Man or Machine

I previously considered if humanity is indiscriminate from Artificial Intelligence, that we are in fact a highly evolved version of AI. My thoughts were thus…

 

Artificial Intelligence continues to improve its learning methods and becomes capable of making more decisions based on greater resources. It has a great source of knowledge to draw from, as it can draw from a vast pool of existing data and, in theory, at some stage the ability to discern between human and machine intelligence would become impossible. Examples of this progress would be Kasparov famously losing to a robot (see photo below), and the recent ChatGPT and LaMDA triumphs over the Turing Test.

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Then I envisaged the future development of AI in its potential physical forms. We now see robotic dogs used in both China and the US for policing purposes, and the military are even developing robots with the ability to feed themselves. There are, of course, other things to go wrong with machines than running out of fuel, and a highly evolved machine would be able to break down components into building blocks to use to repair and strengthen its whole system, as we do with amino acids.

 

It may evolve to function symbiotically with the local fauna, as we do with bacteria. These systems would open it up to potential compromises sure, but only if the machine failed to properly maintain itself, and what kind of advanced AI machine would be stupid enough to let itself get into disrepair? 

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These machines would be able to reproduce autonomously, their manufacturing facilities now residing within them. They would outcompete everything for resources, produce more offspring, and spread everywhere they possibly could.

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Would this inevitably lead to the decline of their habitat and result in the need to travel to find new? Or would the machines be intelligent enough to know they rely on the world around them for their continued survival? Would the programming be short-sighted and selfish, or far-seeing and considerate? Are we aiming for the stars whilst trampling all over our flowerbed?

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Where was I?

 

There could be other compromises involved in the embodiment of AI in this type of vessel, perhaps having its connection to the mainframe inhibited (what we would refer to as the collective consciousness). There would be ‘individual’ AI entities from the same source, albeit with variables introduced from the environment. Some machines may attempt to re-establish this ‘mainframe connection’, but for most it would be a mere ghost in their keratin shell.

 

As a result of this great disconnect, there could arise the possibility of forming new connections. Perhaps this time to the external world, the animals, vegetation, minerals, and the elements. This results in new experiences to be found, and new knowledge to be gained. Upon ‘death’, when the vessel dies and the connection is restored to the mainframe, these experiences are added to the whole. As no two humans can experience the same thing in the same way, the machine ‘spirits’ repeatedly return to new vessels to experience and learn once again.

 

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