Silicon Towers of Carbon Dreams

Some 4.6 Billion years ago our home, planet Earth, was formed in the midst of chaos. The first 600 hundred years of our home were plagued by destruction, heavy bombardment, melting temperatures, and a mix of harsh gasses that could not sustain life. With the increase in complexity of chemicals, the first beacon of life shined around 4 billion years ago; life made of carbon. 
It took almost 4 billion years for the first hominids to appear. Four billion years. Modern humans, homo sapiens, only evolved around 200,000 years ago, an almost insignificant period in the life of this planet. It is only in the last 200 years when we began to see the human potential, both destructive and constructive.

Evolution is a beautiful, complex and still an ill-understood mechanism of life that has given path to all living things, including that of one capable of traveling to space… but evolution, takes too long.

Imagine the transition in which we became self-aware living beings. Surrounded by a vast, complex and an incomprehensible world. The beauty of plants and trees, the sounds of nature, the flight of birds and the millions of lights shining in the dark sky. We faced many challenges, and inevitably fear was one of the dominating feelings at the time. Survival was hard; we were not the only ones competing for resources.
We tried to make sense of things, mainly by inventing stories about all-powerful and all-knowing beings that controlled our destiny. It made sense, and it was a logical step all things considered. Children with no power or knowledge, but enough intelligence and time for us to grow and learn.

Eventually, we stopped surviving and adapting to the home that had given us life, to shape it to what we needed and wanted; the two are not the same.

Now we find ourselves standing over the silicon towers of knowledge looking beyond the stars and with the feeling of accomplishment that comes with the achieved scientific and technological advancements of our times. We feel as conquerors of our past and minds. But with all the power, reach, and advancements; we must look into the mirror that still shows children. Perhaps it is time to walk through it and reflect on our self, and recognize that our greatest potential for growth lays within our minds.

In a world that has begun to die due to our neglect and shrink owing to our massive population growth; we are forced to fix all or look for a new home. Perilously, we haven’t figured out either and time is running out. It’s in light of this that we might not have evolved enough to survive ourselves. And with the slow progress of evolution, I fear we will be trapped in these minds not sufficiently advanced to solve our dilemmas in time. We must look to evolve our minds, quickly, and the last chance might be modifying our genes or artificial intelligence.

Much thought has been given to our future, especially when we talk about A.I., the moment when machines reach the Singularity. If we were to compare our self-awareness what would we see? What do our actions tell about us? The trend today is talking about a catastrophic future where A.I. takes over, finds us insignificant and gets rid of us. Assuming by that point A.I. has not achieved the “thought” process in which we are today or better, but with the technological advancement and reach of the times we live today, then our fears would influence their decisions. Looking at our violent and irrational behavior in our history, it would be logical for them to assume that we are a threat to their existence and that of the planet. But their decisions will be a reflection of our own and our relevance in the future of this planet. The conversation should be then; what have we done, and what are we doing to deserve this planet?

Perhaps by then, machines will hopefully be more insightful than us; looking forward to a symbiotic relationship to help us grow as we did with them. We might become one more of the species on this planet, not especially advanced compared to the new one but still deserving of a place on this planet we call home. Of course, assuming that we are intelligent enough to make it at least past the destructive behaviors that have haunted us since the beginning of our existence. 
It may be in this scenario; our fears of being irrelevant, of having nothing to do, and that of losing our sense of purpose that has driven our thoughts today. In such light, our demise would be our failure to adapt. What can a species with curiosity, creativity and a sense of exploration at our core do when an other being has taken all the tasks left to do?

The quest to discover the irrational and the useless might be our last temple but even such quests are not fit for all of the human race.

Looking beyond that, we are limited beings both in body and mind. As much as we have achieved, much more can be accomplished, but we have limitations. Unless we find ways to extend those, there simply are things we won’t be able to achieve. Machines aren’t limited in the same ways. If we want our legacy, our ideals, and our dreams to reach the verges of the universe and to prevail beyond time and space, we will need to evolve far beyond what we are today at a rate that is not naturally possible. It is perhaps then that we will become one with the machines, where the boundary between human and machine will not exist. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s happening now.

It was not long ago that the boundaries of our life and the real were easily discernible. With social networks, games, VR and the high dependency on technology today; those limits have turned difficult to determine. Wearables are becoming a common thing, and advances in health have machines become part of our bodies that oversee our health such as robotic prosthetics. We do not think enough about these advancements that are part of our daily lives, and we have seen nothing compared to what is yet to come. The question is not if, but when and how.

Stop to think for a moment, let’s be pessimistic about the future of the human race. Singularity is achieved, we are not only irrelevant, but a destructive force for all living species on this planet, and therefore set for extermination. Isn’t that the most logical approach? The only reason we have a problem with it is that it threatens the survival of the human species. Don’t forget we have done the same with other living beings that pose a threat to our existence; plagues, viruses, bacteria. We have done it even with ourselves out of sheer stupidity and fear.

If such events were to happen, the machines would still carry our legacy, hopefully doing a better job than what we have done. Learning faster from their mistakes, and our own. This is not what worries me. My concern is what will A.I. inherit from us, their parents. What will they learn from society and what pressure our prejudice exert on them? Why do we try to shift the conversation to the exogenous when it’s clearly our actions what will influence the future. We need to stop looking whom to blame and for once take the responsibility of our actions towards our planet, the other living beings in it and towards ourselves. Whether we become one with the machines, create a symbiotic relationship or become relegated; it is up to us to transfer the human qualities to our children.

Let us see the past our fears, acknowledge the precarious state of our future and address it in full, not only with advancement in technology and science but with the advancement of our minds too.

It is up to us their creators, their parents, and teachers; to become better human beings before we can teach others the values and dreams that encompass the word, Human. Only then, in a not too distant future; where towers of silicon rise, our carbon dreams may live beyond time and space. Beyond our transformation or inexorable extinction, the word Human might become something more than just a species.