Swimming, crawling, walking, running…this is the crudest description of the evolution of human beings. Our ancestors millions, even billions of years ago were simple single-celled organisms, scraping by with the most basic of abilities to process simple cellular material into energy. Then these organisms evolved the ability to photosynthesize light and multiply cells, they became multi-celled which gave rise to gradual improvements of their internal structures ability to develop specialized organs. From this they became self-sufficient and able to reproduce exponentially. Over millions of years these simple multicellular organisms eventually became the dominant species, migrating to the safety of the Earth’s oceans where they formed food chains of predator and prey alike. These simple animals had no other goals at this point other than survival. On the surface of the Earth, the broiling, catastrophic environment settled to allow complex vegetation to develop. Highly diversified and widely adapted, plant life was rapidly becoming an essential determining factor of the makeup and atmosphere of the young planet. The stage was set for the first land species to make the jump from the relatively safe oceans back to the land.
If you want to read more about the progression from simple life forms to upright homo sapiens (and everything in between) you could do worse than Charles Darwin. You may even choose to believe that a divine creator whipped up everything in seven days. Either way, humans informally started counting the years (inaccurately) approximately 2000-4000 years ago and they have seldom taken pause to look back. Perhaps we should more often. One of the points that I was making in my poor description of evolution was that we evolved from pond scum. Whichever way you choose to view the “big picture”, our existence isn’t really a part of it unless you are viewing it through the narcissistic perspective of a species that has only been around for 0.0001% of (estimated) time. It is pretty easy to pat your own back when you have no reference whatsoever for any other examples, similar species, or knowledge of inhabited worlds. Astrophysics is facing the puzzling mystery of the absence of other intelligent life by postulating that along with the vastness of space itself, the ideal parameters for life to not only arise and sustain but to evolve to support intelligent species may be extremely rare. Either that or homo sapiens don’t actually garner any interest from other species…yet.
This latest examination of the dominant life form infesting our Pale Blue Dot will expose some of the complex behavior that plagues us and if it can be overcome.
The God Complex
If you didn’t know better you might think that God was everywhere. Contained in the most simplistic of daily elements and happenings as well as the intricate patterns that determine and manage the physical world that we inhabit. Humans have spent immeasurable amounts of time philosophizing on the forces that govern our world and what governs them in turn. The answers remain ever elusive and yet discoveries based in the sciences and repeatable observed behavior indicate organization that exceeds those laws that control not only the processes of Earth but of the Cosmos themselves. It is not enough for us as mortals to accept that these observed facts, regularities of all material things, operate in perfect harmony by themselves. Because we are who we are, we seek an ultimate answer. A divine or omniscient controlling force to attribute this apparent balance to. When none is found, then we deduce that we ourselves are part of the process and therefore are entitled to take control over the natural world and the fate of our species itself.
Unfortunately, as history has illustrated, this results in some highly undesired results and has led to the ruin of some of our greatest achievements as a species. In fact, human error seems to be as much as a consistency of who we are as is our talents for creation, organization and harmony. Chaos is the ultimate leveler of the human playing field. If the animal kingdom is organized by the pyramid of apex predators, then we are certainly on top (on the land) with few that can be considered above us. In order to control our population and dominance over nature itself our own species seems to inherit a self-destruct trait, a fatal flaw: ego.
Man vs Man is the ultimate conflict and it sure makes for good storytelling. Across the annals of our history are etched the rise and fall of great societies, empires, who were defeated by themselves or by outsiders who were jealous of the possessions and wealth of nations and had to take them for themselves, or try. A disturbing trait that also lends itself to jealousy is when wealth cannot be seized by force it must be destroyed. That fact that this has repeated itself with astonishing regularity should indicate that our own behavior is as predictable and ingrained as any other trait we may inherit to survive. So goes the ascent of man, so goes his decline. If the trait of a God is immortality then we cannot be compared by the image we have created of this type of entity. Although we may try to attain such lofty heights it will remain out of reach perhaps forever as an evolutionary insurance policy to ensure our potential for self-destruction. We must then imagine God or the Gods in our image and assume to carry out their orders or messages: divine prophecy.
As I am not a religious person I won’t dare venture into the verse and teachings of any of the varied pieces of literature that humans have created to reinforce and assert their beliefs in a divine creator or guiding force in life. It has certainly been impressed upon anyone who has read a decent amount of literature that religion is as important an aspect of humanity as almost any other cultural influence. The definitive lesson in all religions seems to be love, acceptance and reverence. However these are quickly dismissed for alternative interpretations of text and devolve into superiority and dominion over others who either do not ascribe to the same belief systems or have demonstrated that they do not have the same level of reverence. Thus resulting in what are described as purges, crusades, assimilations and war. The unmaking of our civilizations and humanity itself.
