Intelligence After the Collapse

As we are in the year forecasted to be the time of the apocalypse, I thought you might like to see an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Love Byte, about how intelligence will survive. The AI computer woman, Juno, who has lived for several human generations, speaks to a human:

"The years passed, and eventually an ecological disaster reduced the human population of the world by a factor of 1,000. There remained fewer than ten million souls, surviving in pockets here and there. The Singularity was reached before you were born when explosive computer intelligence exceeded human intelligence, and the surviving humans were enhanced by technologies to increase their intelligence and survivability.

"History became irrelevant. Humans became life forms like ants or monkeys to be preserved for what they do uniquely well. For humans this still is art, creativity, and imagination, but those precious attributes don’t interest ants, monkeys or computers. Computers by themselves won’t take over the world, and humans will never flourish in the billions again. The top of the pyramid will be computers controlled by humans to manage everybody and everything else."

Have a great 2012!

Control of Iran

Would a social media attack work? Messages against the regime via thousands of hacked Twitter and Facebook accounts might give the Iranian leadership pause, even after they figure out how it was done. Much less collateral damage than the threatened Israeli military attack.

AI Conscience

Can an AI Computer have a conscience? How would the computer know right from wrong? Compare the computer with a conscience with a person with a conscience. While we tend to laugh at the idea of computers with a conscience, Russian scientists have found that people get rid of remorse associated with conscience by drinking alcohol. With all the alcohol abuse around, what might that tell us? Suitably programmed computers might be more morally reliable?

An AI Computer with Emotion

For a super intelligent AI computers to act like a humans, it must have emotions. I'm writing about this in my new novel, The Lady is a Computer, where my lady computer, Juno, will have enough emotions to exhibit love, jealousy, hate, fear, etc. This computer is programmed to react in a self-preservation mode if the "fear" emotion is triggered; a reaction of desire and pleasure is made if the "love" emotion is stirred. Any emotional mechanisms in the computer would only happen if the computer was a sentient being with self-consciousness. It appears that emotional computers could be with us in 10-20 years.

Big Step in Artificial Intelligence

Credit: Kurzweil AI

IBM has created computer chips that emulate the brain's abilities for perception, action and cognition. This will bring us a giant step closer to computers that can study complex systems and manage equally complex solutions in real time. These computer chips use neurosynaptic principles with essentially total parallel processing so their computer speed is almost instantaneous and power consumption is much less than equivalent conventional digital computers. First applications include world water supply management and urban systems control. For more information click here.

GAIA - Surviving the next 100 years.

James Lovelock, inventor of the ecological concept called GAIA, wrote that "It is hubris to think that we know how to save the earth: our planet looks after itself. All that we can do is try to save ourselves." A friend of mine put it another way: "The earth will save itself through evolution. Man needs to get creative to learn to live in the new environment." The other thing often glossed over is that the earth's 7 billion population is already well above earth's long-term carrying capacity and that for complete sustainability, probably a total population in the range of 100 million to one billion is the maximum. We have to squeeze through the bottleneck somehow. 
     I will address these issues in my forthcoming speculative fiction novels, starting with Creatopias now in process. In the meantime, you can get your The Vanishing Face of Gaia by clicking here.

Tragedy of the Commons

When people share a cake - it's so good! - almost everyone secretly nibbles more until it's gone. This happens worldwide with precious resources disappearing while the end consumers are only dimly aware of what's happening. This is called the Tragedy of the Commons and can be minimized by self-sustaining community-based living.

The Pyramids and the Knowosphere

I flew in low to land at the Cairo airport recently. I could see the pyramids and the sphinx. Next I saw acres of vacant apartment blocks half buried in the sand, like a burial ground of ancient artifacts. Something’s out of balance here.

The biosphere will always survive in some form, if for no other reason than the preservation mechanism of evolution. But humankind may not survive in its unrestricted, destructive form. What will survive will be humankind’s intellectual library as a vast cloud called the knowosphere. It will be as enduring as the pyramids but will always be growing like a living being.

The AI Solution

Eventually government will not be able to stop economic down slide. For self-help, people may have their smart phone connected to their super computer alter ego in the clouds which will coach and guide them. Some people will prosper, dominate others, or become artistic. Others will fumble the opportunity and probably disappear. 

Immortality is in Sight!

Within decades, a computer will absorb your knowledge and accumulation of data resulting in an alter ego electronic you. This may be a personal version of an expanded IBM's Watson, or it may be your space and resources in the computer clouds. Will the Alter You have imagination, self-consciousness and soul? Whatever the case, you will enjoy a niche immortality.

Foresight of AI Computers

Do AI (super intelligent) computers think through the consequences of their initiatives? They have the mental power to do so but not the emotional need.

Aquaponics Anyone?

Aquaponics is a way to grown fish and vegetables at the same time in the same water. It's a symbiotic system that uses no soil, and almost no water is consumed. It is usually implemented in a greenhouse. Aquaponics may be a good answer for feeding the world as conventional food sources decline. The ancient Aztecs did primitive aquaponics in little islands called 'chinampas,' and the Chinese have used the technique for some time, most recently encouraging units in city-dwellers' apartments.