Using Information and Communications Technology Advances to Leverage the Search of the World New Balance with Less Resources -Part 2-

The paper analysis is focusing on the potential contributions of information and communications technology (ICT) in the context of geopolitical emerging crises, which show that, behind the critical resources/materials and informational war, the information will be the supreme aim, as its power to enable all other critical values, in such dynamic and complex processes, where ICT has the fundamental role, is and will be more and more used to obtain the desired targets. That is why the role of ICT in leveraging savings should be deeply conceived starting from the meaning of costs which must consider ALL the human values, starting with life, but including the quality of life and other human values like humankind evolution/transformation. Evaluating the ICT role, we believe that the actual World crises represent a major risk for the Earth ecosystem and the humankind life, because of the unprecedented level and extent of the crises, where the lack of information or material/technological resources/progress is intended to be compensated by the use of brutal (military some time) force (or hybrid war), which rise other unprecedented existential dangers, for people and our planet. We also consider that such major crises and challenges reveal, in fact, the complexity of World problems, long time misunderstood, along with the incapacity of incumbents to solve or prevent them, before reaching such dangerous levels or points of no return . One major implication of reaching such stage of critical World context is the risk, already proved by some visible trends, to lead the actual challenges of balance between democracy and authoritarian solutions to the point where only force could avoid the worst scenario. On the other hand, this last stage should be analysed in the context generated by World crises, where the old problem of the balance between democracy and security, very much influenced by the prominent role of ICT potential, could degenerate to new dangers or even catastrophes, because of threats like the hybrid war (recalling, for example, infrastructures destructions/sabotages, fake news or ChatGBT vulnerabilities) or other geopolitical conflicts. Consequently, some crucial links of the World dramatical context with a proper/optimal ICT development are necessary, but they should be timely analysed, for keeping the right role of ICT in the Information Society (IS) on the way towards the Knowledge Based Society (KBS) and also the accurate knowledge refining in order to leverage its influence on Earth ecosystem and humankind evolution, as we repeatedly expressed [3][11][13][16][24]. Beyond any pessimistic impressions, the role of a proper ICT development which should mitigate such risks is anyway very necessary and we have approached some concrete examples that show the potential of ICT, including the human intelligence (HI) and artificial intelligence (AI) synergy, to reach such aims. Among the examples, the actual image of ICT potential is very well illustrated, as 2023 expected technology advances with substantial growing [1]. One of the actual most promising ICT advances is based on linking physical and virtual entities, as the digital twin technology does, being a suitable fit for the actual World crises, either materials or conceptual, but, although it may be seen, in a way, similar with the virtual reality technology, it is even much more productive and powerful, as it could bring solutions, using real time data, for many of the complicate challenges of the present and also for other that we cannot foresee. Beyond all known advantages and expected benefits of electrical cars (another 2023 top growing technology), mainly around reducing carbon footprint and non-fossil consumption, we consider that it is worth to notice other two prominent potential benefits of this industry development, as leveraging the research for innovations to improve actual battery technologies (which is for long time on a saturation level) and also advances in the general striving for the intelligent storage and transportation of the different forms of energy, which are crucial for the Earth ecosystem. It is also well known and equally used the global feature of the automotive industry to leverage a plethora of subsequent industries/branches, which provide all the necessary parts and bring considerable economic and technological benefits for World progress. Although it could appear much different from electrical cars, we believe that the future will rise another analysed example of similar industry: the autonomous robot [2]. The novelty rises from their penetration in the large industry of the airport services and further in restaurants economy, but, more than the actual economic benefit and context, it is important to notice the technological advances, while matching the restrictive environments (no GPS access) and combining the advance of 3-D lidars, cameras, and ultrasonic sensors. We observe that the system is a relevant example of ICT potential to contribute to new solutions in adverse new environments, i.e., just the World new challenges could bring. The challenges where ICT support is expected to help, in the dramatic evolutions and World crises context, becoming more complex and difficult to mitigate, could put complicate tasks for the ICT advances and this way the combination of HI and AI tends to be a critical factor for the World future and humankind safe evolution. Recalling just some prominent potential odds World have to face, from climate changes, Earth resources fading, social unbalances or geopolitical/security crises to earthquakes, consumption or changes in human behaviour/values, we could understand why it