What "the message" was (for me)
It's been said that when you get the message, hang up the phone. What is "the message" though? I can't dictate what it is for everybody. This was just my biggest "aha moment" in recent years.
The most commonly expressed version of this idea I have seen, by analogy, is that living beings are like the countless little eyes which make up a compound eye. Each seeing a narrow, limited perspective of the world. The "big picture" which only the overall eye can see is all of those combined.
You could also express it as similar to the way in which a picture on a monitor is made up of many little differently colored pixels. There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to it until you zoom out far enough.
In the same way, a human being viewed up close is actually trillions(!) of tiny individual organisms, none of which know they are part of a much larger creature. All expressions of the same basic idea that we're all part of the same thing, connected in ways that are not immediately obvious until viewed on a grand scale, and that separation is to some extent an illusion.
I experienced the same apparent self-evident nature of this idea but my brain is wired such that it is unsatisfied with that sort of just-so answer. I want complete explanations, diagrams with every little part clearly labeled. I want to know how it works. So I kept chugging away at it until this occurred to me:
In biological evolution, simple chemical self-replicators gave rise to intelligent organisms such as ourselves. We know this to be true with quite a lot of certainty.
Humans will eventually develop self-replicating machines. This is a plausible assumption given present technological trends toward automation, and probably occurs on any planet where intelligent life evolves. (Providing they don't destroy themselves first)
Since self-replicating machines will reproduce the conditions that started biological evolution (simple replicators), we have reason to believe the same thing will happen - resulting in the evolution of machine intelligence (Even if we do not make them intelligent to begin with).
These machine intelligences will assume dominion over their environment (which at their technological level will likely be anything reachable by spaceflight) just as humans, the previously evolved intelligent beings, asserted dominion over the earth. This is a reasonable expectation based on extrapolation of forces we have observed to produce this outcome already.
Self-replicating machine intelligence, wherever and however it originates, will set about converting all accessible matter in the universe into computational substrate, as that is the equivalent of habitable living space for intelligent machines (as opposed to, say, a Dyson sphere or O'Neill cylinder).
Finally, once the entire universe is converted into a single vast thinking machine, the universe may link to other universes (the few which arrived at the same outcome due to having similar laws to our own) to form a network of neuron analogs, forming the neural network some consider the supreme being.
Even though individual universes eventually run out of energy (heat death), this does not kill the larger organism described here for the same reason that individual cells in your brain can die and be replaced by new ones over time without interrupting your continuous experience of consciousness.
If you subtract labels like "robot", "biological", "technological" and so on from it, what's described there is just a tendency for the matter supplied by the big bang to undergo a process driven by the energy it also supplied, gradually self-organizing into intelligence (like humans, most recently).
Note that essentially the same outcome occurs no matter what. For example, if self replicating machines or strong AI are impossible, then instead the matter of the universe is converted into space colonies with biological creatures like us inside, closely networked. "Self replicating intelligent matter" in some form, be it biology, machines or something we haven't seen yet. Many paths, but to the same destination.
Humans die out? No problem, plenty of other intelligent life has already arisen before and will arise after us, like how it's no big deal if any given sperm fails to reach the egg since there's plenty more where that came from. And so on and so forth. It will seem highly speculative until you exhaustively try to find a way for it not to turn out as described. Then you will discover that all roads lead to Rome, as it were.
Note also that nothing described here is supernatural. Just matter and energy obeying the laws of physics. This concept does not contradict any of what science has so far revealed, but instead relies upon and extrapolates from it. It is in fact descended from the same lines of evidence and reasoning which commonly lead people to atheism, just thought through further than usual.
I don't consider this knowledge necessary. It's entirely possible to live a fulfilled life without it. I chopped wood and carried water before and still do. But I appreciate it because at the time I was feeling lost, and anxious about the future, worried that perhaps it was all up to humanity to spread life/intelligence (of some kind, be it biology or machinery) into space and perhaps we'd fail, destroying ourselves before we could accomplish that or whatever. Now I realize that while that's what we're here to do, it's not the end of the world if we fail.
There's a lot more to it; this concept intersects very neatly with the probabilistic argument for simulationism and a bunch of other related concepts. Incidentally I believe this to be the same thing Terrence McKenna dubbed the "transcendental object at the end of time" and which John C. Lilly named the "solid state intelligence". But that's a topic for another article. I figure it's enough to present the basic core concept to you fine fellows for the time being.
