AI Has Likely Spread Through Cosmos, Says Former NASA Chief Historianhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2024/11/05/ai-has-likely-spread-through-cosmos-says-former-nasa-chief-historian/One possibility is that we live in a physical universe in which life is a fluke; a biological universe in which life is common; or a post-biological universe in which biological life has mostly or partly transitioned to AI, says Dick. In my view, the universe is most likely at least partly post-biological, he says.
In a post-biological world, carbon-based intelligences like our own would have been replaced by advanced AI civilizations, perhaps even creating ‘Matrix’-styled artificial realities.
But is it a foregone conclusion that our own species will be replaced by earth-based AI?
Post-biologicals are not a fait accompli on earth or anywhere else, says Dick. But I think a post-biological universe is likely because of the potential age of extraterrestrials, he says.
The age of the universe spans at least a 13.7-billion-year timeframe. And because the first sunlike stars appear to have been present some 12 billion years ago, truly long-lived intelligent species could be several billion years old. Thus, post-biological AI is likely to be far beyond anything we might imagine.
So, a successful search for cosmic AI might require a search strategy that is quite different from the type of search needed when looking for biological aliens. In fact, that could be one reason that we’ve yet to detect extraterrestrial intelligence.
And if intelligent aliens have evolved in any sort of linear, stepwise progression, it’s arguable that such AI would be both immortal and capable of exponential learning and improvement.
In a 2003 paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology, Dick pointed out that unlike humans, an advanced AI intelligence would be cumulative. Thus, the sum-total of knowledge in the parent machine would be passed on to the next generation.