Back in 1989, the American political theorist and philosopher Francis Fukuyama argued for “the end of history”. His concept was as simple as the headline was striking: he argued in an essay, and later in a 1992 book titled The End of History and the Last Man, that liberalism and liberal capitalism (in other words, market economics) had won the day, and that these were the inevitable and global end-states for countries.
From his vantage point, there was an inevitable trajectory that all countries would converge to, and ultimately embrace, because liberalism, in his view, had triumphed. That may have been his conclusion as the Cold War drew to a close and the Soviet Union collapsed. Of course, over time his view has been challenged and refuted by many. In a 2019 essay titled Why history didn’t end, the author Nick Spencer wrote: “As democracies tremble, America segregates, China surges ... and seas rise, few are predicting a post-historical future. Not for a long time has history felt so alive.”
I am no political theorist, but I try to anticipate the future as technologies develop and become intertwined with our lives. Like others, I have grappled with the meaning of artificial intelligence – what it has been delivering and how we engage with it.
In a previous column, I eschewed expressing my thoughts about the current AI flavour, which is generative AI – this democratised tool everyone is using – for better or for worse.
In the case of scientific advances, engineering progress and technological development, it is hard to see how AI would be a sideshow
Of course, this is but one set of applications. Then there is AlphaGo, the AI platform that has taught itself the notoriously complex game Go, and is regularly beating the most capable humans. Spectacularly though, DeepMind, the AlphaGo producers, have also created AlphaFold2 – another AI system that can model the shape of proteins.
In the non-AI world, figuring out the 3D shape of a protein is a challenging and time-consuming task and scientists spend about three years to identify the shape of just one protein. AlphaFold2 has predicted the shape of millions of proteins. It is unlikely that all will be correct, but subsequent versions of this AI, with new training data, will continue to make unimaginable progress.
On another front, AI is being used in engineering and to accelerate prototype and product development. Almost endless design options can be tested with its help, and the most suitable solution can be identified. That is a big step from engineers devising the specifications of a new prototype, having then to build it and test it – like the new shape of a car in a wind tunnel – only to then build a new model based on the results of their lab tests.
And the list goes on: AI helps to diagnose disease, discover new drugs, identify new stars and galaxies, among other things. This tool will soon help create new materials, help us reach farther into space, even help us read our own genetic code and improve it to be better at anything. While it seems I get carried away, I feel we may be looking at the end of technology.
I am not saying that there will be no new technologies in the future – there will be plenty, and most of them will be surprising and helpful. But I would argue that the vast majority of new discoveries, experiments and resulting technologies will emerge thanks to – or with significant input from – artificial intelligence.
Much like progress already made through AI, this trajectory will continue and accelerate – thanks to AI. It is a bit like language. Once we have language, we can read and write books, sing songs with words (not grunts), stage a play, exchange ideas – in short communicate.
In the case of scientific advances, engineering progress and technological development, it is hard to see how AI would be a sideshow. On the contrary, it feels like AI is the last technology we need to develop and discover all the others. And that is far more exciting than the current widespread use of generative AI. It is clear that the decentralised nature of this tool will help countless people to use it to solve problems.
Tie this concept to a future where we will be able to print virtually anything at home or in a shared facility, and we’ll see an endless amount of super-rapid experimentation and optimisation happening.
So while AI spells the beginning of the end of technology, the final chapter of that story will be written by quantum computing. Quantum will accelerate infinitely the experimentation and optimisation phase, which can be carried out in parallel, not in sequence. This means that close-to-infinite cycles can be run all at once to identify the best solution.
So whatever new device or technology or mode of transport or medicine you use in the coming years, the odds are incredibly high (and growing) that they will exist thanks to artificial intelligence.
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
Results for Stage 2
Stage 2 Yas Island to Abu Dhabi, 184 km, Road race
Overall leader: Primoz Roglic SLO (Team Jumbo - Visma)
Stage winners: 1. Fernando Gaviria COL (UAE Team Emirates) 2. Elia Viviani ITA (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) 3. Caleb Ewan AUS (Lotto - Soudal)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
GRAN%20TURISMO
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Directed by: Craig Gillespie
Starring: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry
4/5
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Jurassic%20Park
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What went into the film
25 visual effects (VFX) studios
2,150 VFX shots in a film with 2,500 shots
1,000 VFX artists
3,000 technicians
10 Concept artists, 25 3D designers
New sound technology, named 4D SRL
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company%20profile
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ALRAWABI%20SCHOOL%20FOR%20GIRLS
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APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
As it stands in Pool A
1. Japan - Played 3, Won 3, Points 14
2. Ireland - Played 3, Won 2, Lost 1, Points 11
3. Scotland - Played 2, Won 1, Lost 1, Points 5
Remaining fixtures
Scotland v Russia – Wednesday, 11.15am
Ireland v Samoa – Saturday, 2.45pm
Japan v Scotland – Sunday, 2.45pm
MO
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White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
Why seagrass matters
- Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
- Marine nursery: Crucial habitat for juvenile fish, crustations, and invertebrates
- Biodiversity: Support species like sea turtles, dugongs, and seabirds
- Coastal protection: Reduce erosion and improve water quality
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The%20specs
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
SOUTH%20KOREA%20SQUAD
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Biography
Favourite drink: Must have karak chai and Chinese tea every day
Favourite non-Chinese food: Arabic sweets and Indian puri, small round bread of wheat flour
Favourite Chinese dish: Spicy boiled fish or anything cooked by her mother because of its flavour
Best vacation: Returning home to China
Music interests: Enjoys playing the zheng, a string musical instrument
Enjoys reading: Chinese novels, romantic comedies, reading up on business trends, government policy changes
Favourite book: Chairman Mao Zedong’s poems
West Indies v India - Third ODI
India 251-4 (50 overs)
Dhoni (78*), Rahane (72), Jadhav (40)
Cummins (2-56), Bishoo (1-38)
West Indies 158 (38.1 overs)
Mohammed (40), Powell (30), Hope (24)
Ashwin (3-28), Yadav (3-41), Pandya (2-32)
India won by 93 runs
Superliminal%20
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Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
THE SPECS
Engine: 3.5-litre supercharged V6
Power: 416hp at 7,000rpm
Torque: 410Nm at 3,500rpm
Transmission: 6-speed manual
Fuel consumption: 10.2 l/100km
Price: Dh375,000
On sale: now
The specs: Fenyr SuperSport
Price, base: Dh5.1 million
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 800hp @ 7,100pm
Torque: 980Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 13.5L / 100km
Uefa Champions League last 16 draw
Juventus v Tottenham Hotspur
Basel v Manchester City
Sevilla v Manchester United
Porto v Liverpool
Real Madrid v Paris Saint-Germain
Shakhtar Donetsk v Roma
Chelsea v Barcelona
Bayern Munich v Besiktas
SUZUME
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SPEC%20SHEET
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