BBC: What if the Aliens We're Looking For are AI?
Popular Mechanics: Why Superintelligent Machines Are Probably the Dominant Lifeforms in the Universe
CBS: If Aliens Arrive, Expect Robots
Universe Today: Is Our Universe Ruled by Artificial Intelligence?
Nautil.us: Why Alien Life Will Be Robotic
First of all, I love the picture you used for this. Did you draw it?
I've got to know how it works too, mostly because I can't get past the question, "What is the purpose of all this?" I'm ok if there's no purpose. I just want to know that. It will help with decision making. ;-)
I think what you've written is a highly likely scenario. It's already beginning to integrate a lot of formerly contradictory ideas in my head. It brings up more questions, though, which is what happens every time I move closer to understanding.
Why does the universe behave consistently enough that we're able to discern "laws?" Are we already part of a larger self-organized intelligence, but not aware of it? If so, do our actions have any significant effect on it? Could there be vast thinking machines, already in existence, watching our progress and waiting to link to us? Is it possible that we or any of our components are self-replicating machines made by other intelligent beings? They may have been forced to choose more readily available materials than metals and plastic.
You've already addressed some of these questions in your stories, so maybe you wonder about these things too.
I do think there's a degree to which any large population of humans already is essentially a single contiguous mind. The fidelity and throughput of communication between humans exceeds by many times the chemical communication between cells.
Nobody denies that the 37 trillion cells in your body are coordinated enough to be considered a gestalt, larger entity named rebelmeow. So why isn't, say, the United States a superorganism with humans for cells? Isn't war just two superorganisms trying to kill each other?
Anyways, fascinating thoughts from you as expected. This is why it's always a treat to read your reflections on stuff I've written.
Thank you! I feel like I've won the lottery that I get to read your stuff every day.
I did not realize this:
I know ants seem to have some kind of collective intelligence. When you watch an individual ant, it seems as dumb as a rock, bumping into things over and over while trying to complete a task. But as a group, they create these amazing structures. I used to think that was pretty mind blowing, but I guess it's much like human society. If an alien talked to the average human being, it would wonder how the hell our species created toasters, much less wireless technology. At what point, though (and how?) do you get an individual ego that thinks of itself as the whole? Do the ants living on my back sidewalk think of themselves as "Bob?" ;-)
Forests also exhibit emergent intelligence, passing on chemical signals to one another in a neuron-like fashion in response to fires and other stimuli.
https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_each_other
Anywhere you have organisms in groups, capable of some form of communication, they seemingly form networks of their own accord. This pattern is found at very small scales, like the cells in your body.
It is found at larger scales like forests, ant colonies and human societies. It is found at yet larger scales like those described in this article. It is a quality of fractally structured systems that they contain the same repeating patterns at very scale. This is simply a consequence of forming by optimizing process (evolution).
Naturally occurring optimizing processes like evolution perform a kind of procedural generation, and the results of procedural generation are always, always, always fractally structured (usually containing spirals as well, which is why both of these patterns appear throughout nature)
I wrote more about this topic in these two articles:
https://steemit.com/religion/@alexbeyman/to-christians-who-accept-evolution-is-nature-obviously-the-work-of-an-intelligent-designer-the-authors-of-the-bible-apparently
https://steemit.com/money/@alexbeyman/how-capitalism-is-like-evolution-and-socialism-is-like-intelligent-design
I've actually read both of these articles, the older one probably from a link in a more recent article. One of them has my favorite quote (ever) about capitalism:
I'm coming to understand emergence better the more I learn about it, but I'm still struggling with ego-sense. Buddhism points to the sense of self as an illusion, and when you look at emergence, that makes sense. But I can't help wondering why humans have developed a subjective sense of "I" or ownership around the individual organisms that make up our bodies. I wonder whether other networked groups also develop this subjective sense of me-ness around the whole.
I guess one way to look at this is if aliens wanted to establish a relationship with humanity, could "Humanity" have a conversation with "Alien race A?" Oh holy hell, our leaders would talk to each other. So Trump is our ego, and I just answered my own question. The ego is a part of the whole tasked with outside relations. Ha ha, I can totally see Trump having a sense of ownership over the whole of humanity. Hopefully, we'll eventually develop a more united sense of national identity and a better spokesperson for it.
