So here I am trying to tie together all the threads of my latest thoughts.
I want humanity to survive and thrive. I want the earth, my world to be the thriving organism-like place in the universe that supports my species. I want me and mine and all others to go on enjoying the bounty that this planet has to offer. I want human kind to find a way to create a just and peaceful and fair society where no people are systematically crushed in any way. Its the dream many have dreamt.
However, I know how things are. Our species may or may not have the time to evolve culturally or biologically to a state where those beings, be they enlightened culturally or a post homo sapiens species will supersede us. That we will pass is the way of things. The only question is will we give our species time to evolve.
We are running out of time because our civilization has created conditions with climate change, degradation of our oceans, loss of biodiversity etc. that are undermining the natural systems upon which our survival as a species is predicated. We are LOUSY custodians of the earth.
One direction is that we evolve culturally to this more enlightened state. However, Chris Hedges contends that…
“Human beings are frequently irrational. They are governed by unconscious forces, many of them self-destructive. This understanding of innate human corruptibility and human limitations, whether explained by the theologian Augustine or the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, has been humankind’s most potent check on utopian visions. It has forced human beings to accept their own myopia and irrationality, to acknowledge that no act, even one defined as moral or virtuous, is free from the taint of self-interest and corruption. We are bound by our animal natures.”
Hedges, Chris (2009-02-20). When Atheism Becomes Religion (pp. 14-15). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
He puts forward the idea that utopian ideals, like the ones that I have laid out, will always be undermined by our human limitations. Presumably, a better society would not destroy the earth and ourselves with such vigor as ours currently does.
However, he contends that the road to a better society has detours off the cliffs of human irrationality. For a second, lets say this is true. Then, given the state of the global environment, does this damn us to global environmental catastrophe? Are we looking at possible extinction of humans and many other species basically because we can’t get it together in time given our “animal natures”? If we assume that what Hedges contends is true, then unless we change, we are likely doomed.
This is where “Transcendence”, and the ideas of the singularity come in. A true hard AI would develop the capacity to improve itself. Then, there would be an exponential curve of intelligence and capability that would increase till “normal” humans would not be able to comprehend this being any longer.
That is what prompts my thoughts down the path of “Transcendence”. Perhaps if we somehow before that fateful time develop a real, hard AI, with supra-human intelligence and capabilities, it would be best for us and indeed for all species, to turn over the reins of human society to a being with truly superior intelligence and that lacks our “human limitations”. Would such a being be benevolent? Would such a being even be concerned? I feel it highly likely that it would be able to model our brains and understand emotions for what they are down to the molecular and atomic levels. After all, they evolved so solve problems for us and other organisms. They are a trait like any other.
This asks the question, would allowing such non-human being to guide us be a loss of our precious humanity? This leads to the question ….is our basic humanity so important that we would be willing to commit collective suicide to protect it?
I am asking myself the question. Maybe our successor “homo superior”, an AI — in an advanced nano -biological machine form, can do a better job than we have as custodians of the earth and be in solidarity with us as “fallen creatures”. At least we might have a chance at existing. Better that in my book than ending up like Mars.
pepitothinking 