Eternity, Immortality, beyond Singularity

Creativity is a human prerogative, or at least we like to think so. Being creative, therefore, is the basis of this musing that postulates a future that may be more within our reach than we ever thought possible.

AI, as in artificial intelligence, is the current talk of town in every imaginable context. Not least is the apocalyptic scenarios being prophesied by any and all. Me included. Whether that happens in my lifetime I don't know. If there is despair there must also be hope. If there is darkness there must be light otherwise how could it all be defined? So rather than a glass half empty how about one that is half full?

Shawn Radcliffe, www.scienceandnonduality.com

Let's imagine a different future because we are able to harness the advances made possible with AI, make it transform humanity's future, and ultimately singularity becomes irrelevant.

How or why?

I-byA

We say AI, short for artificial intelligence. In reality it still falls quite short of whatever are the key features of intelligence. ChatGPT as one of more popular current incarnations is hardly intelligent, just able to imitate some exterior or superficial traits of interaction typically characteristic of intelligence. The real driver is the amount of data that has been absorbed and those data points help algorithms narrow down the most likely answer to give, even when the answer is really a concatenation of points. This is nothing more than a set of rules that are dynamically created. Perhaps artificial intelligence is a misnomer, but I think intelligence by association is more apt. The rules and algorithms can provide a base that describes different association, by relationship, by occurrence, by pathways. In some ways this is part of the human learning process that is the wonder of the human brain.

Word Association Graph, awesomeopensource.com

Let's call it I-byA for the sake of this postulation.

One of Two - Imaging Data

So engineer I-byA to find a way a human can be defined as a snapshot in time - literally frozen in time. It may be billions of petabyte, but in principle it's still finite. Perhaps the data structure requires a multi-dimensional that includes a yet to be discovered multi-layered time-like attribute. A question is - how is the human brain workings defined so that it can be represented statically? Some would argue there is a degree of randomness or unpredictably which is what renders each person unique. True if advancing in time. A snapshot frozen in an instance has no randomness could be a plausible assumption. Upon restart yes. Being able to define this snapshot means it can be stored, however large it is. This makes sense when we think of what would be "memories" or "images". But being human is much more than this. There is an entire intangible dimension that we call emotions. How do emotions exist and how is it created? Why is it that a specific emotion is felt in a specific condition or that an emotion is more akin to rollercoaster ride? What triggers it? Why for a specific person every "image" retained there is an entire range of "dynamics" of emotions and even how the same "image" over time changes in how or what we remember about it? I-byA can help us unlock this mystery, show us how it can be defined on a digital basis, and therefore becomes another dimension to complete the snapshot.

We would achieve eternity. We are digitalized from which we can move forward. the human physical body becomes merely an analog representation or a platform. Of course I-byA will likely gives us enough suggestions on how to keep human cells young or capable of full rejuvenation. That aside, the digital form frees us from the physical incumbency of inherent limitations with the environment. Space travel can be seen in altogether different perspective.

Alok Yadak, www.computersnyou.com

The Other One of Two - Beam Me Up

Change the paradigm altogether. Have I-byA solve an age old quest of teleportation ever since we've experimented with time travel ideas and Star Trek's limited "beam me up". Now, however, the problem to solve is perhaps a tad simpler. Rather than physical teleportation of an object, animate or inanimate, it is the teleportation of data as a package. When that is achieved, then that the data package happens to be our own snapshot is irrelevant. In so doing, not only have we acquired eternity, we also have the means to reach the stars, wherever, and everywhere. In vastly different conditions with respect to earth we simply engineer a physical form suitable for the environment while hosting our snapshot to activate it.

PA Media, Times Malta

Maybe the quandary of digital cloning emerges. A snapshot can be reused a number of times and that leads to other aspects. So maybe beyond eternity we become omnipresent and omniscient, and that we are also everyone, past, present, future, all in one entity? And that is another form of singularity.

Forever

Eternity and immortality have never been associated with what characterizes humans as a life form. If both become a reality does it mean we cease to be humans? Maybe some would say we are super humans. Others, might say that we have indeed returned to our creator as the exercise of humanity reaches its end.

Singularity in which sentient is achieved may serve a different purpose because our own immortality and eternity in which we become all melded together will actually leverage singularity as our own extension.

Shawn Radcliffe, www.scienceandnonduality.com

Extinction of the human race isn't so far fetched. Biologically we exist in a extremely narrow range of conditions, and those conditions on this planet are rapidly deteriorating by our own doing. We do have a choice. We just have to choose to do something about it. We could do it collectively as a planet, which is what can be seen from space looking in, but doubt that would ever happen. But I-byA and other forms of AI can be leveraged by a far smaller group of individuals to find the solutions. I-byA and AIs provide the heavy lifting and the individuals have the creativity and imagination to create newer forms of association giving birth to the necessary discoveries for the future of humanity.

When Rather than If?

This is merely a postulation. Nothing more nothing less. Plenty of objections and skepticism abound but the best of brainstorming is when - unencumbered by limitations and the need to prove - leave no stones unturned and for ideas, however crazy they may seem, that are only possible because of human creativity.

I rest my case, virtually. The past is done and cannot be undone. For the future we still have a choice. The golden age of science fiction writers, the likes of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, wrote of the poetic theme of reaching the stars. Are we able to turn this into reality? Perhaps it was never a question of if but when, and let's add to it the if we make it in time just to make it more interesting.

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