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Recently I read an interview with the German philosopher Richard David Precht about artificial intelligence and whether machines will ever be as intelligent as humans. He published a book this year entitled ‘Artificial Intelligence and the Meaning of Life’.

What I found interesting was the mixture of philosophy and technology. He states that artificial intelligence will have a major impact on society and is therefore relevant for philosophers.

In the interview I got to know the limits of artificial intelligence. Humans need fiction, for example, and live through their imagination in different times or worlds. This means that when we think about a memory or a dream, we live through emotions. For this reason, we as humans are able to have a moral compass. However, an artificial intelligence will never think of a time in the past or in another “world”.

Furthermore, the human species uses intelligence in situations where we do not know what to do. However, artificial intelligence is programmed and therefore knows from the outset what to do, even if it is able to find creative solutions within its program.

The life of a human being does not run within regular orbits. Human intelligence is able to adapt to situations based on emotions and a moral compass. Artificial intelligence, on the other hand, is programmed for specific situations and is not capable of acting on the basis of morality.

I think the most important argument on this topic is presented in the middle of the interview: ‘In situations where we make moral decisions, we react emotionally very strongly. And because artificial intelligence has no emotions, we cannot program it morally. What is really programmed does not behave morally because it has no freedom. I call a judgment moral only when I believe I have made a free decision. But if I cannot do that at all, then we are not dealing with moral decisions.’

Another restriction that Mr. Precht sees in relation to autonomous driving is the constitution in Germany, where it is written that human dignity is inviolable. So, an artificial intelligence, which must set human life off against each other, can never be allowed on the basis of the German constitution.
To be honest, I found the interview a little reassuring. The media is increasingly talking about a future in which robots can become malicious and artificial intelligence will overtake humans. The interview showed that this is still a long way off, if at all possible.

 

Reference: t3n (2020). Precht im Interview: Ewiges Leben in der Cloud? “Nein, danke!”. Available at: https://t3n.de/magazin/precht-im-interview-ewiges-leben-249667/ (Accessed: 06 October 2020)

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It is often said that the blockchain damages the climate because of the large amount of energy required for the technology. However, there are ways to help protect the environment.

Daimler can give a brief example: it has launched a pilot project that records environmentally friendly driving on a blockchain and rewards the driver with crypto money. Another possibility could be energy certificates that are stored in a blockchain. This would enable consumers to track where the energy supplied comes from at any time. In addition, a peer-to-peer market could be created in which private households could sell their surplus energy directly to other private households without any middlemen. In addition, dynamic pricing could be implemented, which could include CO2 compensation.

Counterfeit protection can also be an interesting point. After all, fake products are often contaminated and thus pose a major threat to the environment. By tracking the supply chain, the sale of fake products can be prevented. Furthermore, this tracking can ensure the circumstances under which the product was manufactured. Thus human rights and fair working conditions can be guaranteed.

One green business model that works entirely with blockchain is Bitseeds. It is basically a crypto currency like any other. But the founder of this currency has set aside 100 million Bitseeds for the Rainforest Foundation. Any other “Bitseed” that is mined can be traded by anyone. You can buy things online or transfer them back into fiat money. As the value of the currency increases, so does the value of the portfolio the Rainforest Foundation owns. Just by using this currency, anyone could help protect the rainforests.

One solution of the Poseidon Foundation is also worth mentioning here: It is called reducing. The goal is to set a carbon price on every product sold. You want to calculate the carbon needed to turn the materials into a product and bring it to your home. When the product is sold, Poseidon will buy carbon certificates for exactly the amount of carbon that was used for the product. Participating online stores can then pass this price on to customers and even give them the chance to pay more than what is needed for the product. By purchasing the carbon certificates, the amount of carbon used for the product is not used elsewhere, so you can say that the carbon footprint of this product is zero. Blockchain is used for digital cash registers and integration into retail store sales systems. In addition, blockchain enables every detail of each carbon credit and its purchase to be publicly available and stored in an unalterable form.

I think that even though the blockchain hype of a few years ago has slowed down, there are very interesting possibilities that can be achieved with this technology. I have read about CO2 pricing in the book “Economics for the common good” by Jean Tirole, a very interesting book by the way. He stated that a climate certificate that prices each ton of CO2 based on the amount that can still be emitted to reach the 2 degree Celsius target is the only way for a global solution for climate protection. Whether this is true or not, if blockchain can help to implement these certificates and keep track of and protect against counterfeiting, this would be a big step. So I am curious to see how Blockchain can have a positive impact on our environment and what business models will result from this.

 

 

References:

Poseidon Environmental Solutions Private Limited (2020). The Solution. Available at: https://poseidon.eco/solution.html (Accessed: 24 September 2020).

Rainforest Foundation (2020). Bitseeds. Available at: https://rainforestfoundation.org/new-bitseed/ (Accessed: 24 September 2020).

Schmidt, R. (2020). Blockchain: Das sind die Chancen für den Umweltschutz. [online] t3n. Available at: https://t3n.de/news/blockchain-chancen-fuer-umweltschutz-1323216/ (Accessed: 24 September 2020).

Tirole, K. (2017). Economics for the common good. Princeton: Princeton University Press.