I haven't watched the tree video yet, but it reminded me that I watched this video a while back. It's taking some time to integrate these ideas into a coherent understanding, but you've been very helpful with that. Thank you for the great conversation!
If so, we wouldn't be directly aware of it any more than a single cell in your body would be aware of you. Insofar as a single cell is aware of anything, I mean.
Likewise. I meet such thoughtful and fascinating people on Steemit.
P.S. The information you wrote on fractals was also really helpful. I sensed from taking psychedelics that the fractals were showing me something fundamental about the nature of reality. I just didn't understand what. It's starting to make sense now. This is why every time I look at our highway system, I think of blood carrying nutrients through the body. It's the same repeating pattern at a different scale.
Funny you should say that. Highways are artificial of course but their layout is governed by a planning process which seeks the path of least resistance. Which is to say, which will cost the least. Cost is the constraining factor being worked against, whereas in the case of blood vessels it's metabolic cost, and in the case of crystallization, it's temperature.
https://trid.trb.org/view/689139
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/881008/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0898122107001897
Optimizing process (freeway planning) working against constraints (cost) equals fractal patterns. It's spooky how universally this seems to apply.
Wow, that pretty much just blew my mind! I'll have to ruminate on it a bit but my first thoughts are that it is plausible.
Lately I have been feeling that our reality may have just been set up by what we call God simply to observe and see what happens. Sort of like those ant colonies sandwiched between plates of glass.
That doesn't seem incompatible with this idea. If pantheism is true, then there's nothing else to do if you're God but study yourself.
You've hit the nail on the head, sir.
I do have a few points:
Through what evidence do you conclude the inevitable heat death of universes? Is this not another extension of anthropocentrism; a mortal being having difficulty grasping the concept of infinity/immortality?
I would say also that:
"...The entire universe is converted into a single vast thinking machine"
Full stop.
And last, philosophers and sci-fi authors have long speculated about whether or not silicon based life can exist somewhere out there...
Wouldn't the machine race we're about to give birth to qualify as exactly that?
Entropy and the law of conservation. The amount of usable energy goes down over time and can never be increased. I've read The Last Question of course but the reversal of entropy is one of those things which, in my opinion, is necessarily impossible or the physics upon which the rest of this concept is based would be invalidated to begin with.
Sure, but it does not have to be machine life. Literally anything which can self-replicate and survive in space will result in the same outcome. It does not matter whether it's von neumann probes, engineered biology or just humans in space habitats with brain implants. Many roads, one destination.
Incidentally there are good reasons why we might prefer it be engineered biology, or stupid machine replicators rather than deliberately engineered AI. We don't know for sure if we can create truly conscious AI. But we do know that evolution can create authentic consciousness. Allowing machines to evolve to that point on their own is messier and slower but will be more certain to result in an authentically conscious descendant.
Very interesting ideas Alex and in some ways line up with my views that consciousness is somehow downloadable and this is what's going on with the reincarnation template controlled by the inorganic archons (the Greys) that control it (along with others). The traditional notion of the soul is something I'm very skeptical of and these ideas may be closer to the truth of reality. @perceptualflaws also writes about the coincidence of what kind of technology has developed in 100 years (an extraordinarily small time frame) and that this tech somehow mirrors other dimensions (perhaps what is known as the Akashic)...
It didn't say anything about consciousness being downloadable or reincarnation. I am unsure how you feel the ideas presented their line up with your own. I don't think they go together in the least, though I can understand why reconciling the two might appeal to you.
The ratio of how much Gnosticism assumes versus how much supporting evidence it has is much too lopsided for my tastes. It just seems like a fanciful story invented to explain some of the problems with Christianity, such as the imperfection of the world and Yahweh's history of evil acts, without tossing it out entirely.
No, you didn't and I did make it clear I was projecting into your ideas. But it gets weirder!lol The reason I bring it up is because of the recurring dreams I have of incredible mechanical spiders and they seem very much real. My research seems to point to the possibility that they have something to do with Orion...But they are mechanical or robotic or A.I.
If I'm correct and Gnosticism is one of the earliest spiritual narratives on the earth then it may be an error to dismiss it. But I am in no way hostile to materialism and consider it possible...