The Real Challenges of the Future: AI, Technology, and Human Awareness

Today, NVIDIA sent me an invitation to an event. While browsing their website, I came across the following statement:

"Join thousands of developers, innovators, and business leaders to experience how AI and accelerated computing are helping humanity solve our most complex challenges."

And at that moment, as the saying goes, inspiration struck…

The first thought that crossed my mind was: what exactly are these "most complex challenges" they are referring to?

Looking back at technological advancements over the past two centuries, one inevitably concludes that progress is rapidly moving toward the development of increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence. The logical next step is to equip AI not only with advanced algorithms but also with a physical embodiment capable of interacting with the world in the same way humans do.

However, what truly concerns me is this: are people really so shortsighted that they fail to recognize where their real problems lie?

For hundreds of thousands of years, humanity has focused on solving external challenges—improving tools, accelerating computations, building machines, and conquering new frontiers. Yet, the most complex challenges that developers at NVIDIA allude to are not external at all; they reside within humans themselves. While we allocate immense resources to creating superintelligent technologies that can think for us, we have yet to master the ability to understand ourselves.

Technology vs. Human Nature

The Illusion of Progress

For the past two centuries, humanity has been creating increasingly advanced tools to address global challenges. We have built powerful computing systems, explored space, learned to edit genes, and now, the next milestone is the development of strong artificial intelligence. At first glance, this appears to be impressive progress.

However, upon deeper examination, it becomes clear: while technology evolves, people remain the same. The challenges we attempt to solve continuously shift, yet their fundamental nature remains unchanged. Wars, conflicts, inequality, environmental destruction, societal and personal crises—all of these issues do not stem from technological underdevelopment but rather from human psychology.

Can technological advancements be considered genuine solutions if the root causes of these problems lie within us?

External Challenges vs. Internal Problems

Traditionally, humanity has focused on combating external threats:

• Poverty → We develop economic models and improve production.
• Disease → We create vaccines and enhance medical treatments.
• War → We refine diplomatic mechanisms (and weapons).
• Resource scarcity → We seek new extraction and recycling methods.

Yet, if we examine the underlying causes of these issues, it becomes evident that they do not originate from external conditions but rather from within people themselves:

• Poverty does not exist due to a lack of resources on the planet but because of unequal distribution, greed, and power structures.
• Wars are not fought because of a shortage of land or oil but due to human desires for power and control.
• Even diseases are often linked to lifestyle choices, emotional well-being, and habits.

Historically, we have followed the same pattern: we develop technologies to combat symptoms while ignoring the root causes. And once again, instead of addressing our internal limitations, we dream of technology that will solve everything for us.

Technology as a Means to Compensate for Human Imperfection

Artificial intelligence promises a new era in which "machines will think for us," predicting crises, making decisions, and performing complex intellectual tasks. In essence, we are designing systems meant to compensate for our own weaknesses.

But this raises an important question: if we do not understand how to cope with our own crises, fears, greed, and selfishness, how can we create technology that is wiser than we are?

Humanity has yet to master its own consciousness, yet it is already attempting to replicate it in digital form. Perhaps this is just another illusion—another cycle of technological "progress" that masks unresolved problems rather than eliminating them.

Technology can help us reshape the external world. But can it truly transform us?

Physiology, Energy, and Social Mechanics

The Human Body as an Energy System

The human body, like that of any mammal, requires an enormous amount of energy. Even when lying on a couch doing nothing, the human organism still consumes approximately 60 watts per hour—this is the baseline cost of life. This fundamental fact underpins all of human psychology and behavior.

Every living organism, including humans, seeks to conserve energy while achieving maximum results with minimal effort. This is not a conscious choice but a biological imperative. In animals, this manifests through instinctive strategies such as hunting, forming packs, and territorial behavior. However, humans, thanks to their capacity for abstract thought, have developed far more sophisticated methods of minimizing effort while maximizing rewards.

The most efficient energy-saving strategy is outsourcing labor to others. This has given rise to social hierarchies, exploitation, and manipulation. The prevailing logic is simple: “The less intelligent work, while the intelligent find ways to reap the benefits of their labor for free or at a significant discount through social structures.”

Modern Civilization: Institutionalized Energy Conservation

The system in which we live is structured in a way that:

• The worker is a resource—their role is to generate profit not only for themselves but also for their family, the state, corporations, taxes, social funds, subsidies, and other redistributive mechanisms.
• Economic hierarchies rely on exploitation—no one wants to work more than necessary, so the most profitable activity is not labor itself but the management of resources and people.
• Social institutions (governments, corporations, media) justify and reinforce this order, creating an ideology that frames “labor for the greater good” as an unquestionable necessity.

In reality, the modern human is not a free-thinking individual but a cog in a mechanical system. Their psychology does not form naturally; it has been programmed and refined over thousands of years of societal evolution.

The Civilization Hypnosis: Why Humans Fail to See Themselves

Humanity has long understood that individuals must remain within the system to be controlled. Therefore, anything that could lead people to self-awareness is suppressed through sophisticated mechanisms of cognitive control:

• Advertising and marketing—direct desires and create artificial needs, ensuring that individuals expend energy and resources in ways that benefit the system.
• Mass media and social networks—construct a worldview where self-reflection is unnecessary, keeping people trapped in an endless stream of information.
• Psychological manipulation techniques (hypnosis, NLP, cognitive triggers)—are widely employed in politics, corporate management, and education to reinforce specific behavioral patterns.