is necessary to optimize and obtain maximal efficacity and efficiency from the team HI-AI, which seems to be the main ingredient of ICT advances and eventually of the complex consequences of ICT services, products and applications when supporting IS/KBS progress. The analyse and identification of such challenges are, naturally, also more and more complicate and consequently some relevant examples were also considered. Starting from the general case of defence, which is better known, where every new arm is generating the appearance of its counter-arm, but without detailing here the challenges induced this way for World crises context, it was interesting to observe the similitude with the case of ICT advances benefits versus the vulnerabilities and risks which are sooner or later exploited by the cybercrime and all other misused applications of ICT. It is relevant, including the above similitude, to also mention an observation, we have often revealed to our students, referring to an inherent vulnerability of ICT, but exceeding this time the IT processes and laying in the communications garden , as the vulnerability generated by any emission which could be exploited/intercepted by enemy, we also call it the Achille s heal of the communications. This vulnerability was strongly mitigated by the implementation of defence applications of spread spectrum systems principles, we also presented in the early monograph in Romania we recalled in [22]. These observations show the complexity, diversity and the deepness of the potential vulnerabilities, considering just ICT garden , where odds and threats could appear and action (without neglecting other domains/factors). More than these, our opinion is that, along with the general actions exploiting the ICT vulnerabilities, the complexity of ICT products, applications, services and systems, proliferated all over the World, a specific area of intrinsic or potentially dangerous threats could be generated, especially through the critical infrastructures they are built in, as IS/KBS tend to become more and more dependent of massive ICT presence/infrastructure. The actual debate on AI applications induced risks is just the tip of the iceberg we have repeatedly mentioned [11][13][16]. Consequently, the security domain became crucial in the context of IS/KBS, while ICT development must safely cover both positive and negative implications of progress. The analysis of some relevant examples has detailed and confirmed the real dimensions of the above assertions, although the World context complexity and dynamic, along with ICT fast advances, rise inherent relativity/approximation and time sensitivity on any arguments. Starting from one of the most credible safety level on Earth, as it is provided for the spatial systems, where NASA is the prominent centre of expertise and software test automation is an essential instrument of risks minimization[4], the needed combination of HI and AI could take a multitude of scenarios, from designing to configurate and exploit ICT in its worldwide products, services and applications, but we consider that modelling, designing and simulating are crucial for ICT development optimization, especially in the complex and complicate context of Earth ecosystem. Although the NASA case of software test automation to emulate complex user behaviours is just one of the relevant scenarios, considering its critical importance, the HI component in the design phase was enforced with the highest level of human experience and expertise, while confirming, among other benefits, our earlier opinions about the crucial role of analysis time versus the complexity and the fast development of ICT (and generally of high-tech applications) [16][24][26][27], because on the ground you can take time to solve them . Among the main factors which could determine the capacity of the systems to reduce the risks, the prominent role of the communications, generally in mission-critical cases, was also revealed, based on their crucial importance on managing the remote spatial systems and platforms. As we already pointed [6][9][22], learning, from the ICT techniques and algorithms of development and also of processing data, brings not only the natural benefits of use, but it could inspire the ways of thinking or acting for organizations, incumbents or individuals, in order to better face the actual and emergent World challenges/crises. The lessons would be even more valuable in the most complex and complicate scenarios, like the example of cyber resilience vast domain revealed [5]. This way we have just arrived to the top of the World dramatical evolutions potential consequences, which, although we do not know exactly, we know how it is better to be approached: anticipate unexpected risk . Another refined knowledge we have to consider in our new normality is to analyse our risk tolerance and then the best response strategy. Concluding, both anticipation and tolerance, as complex and dynamic targets, are more and more difficult to define and reach, but it is also sure that, for the World stage we are in, the alternatives become fewer and critical as we neglect or fail to see where we are going to. This way, the man (HI), along with imagination and wisdom, using machine-controlled power (as AI), are the needed last resorts to find the expected alternatives for the World crises and decline, which actually ask more creativity from ICT, as an essential requirement. Consequently, we have to use all these learned lessons and timely refine our knowledge, taking into account the complexity and the dynamic of World changes, which is clearly a continue process of analyses and actions, where man and machine have to be used in a synergic combination in ICT advances design and applications, including AI, robots and so on.