Is climate change yesterday's global threat?

Climate change may be a long-term global threat but the real pressing issue facing our species could well be robots if the recent open-letter to the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional weapons is anything to go buy.

When you read the Future of Life Institute's letter, signed by 200 of the world's top robotic and tech minds you find some chilling words about how dangerous our future may be.

"Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare....... We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close. We therefore implore the High Contracting Parties to find a way to protect us all from these dangers."

That from the people who are actually developing and building the robots!

I am not saying we should back-off efforts to mitigate climate change but it is clear that we'd better start paying serious attention to this and soon.

Because in my mind it gets worse.

RUNAWAY TECHNOLOGY AND WALKWAY GOVERNMENT

In his recent Chancellors Lecture at the Swinburne University of

Technology former American ambassador to Australia and policy adviser to President Obama Jeffrey Bleich said, "As western governments have dithered or failed to fulfill their role the technological revolution has accelerated.

"While technology has been moving exponentially government has continued moving lineally or not at all and as a result in most of the great democracies today we have runaway technology and walkaway government," he said.

And when you consider the recent events in our own parliament around section 44 of our constitution you would have to agree wholeheartedly with Bleich.

The constitutional and executive framework our political leaders are operating coupled with the narrow vote-driven decision making process that exists and you would have to question whether we have much of a chance at all.

STOP ASKING THE SAME QUESTIONS

But of course not all is lost.

We just need to shift our thinking and do it quickly.

We need to stop asking the same questions.

Because otherwise we'll keep getting the same answers.

Governments need to stop simply governing for relection and start leading.

Maybe we need to change to an American style system and limit a Prime Minister's term to three or four years with no option for re-election.

I am certain their decision-making process would be dramatically different to the one they use now if they didn't have to worry about the next ballot.

Unions need to step up and improve their relevance.

I heard someone argue recently that the static wages growth may well be partly due to the lack of relevance of unions today.

How will they look in when truck, taxi and courier drivers are being replaced by robots.

Business needs to step up and realize that being driven solely by profit is no longer viable.

A shift to focusing first and foremost on how can they can improve the quality and value of our lives rather than simply selling them a product would be a compelling lens to look through.

People expect better and technology is rapidly rolling over those who can't or wont see it.

In his Swinburne lecture Bleich explained that the development of the light globe and combustion engine occurred within just three months of one another and started a wave of unprecedented industrial revolution.

But it also led to massive increases in pollution. Huge changes to the labor force. Inequality and unrest. Nationalism and protectionism and the rise of political extremists.

Sound familiar.

Oh and don't forget two world wars.

In the Future of Life Institute's letter they went on to say, "Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend. These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways."

ROBOT CHEF'S IN YOUR OWN KITCHEN

I came across a company the other day that has created a robot that will cook you dinner in your own kitchen.

It's incredible and the company is planning on shipping them in 2018.

So in the words of science fiction writer William Gibson "The future is here it is just not evenly distributed yet".

But distribution may no be the issue.

Many of us have already felt the stinging effects of technology at a career level.

But when you have the very people creating artificial intelligence and robots warning of of possible impending doom you realize we are entering uncharted waters and it seems we're travelling in a speed boat at full tilt.

So who's at the wheel and are we satisfied with their ability to steer us through?