Super Intelligence: Is Immortality a curse in disguise?

Let’s look at a typical day in 2050 (most AI researchers believe we would have reached ASI by 2050). I’ll assume that super-intelligence helps us achieve immortality and doesn’t drive us to extinction.
Homo sapiens, the most intellectual species on this planet have over time transformed into cyborgs, with nanotechnology helping us regenerate tissues, purify air through integrated medical devices. Immortality is a bane. Given our quest for power, creating the utopian world would be a long lost dream and we would be in a dystopian planet where only the best would be allowed to live. Best of what? We will over time come with a rating system for humans. Uber, Airbnb, Tinder are the mere beginnings of a paradigm shift in human psychology. People (in the absence of a better word as calling us cyborgs would be inhuman) would be judging each other on looks, behavior, character, etc. Like an Uber driver is suspended once he is a 4.x or lower, we will be kicked out and put in a perfectly personalized hell.

Here is the best part, we wouldn’t be thrown into a jail. Thanks to advancements in hyper reality, the chip you would spend thousands of dollars on in the near term would be able to virtually send your brain into a frenzy. Imprisoned in the confinements of your brain. Inception! Huh? It won’t be fun, though!
Let’s assume you are one of the privileged people (cyborgs) and are part of the functional society. Sleep is no longer a necessity as we would’ve mutated from the bodily needs. What would we do? F**king each other until the planet is filled with us. Contemplating on things which don’t need deliberation or are way above our intelligence level? (Kudos! We’ve successfully transitioned from homo sapiens to canis lupus familiaris a.k.a. dogs). A point will come when we are out of space, if not resources.
Inter-galactic Invasion? Sounds exciting. (Having a cool gun killing aliens. May the force be with you!)
Enter reality! At the core of our belief systems, we just believe we are intelligent. The truth is that we are all idiots. The only differences among us is that we’re idiots about different things at different times.
Let’s assume our core belief systems are also changed by the ASI, the god we created turned into pawns for its own goals. The core essence of homo sapiens is long lost and will be consumed by the god-machine to run itself by burning the last drop of fuel on the planet to keep moving electrons on it’s circuits. Well, you might say, it may not need electronics and might end up creating a fourth dimension thus creating indefinite space. We probably might end up living immortally as software programs. Chatbots built on dead personalities is a thing today. Three decades later, it will definitely be old-school. But are we really ourselves?
In the long run, we’re all dead. Our sun will keep on burning for the next __ billion years et cetera et cetera. Yeah well, we are. But should that make us fast-track our doomsday?
The problems with ASI helping us achieve immortality are immense. Think of the other ways this could’ve panned out. From destruction of humans by the god-computer, use of god-computer by someone evil. But in the end, aren’t we all ‘chumps’?
P.S. — This is just a scenario my idiotic mind could think of. ___________________________________________________________________Disclaimer: Any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog writer and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the writer may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated. Any views or opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual.
Email the author at asaichakradhar@gmail.com and follow him at @aschakradhar. Top image by agsandrew/Shutterstock
