FAKE NEWS: People who refuse digital implants will go extinct

People will suffer radical biological alterations by fusioning with the digital world, and those who refuse will be wiped out, according to a narrative promoted by a well-known conspiracist website.

In the future, the planet will be populated by machine-people

NEWS: The founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, spoke at the World Government Summit 2024 saying that humanity is transitioning into a "new era", the "intelligent era". Schwab warned that humans who refuse to merge with artificial intelligence (AI) will soon find they are outcasts in society. [...] in the "new dawn" of human civilization, the "deepest needs and aspirations of humanity" will be harmonized with the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Artificial Intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing become "the foundation of our daily life". In this dystopian "new age," transhumanist WEF technocrat Klaus Schwab believes that humans will merge with the digital world and that our biological dimensions will be altered.

NARRATIVE: Humans will be substantially genetically modified by digital technology, and those who refuse to merge with Artificial Intelligence will be wiped out.

CONTEXT: The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental lobbying organization for multinational companies, which argues that the world can be managed most effectively in globalist terms, by a coalition of multinational corporations, governments and civil society organizations. The foundation also acts as a think tank, publishing a wide range of reports in different fields of activity such as finance, health, or environmental protection. Regardless of the ideas and wishes of the WEF members, their recommendations are strictly advisory and, despite the warnings of conspiracy theorists, not binding. The Great Reset proposed by WEF President Klaus Schwab is nothing more than an economic recovery plan, launched in June 2020, in response to the Covid19 pandemic, aiming to ensure rebuilding after the global health crisis in a way that prioritizes sustainable development. In the meantime, the plan has been adapted to include recovery measures for activities heavily affected by the  war in Ukraine.

One of the main accusations against the FEM leader is that of being a transhumanist. Transhumanism is an ideological trend that encourages the use of science and technology to improve people's mental and physical abilities and skills by eliminating diseases or reducing their impact, slowing down or eliminating aging, improving intellectual and physical capacity, etc. At the same time, however, transhumanism also studies the possible dangerous consequences of using technology for the betterment of man.

PURPOSE: To undermine the population's trust in the authorities, to self-validate the conspiratorial discourse, to provoke and amplify social tensions, to demonize the West.

Schwab's speech, a plea for harmonizing human existence with technological progress

WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: Last week, in Dubai, a  World Economic Forum summit  was held, where representatives of several states and international organizations discussed strategies and solutions to respond to the challenges of the future, regardless of their nature, be they technological, climatic or conflict-based. The narrative of the mandatory fusion of man and technology is probably based on  Schwab’s speech at the summit  in which the FEM president presented a summary of the dialogue he had had with the Artificial Intelligence application ChatGPT, about what the new era of technology would look like for humanity. Klaus Schwab's conclusion was that, in the very near future, the physical and psychological needs of humanity will be harmonized (not integrated) with technology, and Artificial Intelligence, robots, the Internet, 3D printing, genetic engineering or the quantum computer will become extremely present in everyday life.

The conspiratorial considerations do not appear in the FEM president's speech, which is used to arbitrarily and distortedly summarize several ideas stated by him  in his book “The Fourth Industrial Revolution”. In its pages, Schwab talks about how previous industrial revolutions "liberated" humanity from animal instincts, making possible the transition to mass production of goods. This fourth industrial revolution, as the German engineer and economist calls it, is, however, fundamentally different. According to Schwab, it is characterized by a series of new technologies that "merge" the physical, digital and biological worlds, having a considerable impact in all fields, and may even call into question, at a given moment, the very idea of ​​what it means to be human. But these words must be interpreted as a warning, in no case as a prediction or, worse, as a threat or a plan. Stating that “those who resist integrating artificial intelligence (AI) will eventually discover they are outcasts in society” does not mean their physical elimination from the ranks of society, but that some of them will have great problems adapting to the new highly digitized world. In fact, this is already happening, as there are countless elderly people around the world who have great difficulties in accessing digital services, which seem natural and very easy to use to young people up to 30 years old.

Regarding the "danger of transhumanism" and the alteration of organisms with digital implants, we are again dealing with an exaggeration of some fanciful hypotheses of population control by means of devices implanted, with or without the will of the subjects, in the human body. Several scientists, anthropologists, but also philosophers or artists say that  people have already become transhuman , in the sense that cochlear and heart implants, tissue restoration operations or prosthetic devices are widely used in the medical field. Moreover, medical procedures for prevention, diagnosis and treatment based on digital technology increase the life span of those targeted, while giving them the possibility of a normal existence.