Riccardo Luna

Thanks @yoshuabengio.bsky.social it has been a pleasure and an honour to be part of this journey . The best is yet to come if make the right choices now

We're at a crossroads, yet another in our history; and this time, we cannot afford to make mistakes

in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only”.

we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way;

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,

In our era, as Charles Dickens wrote about the late 1700s, amidst the 'enlightenment' of the industrial revolution and the excesses of the French revolution, he captured the essence of our time:

The paradox we're experiencing, and still not fully aware of, is that both scenarios are possible and realistic. The first, hyped by Silicon Valley's elite, is not science fiction. But a dystopian future is also a possibility, as warned by some of the very people who helped bring AI to life.

But what if it's also the technology that could make us irrelevant, eliminate thousands of jobs in a matter of years, and ultimately take control of the world, enslaving us all?

What if artificial intelligence was the tool we've been waiting for to unleash our full creative potential, cure incurable diseases, and tackle seemingly impossible challenges?

Is this the case with artificial intelligence? Are we facing an imminent danger or the greatest innovation in human history? What if the right answers were both?

We have a recurring tendency to believe that 'all will be well', that we'll somehow manage, that the pandemic virus will magically stop at our doorstep. We prefer to minimize, until it's too late to even despair. 'Denial and panic', is a well-documented mechanism in the social sciences.

At heart, a pessimist is an optimist who has failed: sometimes by nature, sometimes for convenience; but there are instances where warning of impending danger is a duty. Despite the fact that people often don't believe you. Cassandra is not just a mythological figure; she is an archetype.

Throughout our history, pessimism has been like a shadow: it chases us at times, precedes us at others, and there's only a fleeting moment in the day when, at certain latitudes, it seems to vanish. Or at night, when the shadow envelops everything else.

(a sarcastic expression used by the cosmic pessimist Giacomo Leopardi during the industrial revolution to challenge a vision of humanity that feels omnipotent).

Given our current progress, it would be easy to say that the optimists were right, those who see every technological innovation as a manifestation of humanity's 'magnificent and progressive fate'

The AI Dilemma: A Tale of Two Futures
How do we feel about artificial intelligence? Are we apocalyptic or integrated? Submerged or saved? This age-old dilemma has accompanied humanity since the dawn of civilization.

Just as shells were for early humans, and paper money for us. This is a significant turning point, coming from the world's largest investment fund, which manages over 10 trillion of dollars in assets.

The most renowned figure is Larry Fink, the head of the BlackRock fund. In July, he acknowledged his mistake, and recently released a three-minute video explaining why Bitcoin, defined as a 'code string' of 0s and 1s, is a sensible investment and payment instrument.

According to many, he had already prepared an executive order to establish a Bitcoin currency reserve in the United States (a draft of the text is circulating on social media).
Meanwhile, many critics of this market have reconsidered their stance.

This has elevated the legendary pizza, purchased by an early investor in Bitcoin when the cryptocurrency was worth only a few dollars, to an even more iconic status. The $100,000 mark was surpassed following Trump's victory, as he had publicly supported cryptocurrencies during his campaign.

The cryptocurrency phenomenon remains a mystery to most people, including myself, particularly in Italy where the market is still in its infancy. However, to give an idea of the growth witnessed this year, consider that a single Bitcoin reached a value of 100,000 dollars a few days ago.

Or Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, the country that embraced Bitcoin as a legal tender alongside the dollar in 2021 and has since seen a significant increase in wealth.

In short, this year I would have chosen 'the currency of the year' and awarded Bitcoin, along with all cryptocurrencies. Or the 420 million people worldwide who hold a percentage of Bitcoin in their wallets (this figure is an estimate).

like when TIME crowned the personal computer as 'person of the year' at the dawn of the digital revolution. Or when 'You' was chosen, representing all of us who joined social media en masse, forever changing the face of the web and creating a digital double of our world.

The alternative, revealed by TIME itself, wouldn't have been any better: Elon Musk, who had already graced the most coveted cover in the world a few years ago. The achievements of the Trump-Musk duo are undeniable, but I believe this was the perfect year for a groundbreaking choice,

The weekly magazine TIME has chosen its person of the year: Donald Trump, who has had a resounding electoral success that has brought him back to the White House. However, the choice, has been met with a yawn, as it was rather predictable (moreover, Trump received the same recognition in 2016)

But there's no one to share it with, no one who wants to hear it, no one who truly believes in it. We no longer trust, and this is the greatest problem of our time: the loneliness of the few who have not stopped believing and fighting for a better world.

This vision of the world attempts to align all the reasons, particularly technological and scientific ones, for why things will turn out well and we can make it happen. A captivating tale, if you're willing to believe it.

A story, or something to believe in? Or someone to listen to
us? Last night, I received a newsletter on climate change. It argued that now is the time for urgent optimism, a modernized version of rational optimism.

In that book, the protagonist utters a phrase that has always been a source of comfort to me, especially in challenging times. It goes like this: 'Life isn't over until you have a story to tell and someone to tell it to.' If Baricco is right, what's missing for us now?