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Years that define eras

2023-01-30T17:22:51.006Z


The 21st century has not only brought major technological changes, it has also brought us wars that resemble those of the last century or the previous one.


It is enough to mention 1789 (the French Revolution), 1945 (the end of World War II) or 1989 (the fall of the Berlin wall) to denote profound transformations.

Thus, it is worth asking, what will be the first iconic year of our eventful 21st century?

Until recently, 2016 was the clearest candidate: the year of Brexit (June 23) and the election of Donald Trump (November 8) was the starting point of a new global wave of populism, polarization and post-truth that threatens with ending democracy in many countries.

But it also occupies an important place in the list of historical dates that fateful March 13, 2020 when the US Center for Disease Control officially declared that we are being attacked by the covid.

Is this pandemic the precursor to many others?

Is it the beginning of a planet permanently rocked by some kind of pandemic?

Can be.

Another date that symbolizes the revolutionary changes that are coming our way is the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for having developed the genome-modifying technology called CRISPR-Cas9.

Manipulating our genes using this technique promises tremendous progress in curing hitherto lethal diseases, but it also creates serious threats.

CRISPR in the wrong hands is a threat to humanity.

As is the development and dissemination of new artificial intelligence techniques.

On November 30, 2022, the OpenAI company unveiled its ChatGPT, a technology that finally wins the Turing test: a robot that replicates natural language so fluently that its responses are indistinguishable from those of a human being.

This is what the founder of modern computing, Alan Turing, had defined as "artificial intelligence" in a distant essay published in 1950. As of 2022, this crazy speculation is an ineluctable reality.

Because ChatGPT is not a

software

or one more platform of those that the wizards of the digital industries regularly announce to us.

Artificial intelligence is going to have as transformative an impact on knowledge industries as the introduction of machines during the industrial revolution.

Or maybe more.

But the 21st century has not only brought major technological changes, it has also brought us wars that resemble those of the last century or before.

On February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

This surprise was followed by others: instead of lasting a few days, Putin's war is about to complete a year.

Europe discovers that it can act as a unit and that this newly discovered capacity means that, instead of limiting itself to speeches and exhortations, it can act as a first-rate military power.

The ferocious cyberattacks expected from Russia have not materialized or have been neutralized.

The ineptitude of the Russian military is only surpassed by the medieval savagery with which they operate.

This means that in September 2022 Putin reintroduced an option that was thought to be outdated: the use of nuclear weapons.

"If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, without a doubt, we will use all available means to protect Russia and our people," the Russian leader said.

This is what every leader who sees his country's sovereignty in danger should say.

The important detail here is that the leader who states the obvious has at his disposal the largest nuclear arsenal in the world.

"This is not a bluff," Putin warned.

Clearly, what is at stake in Ukraine affects not only that country, but has geopolitical ramifications of all kinds, many of them unsuspected.

Another of the important changes in world politics occurred on October 23, when Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, managed to break with the rule that would have forced him to leave power at the end of his term, just as his predecessors had done. since Mao.

On that day, Xi was re-elected China's president and Communist Party general secretary for the third time, clearing all obstacles to becoming China's first dictator for life since Mao's death.

Finally, so far this century, climate change has manifested itself ferociously.

The frequency, intensity, material damage, and massive human suffering that have occurred this century from climate change are profoundly and rapidly altering our planet.

There is no symbolic date for this: climatic catastrophes have become normal.

@moisesnaim

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-01-30

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