Most of you know that I subscribe to numerous futurists lists. And that I hold some pretty strange ideas (at least strange to the "man-on-the-street", maybe not to you guys so much).
One list in particular has recently been bantering about SuperIntelligence (SI) and how it will affect humanity.
Most often, the argument is framed as humanity looking at ants. We (humanity) can see some limited intelligence in an ant colony, but certainly not enough to keep but a few entomologists interested in looking at them on a regular basis. Likewise, the ants, if they even percieve us as more than a natural force in their environment, could have no true grasp of just how much further up the scale of intelligence we are. So, the comparison goes, we (humanity) are ants compared to a true SuperIntelligence.
The debate that has been raging as of late concerns how SIs would perceive humanity. Would an SI, born of humanity, remain interested in us? Or would, as most think, the SI simply go "out there" to find something more interesting? Presuming an SI is just merely an order of magnitude smarter than the entire human race, what would be here to keep it interested in us?
See the dilemma?
We (humanity) will build an SI within the next few decades. Our machines will Transcend us. The question becomes will the machines take us along for the ride? Will they allow us to stay as we are? Simply not caring what becomes of us because we are uninteresting? Will they create a utopia in which we continue to exist, a utopia that their creators always wanted but never had the intelligence to build?
What do you want? Can you handle the fact that all you've ever thought, all you'll ever believe is insignificant? Would you be willing to trade all of humanity for what might be the next stage in our evolution? From Darwinian selection to selected evolution. Are you prepared to have your mind and soul shattered by the revalation that in the grand scheme, all of humanity is truly nothing? That for all our self-importance, we are ants? Our only saving grace is the limited general intelligence that we sometimes display.
These are hard questions and we as a society are responsible for the answers. There will be a test, and it will determine the fate of present billions and future trillions. Are you informed enough, detached enough, indeed cool enough to make a decision?
What say you?
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