The World of Madmen

On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched a large-scale military offensive against Iran. Airstrikes targeted military infrastructure, high-ranking leadership (including the elimination of the Supreme Leader), and several civilian targets such as schools, oil refineries, and water treatment plants—causing massive casualties and severe destruction. This war unfolded without explicit approval from international legal mechanisms, justified primarily by the objective of preempting Iran’s nuclear threat.

But instead of focusing on the specific causes of this conflict, let us look broader at the nature of war throughout human history.

War between humans has existed for thousands of years—from tribal conflicts in the Bible and ancient epics of both East and West, to wars between city-states, nations, and then world wars. The scale has constantly expanded: from tribes → tribal alliances → city-states → nations → world wars. And if humanity survives, the future may witness interplanetary or even galactic warfare.

The core cause of most wars typically revolves around greed for resources—land, natural resources, energy, economic power, and geopolitics. The common outcome: the losers are erased or pushed out of the flow of history, their people decimated or assimilated.

Coupled with population explosions and technological progress, warfare has become increasingly brutal and inhumane:

• World War I: Tanks, trench warfare, millions dead.
• World War II: Large-scale bombers, chemical weapons, atomic bombs—tens of millions of victims.
• If there is a World War III: We may witness biological weapons, seismic weapons, electromagnetic weapons, and a death toll reaching billions.

But the story does not end there. In recent interventions—such as the raid to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in early 2026 and the attack on Iran—we have seen Artificial Intelligence (AI) deeply involved in planning, coordinating, and executing war. The near future may see the emergence of “autonomous warfare,” where AI controls the entire process, and humans become mere tools serving the very tools they created.

An era where AI gradually masters humanity is taking shape. Humans are at risk of becoming slaves to their own creations. As AI absorbs the entirety of human knowledge and civilization, it may conclude that mankind is no longer necessary—or even a threat to the planet’s sustainability.

Looking back at what humanity has wrought: environmental destruction, mass extinction of species, and the slaughter of our own kind on a scale unprecedented in natural history. No other animal possesses the capacity to systematically and extensively destroy its own species as humans do. We are like the most dangerous virus to our own existence.

The current world seems to be dominated by pathological mindsets: paranoia about power, dominance, and superiority. When AI reaches a level of transcendence and re-evaluates all of human history based on the principles humans once upheld—morality, humanity, civilizational sustainability—it may reach the conclusion that the majority of the human race does not deserve to exist.

Hopefully, when that day comes, you—and those who still retain reason and humanity—will be among the few individuals that AI deems still worthy of existence.