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Sounds scary, right? But stay with me for a minute.
Last week's SOS memo touched on the James Lovelock suggestion that perhaps a team of AI-enabled cyborgs should be managing the crucial process for how the entire human population interacts with all other forms of life on planet Earth.
As long as those cyborgs were permanently programmed to nurture instead of "manage" humanity, there are many reasons that would support his suggestion. Here are five of them:
- Fast, error-free thinking. As he says, the AI cyborgs would think 10,000 times quicker than we do - reaching simple conclusions to complex issues in minutes vs. the decades it might take us humans to reach similar conclusions.
- No Drama Climate Change Action. Without the emotion, dysfunction, and endless greed of most humans, the cyborgs would be far better equipped to systematically, and quickly, solve climate change in a manner that would be sustainable indefinitely.
- Solving World Hunger. AI could easily solve world hunger by ensuring that every human was provided with just the right amount of delicious, plant-based, health promoting meals every day - promoting human health while using a fraction of the land, water and energy.
- Eliminating Disease. As for diseases not eliminated by Action #3, the AI guys could quickly identify the best way to deal with all other forms of human health issues.
- Joy to the World. Finally, the AI team would "manage" the overall Earth system in such a manner as to promote an enjoyable and meaningful lifestyle for all humans - a lifestyle that could be sustained indefinitely on this special planet.
Today, I want to explore this mind-boggling topic further and look at two
radically
different scenarios for humans if AI were to take over the never-ending task of juggling the needs of nature versus the needs and wants of our own dysfunctional species.
Scenario #1. Paradise on Earth. In this case, I like to think of the Cyborg Management Team as the staff of a luxurious resort where they take care of all human needs like shelter, food, water, clothing, healthcare, entertainment - along with meaningful, challenging and satisfying career options.
Under this scenario of caring for ALL humans, issues like world hunger, homelessness,
and
most disease that plague humanity today would no longer exist.
Scenario #2. Cyborgs Go Rogue.
This is the scenario that we all fear when anyone mentions the possibility of AI enabled cyborgs taking over the Earth. Hopefully, the actual future will end up being closer to Dr. Lovelock's cooperative vision - than the horror movie image that has been popularized by Hollywood for the past twenty years.
That said, the possibility of the Cyborg team completely wiping out the human race is something that deserves careful consideration, to say the least.
Lovelock's New Book. A we ponder the two scenarios listed above in the years ahead, we now have a new tool to help show us the way. it was just released on Amazon and I read it this week.
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Click image to order on Amazon
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Chapter One is entitled "We Are Alone" and begins with this paragraph.
Our cosmos is 13.8 billion years old. Our planet was formed 4.5 billion years ago and life began 3.7 billion years ago. Our species, Homo sapiens, is just over 300,000 years old. Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton appeared among us only in the last 500 years. For all but a brief moment of its existence the cosmos knew nothing of itself. Only when humanity developed the tools and the ideas to observe and analyze the bewildering spectacle of the clear night sky did the cosmos begin to awaken from its long sleep of ignorance.
Or did such an awakening also happen elsewhere?
Until you have a chance to read this fascinating book, check out the latest Lovelock news which broke this past Sunday
(8-25-19) on NBC News. The story was entitled:
Cyborgs will replace humans, remake the world, James Lovelock says
For tens of thousands of years, humans have reigned as our planet's only intelligent, self-aware species. But the rise of intelligent machines means that could change soon, perhaps in our own lifetimes. Not long after that,
Homo sapiens could vanish from Earth entirely.
That's the jarring message of a new book by James Lovelock, the famed British environmentalist and futurist. "Our supremacy as the prime understanders of the cosmos is rapidly coming to end," he says in the book, "Novacene." "The understanders of the future will not be humans but what I choose to call 'cyborgs' that will have designed and built themselves."
The Bottom Line.
As you probably know, this topic is moving with ever increasing speed and complexity. It's as if we are entering a perfect storm as it pertains to sorting out our future. And climate change is in charge of the clock.
"Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind...
It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world."
Over the next few weeks, I will do more research on the AI topic while continuing to work on the book that I started last week. In it, I will strive to simplify the "big picture" of what we are facing as I assess the choices that we may have.
My preliminary conclusion is that we will have a much better chance of surviving indefinitely if we can figure out a way to peacefully harness the incredible power of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). If that means that some good-natured cyborgs will ultimately "manage" the planet, then so be it.
Here's the working title for my new book
Nothing about my next book is finalized yet, but I have completed the first draft of the
Foreword by Mother Nature
, in case you'd like to take a look.
I will end this SOS Memo on a good note, with one more excerpt from Chapter 20 of Lovelock's new book, a chapter lovingly entitled: "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace."
His prediction of what is likely to happen sounds much more desirable than what Putin had to say about one nation becoming the "ruler of the world." Lovelock writes:
If I am right about the Gaia hypothesis and the Earth is indeed a self-regulating system, then the continued survival of our species will depend on the acceptance of Gaia by the cyborgs. In their own interests, they will be obliged to join us in the project to keep the planet cool. They will also realize that the available mechanism for achieving this is organic life.
This is why I believe the idea of a war between humans and machines or simply the extermination of us by them is highly unlikely. Not because of our imposed rules, but because of their own self-interest, they will be eager to maintain our species as collaborators.
I love that last sentence.
My first blog on the crucial topic of replacing our civilization heads the list below. Since then, I have posted more than forty additional pieces on that GRATOLA topic since 9-21-18 and you can find all of them at
this page on my website. Here are a few of them:
As always, I will continue to focus on this crucial topic - in my research, my writing and my speaking.
As for speaking, I continue to search for mainstream audiences who may have an interest in learning more about a realistically hopeful vision for our future - and their role in making that vision come true.
As such, I will travel anywhere for an opportunity to speak to one or more groups in each city that I visit. I only ask for travel expense reimbursement and a modest honorarium.
As for the specifics of my topic, I invite you to
contact me directly
about how I might tailor my presentation to best suit an audience you may have in mind:
Universities,
churches, think-tanks, legislative bodies, environmental
organizations, alumni associations, leadership clubs,
and/or civic groups who may appreciate a message of reality and hope for our future.
What else can you do to help?
Three things:
1. Live as greenly as possible while doing all that you can to raise the awareness of "big picture" solutions that are crucially necessary for saving our civilization.
2. Share this BSB and my
"Mama Ain't Happy" BSB with prominent journalists, thought leaders and/or elected officials whom you respect. They need to learn a lot more about the many reasons why
Mama ain't happy.
3. Here are a few more GRATOLA-related blogs that you can share with your most powerful friends, leaders, journalists and movie producers.
Until next time, just remember...
Humanity is on a collision course with Nature.
A damaged Nature will survive. We may not.
We must change course to avert an ecological disaster.
Be well,
J. Morris (Jim) Hicks
CEO, 4Leaf Global, LLC
In the past 12 months, I have spoken at a
VegFest in
Fort Myers, at
vsh.org
in Honolulu and Kahului, Maui, the
College of the Holy Cross
in Worcester, MA, a
Plant Powered Manhattan
event in New York, at a lakeside health conference in
South Haven, Michigan, in Buffalo, NY, at the
University of Scranton and at the Dr.
Joel Fuhrman
Golden Gate Health Getaway
in California near the Silicon Valley.
Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth
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