The inevitable dominance of artificial intelligence
“One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.”
- Charles Darwin, On the Origin of the Species
Note: I originally started writing this article all the way back in 2016, got distracted and left it on the shelf. The current furore about ChatGPT, Midjourney, Dall-E, and all the other generative AIs has inspired me to dust it off, update it and ship it.
Artificial Intelligence is a curious thing. At once we are bombarded with evidence of stunning new applications of machine learning, warned of the existential threat that it might pose to humanity, but told that artificial ‘general’ intelligence — the type of self-awareness that clever monkeys like us possess — is only a distant possibility.
While I don’t disagree with any of those views, I’d like to paint a different picture — that the evolution of a non-organic intelligence which surpasses human abilities is not only likely, but inevitable.
“From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
- Charles Darwin, On the Origin of the Species
