Or not so exciting at all, depending on your perspective. Personally, I highly doubt that cyborgs will win over completely non-biological AI. There's nothing biological that is advantageous for space exploration. I do agree that biological intelligence is probably transient. However, that's not why I think it is quiet out there. I think we are just listening on the wrong channels because we haven't yet discovered the right ones.When you can take the human out of the loop, that is becoming very exciting.
I find Neil deGrasse Tyson's reasoning on this fairly sound. He said that we shouldn't be surprised that we haven't noticed anything yet, saying there is no other intelligent life in the universe is like a marine biologist scooping a cup of water out of the Atlantic Ocean and concluding that there are no whales. However, it could be quiet out there because of transcension.
We also have to consider the limited frequencies that we have been listening on, even in the EM spectrum. I think that few people realize that SETI listens at the hydrogen line. There has been the Wow Signal, and others, even there. I wonder how loud Earth is at 1420 MHz.
My two thoughts on any alien communications: -They wouldn't use a single frequency, just as we don't use a single band to send robust messages on a wire or over the air. We use a spectrum of frequencies and methods for encoding a signal. In radio we use a wide array of bands for a single signal. In copper, there are ways to encode more than just on off at once, we use multiple wires, and complex encoding schemes. In fiber, there are different colored lights, and different angles you can shoot the light, all which help how much data you can send at once. There is no reason that any beings out there of intelligence wouldn't be doing the same thing. They could be encoding their signals across the entire spectrum of all known frequencies at once for all we know. -Second point, but a bit more out there and speculative. Many scientists have pointed out that if there were advanced species out there in the universe that are say, capable of FTL travel, logic would dictate that they would also probably have FTL communications that we are unaware of and completely incapable of even picking up at this point in our civilization with the tools we have. Unlikely? Maybe. But we've only just begun to start exploring the solar system let alone the galaxy. -You can also encode data at the speed of light using photons, so perhaps we should be looking for visual/optical signals as well. Civilizations could be sending signals with light from planet to planet, but because of the focus most likely needed we would probably need to be in the path of it or looking at a very specific spot to detect this. I believe there is a project out there that wants to do this but can't remember the name of it.
The Wow signal definitely blows my mind. How unbelievable would it have been to be in the room when that was received? I am always tempted by the following two lines of reasoning as well: a) If there were Type 1, 2, 3, or 4 civilizations out there, they could probably choose whether they wanted to be detected or not. b) It could be that sufficient advanced technologies produce patterns and effects that we can't detect with our technologies.
Your lines of reasoning were formalized by Martyn J Fogg in 1987 as the "Interdict Hypothesis." The short version was published in Analog and the long version in Icarus. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/00191035879...
Thanks so much for linking that! I'm going to read it tomorrow.
You know an article out in the back of beyond when they use phrases like Speaking as someone who has written one novella and two screenplays that deal with the Singularity, allow me to say that there's a lot more hoping and hand-waving than study.Some experts such as medical ethicist Grant Gillett believe that the danger is that we might end up producing a psychopath because we don't quite understand the nature of cyborgs.
You've written about the Singularity? In the novella available online?
Stephen King likes to blow off his excess steam after finishing a novel by writing a short story. That's where everything in "Different Seasons" comes from. This particular novellete (I checked - at 8600 words it doesn't qualify as a novella) was leftover from a particularly difficult script. I wrote it out, submitted it to Analog, got rejected and put it in a drawer. I've toyed with putting it up on Kindle Singles. I could also serialize it I suppose.
...so here's the thing. I intend to read thenewgreen's, short story, simply because he wrote it. It isn't something I would read otherwise, but I'm curious and it would be polite to do. "Restaurant at the Start of the Universe" (yes, I went there) has been read by maybe five people, all of whom loved it (but then, don't they always) and one magazine editor who said "great, not for us." It was written mostly because it insisted on being written, not because it has anything to add to discourse. I'm now 500 pages into a novel that's probably going to come in at under 550. I've got five chapters, a prologue and an epilogue left to write and I can do a chapter a day standing on my head. When that's done it's going to people who are eager to read it. So far one person has read the first 200 pages and likes it, but then, she's my wife, she likes all my writing. The novel is pretty good. The short story... not sure. I'm debating putting it up under #shortstory as a serial - at a guess, it'd be three weeks of mondays, wednesdays and fridays. BUT I don't want it to be obligatory. I did Critters Critique for a while. Read a lot of astoundingly terrible sci fi, lots of which went on to be published. I write better than that. They say one of the marks of a professional is the objectivity to evaluate your own work; I write pretty well and I know it. So, with that objectivity, I can say that "Restaurant" is one of those stories that I think is cool that everyone else likely can't be bothered with. So I could put it up. I'm just not sure if I should. It isn't my best work and it isn't my most relatable.
My short story is two things: 1. somewhat ridiculous 2. short. The second thing makes the first thing bearable. As I mentioned, I am no writer but I'd be glad for you to have a gander. You are a writer and as such I can respect your hesitancy to post something you're not 100% sure of. That said, when you finish this novel, I better get to read the bloody thing! Should you decide to post the short-novella, let me know. edit: You going to publish with the pen name kleinbl00?
I realize I am being species-centric, but even in the bit mk quoted about "taking the human out of the loop" -- the human is NOT out of the loop -- the humans sent the robotic explorers mentioned in the article. Everything in the article implies an enhanced biologically based being. "Post" means after or later or subsequent to, as in leaving the biologically-based in the dust. A better word would include the bio. The title of the piece while provocative seems misleading to me. At the moment, biological intelligence, our planet, and our species seem to be a recent blip in the evolution of the universe, yes, but intelligence that is not based in biology? I think the article is not about that. What am I missing?I think it very likely – in fact inevitable – that biological intelligence is only a transitory phenomenon, a fleeting phase in the evolution of the universe," Davies writes. "If we ever encounter extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe it is overwhelmingly likely to be post-biological in nature.
I'd be very hesitant to use the term post-biological if he means not containing a tether to a bio-based organism.
The title of the post is meant to be provocative. It certainly doesn't specifically discuss the idea in great depths. However, the discussions that are beginning in the early 21st century represent a realization that biological humans will never go to space. When I say go to space - I mean outside of our solar system. That is why I posted it. Our desire to explore space will be one of the many pressures that cause us to gradually replace our biological systems with non-biological systems. This process will begin with us becoming cyborgs and end with us leaving our biological systems behind all together. mk said it best:I highly doubt that cyborgs will win over completely non-biological AI. There's nothing biological that is advantageous for space exploration.
IMO it all comes down to how artificial intelligence arises. If we can create non-human intelligence that supercedes our own, then I think we have little choice but to be left in the dust. Non-biological intelligence won't be tethered to us for long, and will probably start doing things for its own reasons. However, that is an interesting situation in of itself: we have evolutionarily ingrained bahaviors that mix with our intelligence. Non-biological intelligence will not. Therefore, its motivations might seem very alien to us.
Becoming post-biological does not mean we will leave this planet. But it will enable us to inhabit multiple planets (and multiple star systems). Unless... transcension.