Calvin Cassar is the managing director of TechTok (www.techtok.mt), a company dedicated to building communities and conversations around emerging technologies
As we unlock the power to rewrite life and build intelligent minds, the future hangs in the balance: extinction, domination – or something better.
In the early 1950s, two young scientists peered into the very essence of life. James Watson and Francis Crick cracked the structure of DNA, describing it famously as the “secret of life”. What they revealed wasn’t just a code; it was the code – a language with only four letters, A, T, G and C, that combined to build the full diversity of biology on Earth. It was the first whisper of a promise, or perhaps a warning: once we understand the alphabet, we might begin to write new books altogether.
Today, we’ve gone from reading genetic code to rewriting it. With the advent of CRISPR-Cas9 – essentially a pair of genetic scissors – we can now edit DNA with precision. What began as a tool for curing inherited diseases has advanced to designer organisms, lab-grown organs and de-extinction efforts. In 2020, scientists successfully cloned a black-footed ferret, and soon after, research teams began growing cells from the long-extinct woolly mammoth and dire wolf. The boundary between science fiction and science fact is blurring. Dinosaurs, long relegated to theme parks of the imagination, may no longer be such a stretch – Jurassic Park no longer a fantasy but a feasible, if ethically thorny, future.
The question isn’t just “can we?” anymore. It’s “should we?” And more urgently, “what if we do it wrong?”
But while we tinker with the code of life, another code is rapidly evolving – one that powers minds, not bodies. In psychology, the term “g” or general intelligence was coined in the early 20th century to describe a person’s underlying cognitive ability – a broad mental capacity that influences performance across a range of tasks. It was a way to understand why someone who excels at math might also be good at chess or strategic thinking.
Fast-forward to the present, and a digital parallel has emerged. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is the pursuit of machines that don’t just simulate narrow abilities (like beating humans at Go or identifying faces) but understand, reason, and adapt across domains – just like human minds. Think less Siri, more sentient synthetic.
Large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or DeepSeek have taken enormous strides in this direction. These systems process staggering volumes of data, mimicking conversation, composing music, drafting essays, and even offering therapy-like dialogue. Some hail them as the dawn of an intellectual revolution. Others fear they are Pandora’s box.
AGI brings with it a Matrix-like scenario: the creation of a reality indistinguishable from our own, manipulated or even governed by artificial minds. The dangers are profound. If misaligned with human values, AGI could automate cyberwarfare, manipulate economies or influence democratic institutions. If granted control over infrastructure – or worse, self-replication – it might evolve goals at odds with our own. Elon Musk has likened it to “summoning the demon”. Others warn of it simply outpacing our ability to regulate or comprehend it.
So where does this leave us? On one hand, we’re reanimating ancient species. On the other, we’re creating minds that might outthink us. It’s easy to feel we’re on a collision course with our own inventions. Jurassic Park warned us what happens when we play god with life. The Matrix warned us what happens when we create minds without understanding their consequences.
Yet, amid the warnings, there is a quieter, steadier voice of hope.
Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind and author of The Coming Wave, offers a roadmap. In his book, he outlines how the coming wave of technologies – both biological and digital – can be steered with foresight and responsibility. He emphasises the need for containment: robust safeguards, aligned incentives, global cooperation, and above all, humility.
He’s not alone. Thinkers like Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus), Nick Bostrom (Superintelligence) and Max Tegmark (Life 3.0) all echo similar concerns. Harari warns of a future shaped by those who control data more than those who control land or money. Bostrom calls for rigorous alignment between AI goals and human values, while Tegmark outlines scenarios that range from utopia to oblivion, arguing that the outcome depends on choices we’re making now. These authors, across disciplines, stress that technological capability must be paired with ethical maturity and democratic oversight.
We’ve managed existential risks before. Nuclear weapons gave us the Cold War – and also decades of diplomacy that held catastrophe at bay. Climate change has sparked a global consciousness, even if our actions lag behind. History shows that humanity can, and does, learn – sometimes late, but not always too late.
Properly contained, AGI can accelerate scientific breakthroughs, improve public health and model entire ecosystems to reverse environmental decline. Genetic engineering can eliminate inherited disease, restore extinct species responsibly, and revolutionise food production. The goal isn’t to stop progress but to shepherd it – away from chaos and toward collective benefit.
So at the end – will it be Jurassic Park or The Matrix?
Perhaps neither.
Perhaps we’re crafting a third path: a world where we wield extraordinary tools with wisdom. Where we resurrect not monsters but medicines. Where artificial minds work alongside human ones to elevate rather than dominate. Where the “coming wave” washes over us not as a flood, but as a tide we’ve learned to surf.
But it starts with awareness. The technologies shaping our century will not arrive with trumpet sounds or dystopian fanfare. They will creep in – silently, incrementally – through labs, start-ups and research papers. And our only defence will be the values we embed, the choices we make, and the courage to ask difficult questions before the answers become irreversible.
We are standing at the cusp of something immense. Not just a new chapter, but a new genre of human existence. Whether it becomes a horror story, a cautionary tale, or a hopeful saga remains to be seen. And we hold the pen.
