1/ Myths are sometimes built on false ideas. The earth has never been hospitable to mankind. Humans have had to hunt for food, even to the point of decimating large mammals. Then, in the Neolithic period, to survive, they had to succeed in domesticating plants and animals. The 3,000 species of edible plants are the result of a long process of selection, since many of them were originally poisonous. Almost all the plants that make up the bulk of our diet would be doomed to die if left to Nature’s devices. The same applies to domesticated animals. The truth is, the planet is habitable thanks to human action. So, the idea of a return to the state of nature is a false one, which, if put into practice, would surely mean the end of mankind. The only practicable path is therefore the path of progress, a progress that integrates responses to climatic and biological risks, some of which are not new, as shown by the great epidemics of the past. (cf François Parcy – les clés du champ)
2/ There are an estimated two hundred thousand billion billion stars in the Universe. Who can imagine such a number? The philosopher Gunther Anders called what the human brain cannot imagine, supraliminal. The human brain is made up of 80 billion neurons, and the LLM ChatGPT of 175 billion weights. Who can imagine such numbers? Many aspects of artificial intelligence are therefore beyond our understanding. It can’t be a question of scale, since Ramsey theory states that any property can be proved with a sufficient large number of data. The mirage of universal artificial intelligence is destined to be long-lasting. Yann Lecun even points out that human intelligence is a collection of specific, intelligently coordinated skills. So why, from the outset, try to do better than an original that humans are still far from understanding? Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy, but it has a long road ahead of it, and will surely resolve the drawbacks that are attributed to it, such as its over-consumption of energy and water. We need to support research and progress in this field, and resist the rhetoric of those who, as prophets of what they don’t know, only broadcast axiogenic messages because they can’t even imagine what this technology would bring to humankind. (cf Yann Lecun)
3/ Businesses are the driving force behind the transformation, with an investment capacity 3 times greater than that of the public authorities. No transformation, be it ecological or digital, will be possible without investment from businesses. On the other hand, the current economic context, shaken up by the arrival of major innovations such as artificial intelligence, new-generation nuclear power and quantum physics, is creating a context of crisis, well described by Schumpeter in the cycle of creative destruction. By protecting savers and moderating competition, Europe has secured the banking system and encouraged the distribution of dividends, cutting into companies’ profits and their capacity for self-investment. By sheltering itself from major economic crisis, Europe has sidelined itself from the dynamics of transformation and innovation, and is falling behind China and the United States. If we add to this the ageing of the population, we can speak of a risk of decline. We need a financial sector that is capable of taking risks as a whole, not just venture capitalists, to support companies in their transformation strategies and, secondly, to choose visionary and ambitious bosses, not bosses who reassure the banks by perpetuating the old business models.