Sort of thunky piece in Scientific American about the Fermi Paradox. Long story short, the authors suggest we might not be looking for the right sort of alien life. It could be that biological intelligence inevitably evolves into machine intelligence. Don’t like where they take the premise, though.
Few doubt that machines will gradually surpass or enhance more and more of our distinctively human capabilities. The only question is when…
But what about consciousness?
Philosophers and computer scientists debate whether consciousness is a special property associated only with the kind of wet, organic brains possessed by humans, apes and dogs. In other words, might electronic intelligences, even if their capabilities seem superhuman, still lack self-awareness or an inner life? Or perhaps consciousness emerges in any sufficiently complex network?
Some say that this question is irrelevant and semantic—like asking whether submarines swim. We don’t think so. The answer crucially affects how we react to the far-future scenario we’ve sketched: If the machines are what philosophers refer to as “zombies,” we would not accord their experiences the same value as ours, and the posthuman future would seem rather bleak. If, on the other hand, they are conscious, we should surely welcome the prospect of their future hegemony.
Which a dot is probably not a good visual as we are moving in space so it would be more of a pointy curve or spiral? That then leads me to think that anything projected into space would eventually hit something and fizzle out yeah? (gas clouds, etc etc) Like shooting an arrow in a forest, at some point its going to hit a tree and not come out the other side so there is little hope of other things picking up the signals. I can only hope that when alien life does arrive and the robot earth pack are asking questions like "what do you think of earth so far?" and "how long was the flight?" that up the back a norman gunston AI with a circuit board comb over and patches on its code taking the piss and confusing the hell out of the visiting alien.
There is quite a lot of research and rumination on the subject of consciousness, and quite a spike in it at the moment, for obvious reasons. At the moment, it's safe to say that no-one really knows.
I think first contact would be with some kind of robot/rover with an A.I. Just like what we're doing with Mars etc. It would have a better chance at lasting the incredible distances needed to travel and no need for life support, food etc. There might be a hard limit on the materials needed for the batteries or computers to work (degrade by time and radiation). Maybe other life is just too far away. Maybe other life has realised the true nature of the universe and are happy to live in a virtual world, and maybe FTL just isn't something that can be done so contact is something that can never happen.
One of the best sci fi novel/series I have ever read (right after The Cruel Stars), is the Firefall omnibus by Peter Watts. It asks if sapience really matters and what it is to be human. Highly recommend, but be warned, it's really hard sci fi.
It kind of touches on this as humanity appears to be at an inbetween step towards large scale digital consciousness and post-humanism on a wide scale.
The concept of the Philosophical zombie is one that has always frightened me, I think I came across it in Alastair Reynolds. 2015 novel 'Poseidon's wake' which posits a similar terrifying resolution to the fermi paradox.
Yeah... a quick perusal through human history by biological or AI visitors will expose our enlightened existence. They may be benign but likely an apex predator from wherever they come from. And “ consciously “ pillage our little blue and white paradise
i saw an interesting pic showing how far our own radio waves have travelled in 200 yrs: https://www.planetary.org/space-images/extent-of-human-radio-broadcasts
Which a dot is probably not a good visual as we are moving in space so it would be more of a pointy curve or spiral? That then leads me to think that anything projected into space would eventually hit something and fizzle out yeah? (gas clouds, etc etc) Like shooting an arrow in a forest, at some point its going to hit a tree and not come out the other side so there is little hope of other things picking up the signals. I can only hope that when alien life does arrive and the robot earth pack are asking questions like "what do you think of earth so far?" and "how long was the flight?" that up the back a norman gunston AI with a circuit board comb over and patches on its code taking the piss and confusing the hell out of the visiting alien.
We're already slaves to our machines. Who here is totally fucked at work without their computer?
Who's life is captured in their phone? Would we even notice?
There's two things here (at least):
1) should we welcome consciousness in whatever form it presents itself?
2) would we recognise (as in accord "human" rights to) consciousness in a form other than a bipedal, wet, bundle of nerves?
And the fun part is that clearly, with regard to 2, no, we wouldn't. Because we haven't.
People say (and think) the strangest things.
Keeps things spicy.
There is quite a lot of research and rumination on the subject of consciousness, and quite a spike in it at the moment, for obvious reasons. At the moment, it's safe to say that no-one really knows.
I think first contact would be with some kind of robot/rover with an A.I. Just like what we're doing with Mars etc. It would have a better chance at lasting the incredible distances needed to travel and no need for life support, food etc. There might be a hard limit on the materials needed for the batteries or computers to work (degrade by time and radiation). Maybe other life is just too far away. Maybe other life has realised the true nature of the universe and are happy to live in a virtual world, and maybe FTL just isn't something that can be done so contact is something that can never happen.
One of the best sci fi novel/series I have ever read (right after The Cruel Stars), is the Firefall omnibus by Peter Watts. It asks if sapience really matters and what it is to be human. Highly recommend, but be warned, it's really hard sci fi.
It kind of touches on this as humanity appears to be at an inbetween step towards large scale digital consciousness and post-humanism on a wide scale.
The concept of the Philosophical zombie is one that has always frightened me, I think I came across it in Alastair Reynolds. 2015 novel 'Poseidon's wake' which posits a similar terrifying resolution to the fermi paradox.
“Can a robot write a symphony?”
“Can you…?”
https://youtu.be/KfAHbm7G2R0
Yeah... a quick perusal through human history by biological or AI visitors will expose our enlightened existence. They may be benign but likely an apex predator from wherever they come from. And “ consciously “ pillage our little blue and white paradise