AI vs God
At the dawn of the 21st century we have managed to draw from the once vast resources of the planet almost everything conceivable to support the comfort and survival of our species. That this wealth of resources is poorly distributed speaks volumes of our questionable judgment and morality. One of the greatest benefits of our plundering of resources is through development of technology and science that has benefited humans in immense ways. To suppose that the decayed carcasses of the predominant species of organisms that inhabited this planet would one day be extracted and converted into fuel sources seems unreal. However as most know, this is exactly the formula for generating the fuels that we require to make our modernized world run. We can point to many elements, chemicals and inventions that changed the way that humans have used to alter the planet and their own means of survival. But perhaps none of them can be more understated at this point in our history than how we have utilized the element silicon. Up until the 1980’s we had managed to develop and implement computers from the existing technology consisting of wiring, vacuum tubes, diodes, resistors and the like. The computers of that day were huge, ponderous and of relatively limited capacity when compared to human brains. The invention of the microchip changed everything and with it the future of humanity.
With this invention the world of computers was reduced by 50-100 times smaller. What once required a room of equipment now was reduced to the size of a toaster. And as development got better the technology got smaller. Computers rapidly became everyday resources for the wealthy and then, eventually, even for the not-so-wealthy. They continued to get faster and smaller until the equivalent of the computing power that took the first men on voyages to the Moon now pale to the power of what we carry around in our pockets as the smartphone. About half of the people on the planet now have the equivalent of a supercomputer in their pockets, which they use for pretty mundane and unimportant things. But this is certainly not the end of the story for computers. As we are want to do, we continue to push the limits of what they can achieve. We now have the infancy of quantum computing and with it, the infancy of Artificial Intelligence.
And with this most recent revelation of technology, we expect AI in the very near future to surpass human’s ability to solve problems and “think” as well as it will begin to overtake many of the tasks that are performed by people today. This has obviously raised quite a few alarms of concern and even paranoia for what the future of AI could bring. While the most paranoid visions feature a robotic apocalypse reminiscent of films such as The Terminator and I, Robot, a more realistic probability is that an AI takeover would be much more subtle and insidious. Many researchers think that AI is more likely to persuade individuals or systems to commit to an action that could have disastrous results than to directly cause the result itself. And while many imagine a Wargames type scenario where machine intelligence takes over global defense systems, most countries are invested in building precautions into systems that control national defense programs to prevent such a situation.
Realistically, the current potentials of AI are quite beneficial and there is no denying that it could enhance human survival and intelligence in direct and indirect ways. Elon Musk and other companies are already experimenting with interfacing it directly with the human brain to enhance capability or even replace those missing from birth. With the correct direction and protocols, AI could be made to correct the error of our most basic shortcomings. Let’s be honest, humanity has a lousy track record for safeguarding the well being of its own self. Several countries around the world are already implementing machine intelligence with drones and autonomous systems that possess lethal arsenals. Many military strategies anticipate unmanned systems as the future of defense and warfare. Humans are poised to place the life and death of others into the hands of robots and other automation without considering if this type of decision is actually ethical. The men who developed the first atomic bombs knew that there was a high probability that they would and could be used for far less noble causes than ending a world war. Although those types of weapons have not been used in conflict since 1945, their prolific existence today gives caution to the fact that they could indeed be used by someone or something to cause armageddon. AI is merely the latest risk to factor in when it comes to considering how many ways we could bring an end to our short reign as the planet’s dominant species. If we have been waiting for God or a being from above to sow our destruction we are probably looking in the wrong direction. The true destroyer of worlds is more likely to be a less stable neighbor, rhetorically speaking.
If you are looking for the point of my comparisons between God and AI it comes down to the observation that thousands of years of worshiping God (or Gods) has basically led to genocide after genocide and the destruction of hundreds if not thousands of cultures and societies. I should also mention the desecration of the Earth itself and the untimely extinction of so many species below us on the food chain. AI certainly has its risks and, if history is any indication, will probably be used for the wrong reasons at some point in the future because that is how human beings ultimately behave. We are an imperfect species which is destined to make imperfect decisions, frequently. But in the off chance that we happen to make the correct decision and allow AI to enhance our consciousness it could fill the gap that our primitive cortex has yet to evolve. Replacing the fight or flight instincts of our reptilian brains with the logic and reasoning that the human species so desperately needs to ensure not only survival on Earth but possible long term survival beyond. AI could make us the Gods that we have aspired to be since we first crawled back out of the seas and onto land. Either way, even if AI does not do us in, we will eventually. All we have at stake is assured annihilation.
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