The average person does not even realize they are living in a state of cognitive hypnosis. They believe they are making choices, but in reality, their decisions are predetermined by a system that compels them to work, consume, avoid critical questioning, and remain within a predefined life script.

Conclusion: Why Technology Will Not Solve the Problem

If human consciousness is nothing more than a set of predictable, programmable reactions, can we genuinely speak of “progress”? Artificial intelligence, automation, and technological advancements will only tighten the mechanisms of control, not liberate humanity.

The real challenge of the future is not the advancement of technology but the ability to break free from automated responses. It is about recognizing one’s true motivations and understanding that human psychology is merely an adaptation mechanism for survival—a mechanism that can be altered.

But will humanity choose to see reality? Or is it easier to remain part of the system, believing in progress and development while life is spent on work, taxes, and an endless cycle of consumption?

Artificial Intelligence: Salvation or a New Illusion?

The Rise of AI and Its Applications

Before our eyes, artificial intelligence is transforming from science fiction into reality. It can already recognize images, generate text, predict user behavior, diagnose diseases, and even create music and art. This appears to be a genuine breakthrough—one that suggests technology is on the verge of solving all our problems.

However, a deeper look reveals that AI is not merely a problem-solving tool; it represents a new stage of automation and enhanced control.

Modern individuals already live within a civilization-induced hypnotic bubble—their desires are shaped by advertising, their behavior is regulated by social algorithms, and their decisions are dictated by media manipulation. Artificial intelligence will not free us from this state—it will only make cognitive control more precise, more pervasive, and less noticeable.

AI is already being used to:

• Curate content and news, reinforcing information bubbles.
• Deliver hyper-personalized advertising that outperforms all previous methods.
• Shape public opinion through automated bots and synthetic news generation.
• Regulate labor markets by predicting and influencing human behavior.

The more complex the technology, the less visible its control. In the past, people at least recognized when they were being persuaded; today, AI operates so seamlessly that individuals believe its influence to be their own independent thoughts and choices.

Why Does Humanity Place Its Hopes in AI?

Throughout history, people have sought an external force to save them from themselves:

• In ancient times, it was gods and prophets.
• During the Enlightenment, it was faith in science and progress.
• In the 20th century, it was computer technology.
• Today, it is artificial intelligence.

AI is marketed as a universal solution—one that will assume responsibility for complex decision-making, eliminate human error, and make the world “better.” It is expected to:

• Eliminate biases and mistakes inherent to human judgment.
• Optimize economic systems and resource management.
• Improve living standards by automating routine labor.
• Achieve a level of awareness and comprehension surpassing human capabilities.

But all of this is an illusion. AI is merely a reflection of the system that created it. And if this system is built on exploitation, deception, and power struggles, AI will not transform it—it will simply make it more efficient without altering its essence. 

The Greatest Challenge: Self-Awareness

What Humanity Has Failed to Solve for Millennia

For centuries, people have sought answers to the same fundamental questions:

• How can we achieve happiness?
• How can we control our emotions and desires?
• How can we overcome fear, pain, and suffering?
• How can we build harmonious relationships with others?

Scientific progress has not provided answers to these questions. We have split the atom, sent spacecraft beyond the Solar System, and developed artificial intelligence, yet we have not learned to control our own thoughts, emotions, and desires.

Humanity’s greatest challenges have never been technological. They have always been rooted in the nature of human consciousness.

Psychology as Mechanics: How Humans Operate

Humans expend vast amounts of energy just to sustain life. Even when lying on a couch doing nothing, the human body consumes 60 watts per hour. Every action, every decision requires even more energy.

The fundamental biological strategy of all living beings is resource conservation. In animals, this manifests through instinctive behaviors; in humans, it is expressed through complex social structures that allow individuals to shift effort onto others.

The modern world is an institutionalized system of effort redistribution, where:

• Workers must work to sustain the economy.
• Leaders redistribute resources and benefit from the labor of others.
• Mass media creates the illusion that this system is natural and inevitable.

The Civilization Hypnosis: Why People Cannot Escape the System

The system does not benefit from individuals becoming aware of their roles within it. Instead of fostering self-awareness, powerful tools of cognitive control are deployed:

• Advertising and marketing create artificial needs.
• Social media fosters dependency on external validation.
• Algorithm-driven content curation traps individuals in echo chambers, preventing alternative perspectives.
• Psychological manipulation techniques (NLP, cognitive triggers) are embedded in media, politics, education, and business.

Why the Development of Consciousness Matters More Than the Advancement of Technology

The true breakthrough of the future will not be the creation of more powerful computers or artificial intelligence. It will only be possible through the expansion of human self-awareness.

Until people learn to:

• Understand their own motivations and emotions.
• Recognize the mechanisms of manipulation they are subjected to.
• Comprehend how their perception shapes their reality.
• Differentiate their true desires from those imposed externally.

…they will continue to reproduce the same fundamental problems—regardless of technological advancements.

A person who does not understand how their consciousness operates remains a biological machine controlled by external forces.

True evolution does not begin with machine intelligence—it begins with human self-awareness. Until that occurs, all of our technological advancements will remain nothing more than tools for reinforcing old systems of control.