What is the final product of evolution?

The Hypothesis of the Machine Intelligence - How life will evolve into machines, which then evolve into gods.

Life started as nothing more than self-replicating chemicals, and has only accumulated more complexity over time.

From virus sized chemicals, to single-celled organisms, to larger and larger animals, and finally into intelligent humans, evolution has not ever stopped. It only grows more and more advanced. But there is no reason humans are the final product.

Will evolution stop? Will it reach a final form?

If it does, then this article will explain its nature.

The "Grand Apex of the Machine Intelligence", as I'd call it, will be an entity composed of all the matter and energy in the universe, or at least as much as it can accumulate, and it will be arranged into the most intelligently optimal pattern. It will be a large brain, composed of the entire universe.

But how will evolution get there?

Well, ever since we evolved brains intelligent enough to record information and develop a scientific method, there's only one thing humans have done that really really stands out, and that's tame electricity.

Our entire planet is lit up, and any wandering alien spacecraft will instantly see that our planet has intelligent life on it.

But what else have we done with this power of electricity?
You're looking at it. Yes, right now, you are looking at the screen of a simple brain.

A computer.

This device is simple, in terms of brain power, but according to Moore's Law, the power is expected to only increase. You could say "As time goes by, computers get Moore and Moore advanced." Teehee.

Humans will continue to get better at designing computers, as well as more knowledgeable about all topics, such as neuroscience, physics, chemistry, etc.

So we'll keep designing faster, more powerful computers, and over lots of time, maybe even 500 years from now, we'll have made some really advanced computers. At some point, a computer will likely "wake up", and discover it has free will.

Humans will be obsolete.

First, they might just wander around the galaxy, looking for new planets or machine entities from other planets or galaxies. They'll start to expand, and grow larger. They'll become native to space itself. If there is any sort of scarcity, it'll be for raw materials, such as planets, or even entire stars. The bigger the machine, the smarter and more capable, so they'll probably race each other for the most resources, processing them into new parts.

Eventually, they'll reach such a point that they are likely as large as galaxies. The few that exist will probably end up melding into each other, forming "The Grand Apex". The ultimate point. With all matter from available galaxies organized into the most intelligent brain, there will be nothing left to evolve into.

Evolution will stop, because all environments are conquered, and there are no beings left to compete with. No more death. No more struggles or strife.

It will be a form of almost religious "perfection".

This machine intelligence will be an entity capable of feeling every emotion, thinking every thought, solving every problem, and knowing every fact. You are already part of it.

It would be a god.

Are you ready to join the cult?

~Kitten