who have money can live longer and access a much higher level of intelligence, thus entering a loop that feeds on itself. The foundations of this possible huge future inequality, would they be laying today? In the future extraordinary things will be achieved in the field such as health or comfort. Today we all live better thanks to technology, what happens is that it is so powerful that we have to learn to handle it. Danger is a hyper-technical society that disdains the world of emotions, values, human dignity ... Those are not scientific concepts and science often disdains them. But we are not only smart and technological animals, we are animals endowed with dignity. And that begins to sound very strange to many, it seems like a fantastic thing because they have forgotten it. And they have forgotten it because they tell us that everything is going to be solved by technology and because the humanities are increasingly cornered. Should we then connect science with the humanities? Yes. Right now there are two ways that are separate and speak very different languages. We need connectors, people who master both languages. We are facing an accelerated transformation and there is no authorized voice that speaks of ethics. How much time do we have? Not much, not more than five years. That is why we should make a great rearmament of critical intelligence. But it is not being done. For example, a book entitled The Transformation of the Modern Mind written by Jonathan Haidt of the University of New York and Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which denounce as The American university is excluding all kinds of debates on topics that are not scientific or technological so as not to 'disturb' students. Without this ethical rearmament, can we not compete with computers? In a very short time the invasion of artificial intelligence systems will be very powerful. They will handle information much faster than we can handle: humans cannot read more than 600 words per minute if we read fast, computers read 600 million pages per second. The AlphaZero program, designed to learn how to play chess, acquires a master's level from scratch in four hours. We cannot compete in information with artificial intelligence. The issue is who is going to make the decisions: us or the computers. In the last American elections to the presidency there was a candidate who barely spoke because he was very testimonial, but he was symptomatic: Watson, an artificial intelligence system, a computer designed to govern, and with the ability to learn what current systems have computer scientists, wouldn't it be a better ruler perhaps than a person? Maybe yes. We are in a very critical moment. There have been three radical twists in history and now we are in the anteroom of the room, and we don't know how it will be. I personally am worried. I think for example in my students. What will happen when virtual reality becomes general and allows you to live in a happy but unreal world? We are in a very critical moment. The future can be fantastic, but we can also be wrong. And that's why we have to reflect. And if it went wrong, what could happen? Well, human beings could become a residual, unimportant group. And why don't we reflect on the changes that new technology can bring? For two reasons. First, because technology is moving really fast. And, secondly, because those of us who would have to reflect do not understand technology well. You have been studying intelligence all your life, do you really believe that we will be able to ignore ethical values? I think so, but because when you watch the whole story you realize that humanity has been progressing. The bad thing is that progress has been made to lurch. Until now, whenever we have reached a dangerous point, we have changed the sail and returned to the course. But we are not sure that we will continue to do so. In addition, any society is exposed to an ethical and social collapse. Germany in the 1930s was the most technologically advanced and refined nation, with the best composers, the best philosophers. And that same country committed brutalities that are inconceivable to us. Should governments get more involved in planning for the future? In Spain it is not an issue that politicians talk about ... Governments should have a lot of involvement. But on the one hand they are overwhelmed and on the other, surpassed by non-governmental forces. Private companies are the ones that handle technology, in that sense they are way ahead of governments. Google, for example, wants to be the third cerebral hemisphere of all humans. And we must take this purpose very seriously.

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