Extraterrestrial Life or Artificial Intelligence in the Next Century
Which One Will We Encounter First?
What would happen if we encountered extraterrestrial life or artificial intelligence (AI) with consciousness?
Both scenarios would undoubtedly shock the entire world. The scientific community would welcome them with passion and curiosity, but perhaps also with some fear.
Military, business, and politics would think about how they could use these discoveries for their interests, either for money or for more power. But besides that, the religious community would need to adapt faster than others.
Both discoveries could and would challenge their interpretation of humans as the perfect creation of God. The purpose of life would then be questioned.
If there are sentient life forms on other planets, then do they have the same beliefs as humans on Earth do? Do they have concepts of heaven and hell in their culture? But the discovery of conscious AI might be even more shocking than the discovery of alien life. The creations would become creators themselves. Everything in human life would be questionable to the bottom of its foundation. What is life? What is consciousness? What is morality?
In my humble opinion, AI and androids would not become self-aware due to the complex mechanism of emotion in many living things. The closest thing that might happen is that AI/androids would become confused or conflicted in their goals and purposes because humans are famous for their dilemmatic actions and always walk in the grey area rather than black and white, zero and one.
And for the possibility of life outside the Earth, I love what Arthur C. Clarke said: “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” If we discover sentient life, then we are not the smartest species in the universe. But if we are not, then how come the universe is left alone to a species like us?
Ad Astra,
RW
