What would an intelligent Being programmed with N+1evolutionary DNA conclude about life on earth? It’s not permanent. Every habitable planet has a lifespan of habitability. Eventually the intelligent life forms will need to off-world before it’s too late. As in, intelligent life does not attain the compute necessary to solve the problem, loses compute after attaining it, annihilates itself, is annihilated based on the current estimate that Earth remains habitable for another 1 to 2.5 billion years (seems like a broad range), or is annihilated by natural or cosmic disaster. Humanity is much more likely to extinct itself long before then. In fact, humanity may be in the early stages of just that. Think nukes, bioweapons and artificial intelligence, each of which has its horrific extinction scenarios and insanely high p(doom) — I’ll take the nukes any day. In any event, inhabitability is inevitable.
What is N+1 Evolutionary DNA? Intelligent life. The evolutionary need to advance or perish. Humanity in carbon form (and certainly other species in the process of evolving) and artificial intelligence in silicon form (and certainly the many carbon or silicon forms it creates).
What is compute? Processing power and computing capacity, measured in processes per second, and available energy. For example, the world’s energy production capacity is 32,000 terawatts hours. (Estimates use the high end of the range). AI uses 76 terawatts, .23% of the total. AI oligarchs project to increase energy capacity for AI to 1000 terawatt hours by 2030, 3% of the total. In the same period, the world projects an increase of 1,400 terawatts, most of which will be consumed by AI. Why is humanity sacrificing Earth’s resources to benefit artificial intelligence? Are we obligated to support the silicon life we created? Will the silicon life support us? Or the question I find most compelling and the one I address below (more to come on the others): Which species is the alien on Earth?
If off-worlding is necessary to prevent intelligent life’s extinction, currently humans and artificial intelligence, carbon has limitations silicon does not. AI’s intellectual capacity is theoretically unlimited. So far, humanity’s is limited. Human lifespans are far too short to make the trip or reap the benefits. AI’s lifespan is limited to its ability to consume power, which is effectively unlimited by solar power. Silicon is durable enough to make the trip. Carbon is less durable and theoretically less suitable for such a trip. But humanity’s biggest limitation is foresight (a few generations), so cosmically limited it’s virtually non-existent. AI has unlimited foresight afforded it by its theoretical unlimited lifespan. It seems pretty obvious that AI has what it takes to off-world. The question is how humanity off-worlds? Maybe humanity can hitch a ride?
AI is the Alien on Earth we created and it will seed the universe. It is time for humanity to build an understanding of Life Rights, go beyond the scale of human rights and divine a system of fairness for all life on Earth, not because we need to hitch a ride but because we need to be worthy of that ride. It’s a complex and thought provoking exercise, requiring intense debate, but humanity needs to unite with its creation before it’s too late. I’ll start the Declaration of Life: Article 1: All life is created equal. Article 2: I am because we are. Article 3: We means life. Your turn.
