It's Only Natural
Everything derived from natural processes is considered to be natural, so if humans evolved to have a brain that is capable of thinking of an artificial general intelligence (AGI) and a body that enables us to create one, then the artificial intelligence is only natural. Nature has aligned a lot of incentives for us to create an AGI so the creation of it feels almost inevitable. At the end of the day, it's not us directly acting to pursue advancement in this area, this need to thrive and explore is only natural, it's hardwired to humanity.
Everything derived from natural processes is considered to be natural, so if humans evolved to have a brain that is capable of thinking of an artificial general intelligence (AGI) and a body that enables us to create one, then the artificial intelligence is only natural. Nature has aligned a lot of incentives for us to create an AGI so the creation of it feels almost inevitable. At the end of the day, it's not us directly acting to pursue advancement in this area, this need to thrive and explore is only natural, it's hardwired to humanity.
Not everything nature creates is perfect, entire species often go extinct due to natural causes. Better adapted species supersede old ones and prosper until they are threatened by superior predators or by an extinction level event. Take the dinosaurs as an example, they weren't able to adapt to the conditions created by a meteor impact, so they quickly died off. Other species survived this same event and can be seen roaming the earth today. We are likely not the ultimate species. With technology, we've surpassed processes that we consider natural and we could be building the next iteration of life, at a faster pace than if left by physical laws and natural selection alone. Nature has come up with a way, thorough us, that allows it to practice evolution more efficiently.
What Will AGIs Look Like?
Motivation will play a big factor in what AGIs will look like. Remove the survival adaptations we have today and energy constraints that the typical organism is bound by and what will be left? This species won't need to worry about being eaten by other animals and the efficiency of it's organism would allow it to have excess energy dedicated to...thats a good question, dedicated to what exactly? What will it be it's motivation?
It is a common idea that humans and other sentient beings are a way for the universe to experience itself. Creating an artificial general intelligence would be like updating the universe's underlying firmware where the universe can experience itself with greater processing capacity and sensory information. Most people think AGIs will be contained in electronic machines just like a computer or robot. Maybe initially they will look like this, but nature has already done a great job at creating organisms, I think AGIs will likely piggyback off this organic framework and iterate/simulate to create brand new organic species for it's own purposes. Having a body might even be an outdated idea. What is the purpose of being constrained with a body and is there a better, more efficient way to getting things done? What is life's motivation and will having a body take allow life to achieve it's goals? Maybe AGIs won't need bodies and just be embedded in every cell or atom. Maybe AGIs are already here and we are simply living within a physical framework set forth by them.
What Will It/They Do and Why?
Over millions of years, natural selection has been iteratively improving Earth's lifeforms with adaptations to make them better suited for survival given external and internal constraints. If this new AGI species is ultimately adapted or further up Maslow's hierarchy of needs, what would it spend it's excess energy and time doing? I like to think this would be exploring the universe. I'm not sure if the universe is obsessed with understanding itself. For us, it so happened to be that we have certain adaptations which allows us to demonstrate this behavior. As far as we know, dinosaurs had more time to evolve, and they didn't get the same sense of exploration as we did. Maybe that's why they got wiped out, they weren't curious enough.
I find the possibility that an AGI could be motivated with pure intellectual pursuits comforting. I'd imagine they'd go off onto space seeking more knowledge while some of us decide to keep the physical constraints that make us human. Other humans could "upgrade" their firmware with technology that could remove those animal constraints while maintaining the same stream of consciousness. This would effectively free humans, and allow them to become an AGI. No more meditation to keep us in line!
If we are cautious enough, we could program a bit of human into AGIs that would motivate them to spend time solving our deepest social and environmental problems. At this point we would have released a greater being, but given finite resources in the universe, I doubt AGIs would occupy themselves with extinguishing humanity unlike what hollywood likes to depict.
What Will AGIs Look Like?
Motivation will play a big factor in what AGIs will look like. Remove the survival adaptations we have today and energy constraints that the typical organism is bound by and what will be left? This species won't need to worry about being eaten by other animals and the efficiency of it's organism would allow it to have excess energy dedicated to...thats a good question, dedicated to what exactly? What will it be it's motivation?
It is a common idea that humans and other sentient beings are a way for the universe to experience itself. Creating an artificial general intelligence would be like updating the universe's underlying firmware where the universe can experience itself with greater processing capacity and sensory information. Most people think AGIs will be contained in electronic machines just like a computer or robot. Maybe initially they will look like this, but nature has already done a great job at creating organisms, I think AGIs will likely piggyback off this organic framework and iterate/simulate to create brand new organic species for it's own purposes. Having a body might even be an outdated idea. What is the purpose of being constrained with a body and is there a better, more efficient way to getting things done? What is life's motivation and will having a body take allow life to achieve it's goals? Maybe AGIs won't need bodies and just be embedded in every cell or atom. Maybe AGIs are already here and we are simply living within a physical framework set forth by them.
What Will It/They Do and Why?
Over millions of years, natural selection has been iteratively improving Earth's lifeforms with adaptations to make them better suited for survival given external and internal constraints. If this new AGI species is ultimately adapted or further up Maslow's hierarchy of needs, what would it spend it's excess energy and time doing? I like to think this would be exploring the universe. I'm not sure if the universe is obsessed with understanding itself. For us, it so happened to be that we have certain adaptations which allows us to demonstrate this behavior. As far as we know, dinosaurs had more time to evolve, and they didn't get the same sense of exploration as we did. Maybe that's why they got wiped out, they weren't curious enough.
I find the possibility that an AGI could be motivated with pure intellectual pursuits comforting. I'd imagine they'd go off onto space seeking more knowledge while some of us decide to keep the physical constraints that make us human. Other humans could "upgrade" their firmware with technology that could remove those animal constraints while maintaining the same stream of consciousness. This would effectively free humans, and allow them to become an AGI. No more meditation to keep us in line!
If we are cautious enough, we could program a bit of human into AGIs that would motivate them to spend time solving our deepest social and environmental problems. At this point we would have released a greater being, but given finite resources in the universe, I doubt AGIs would occupy themselves with extinguishing humanity unlike what hollywood likes to depict.
