The New Intelligent Species

With the increasing power of computers, imagine a new generation of intelligent species evolving on the earth just as human evolution has over the last 2.3 to 2.4 million years. However, in contrast, the new species would evolve to its full extent at a much greater pace, as technological progress is growing extremely fast.

As Ray Kurzweil suggests in his idea of Singularity, the whole universe will become a brain, I also predict the fast growth of technology where its empire dominates humans’ mind and eventually become antihuman.

“As we gradually learn to harness the optimal computing capacity of matter, our intelligence will spread through the universe at (or exceeding) the speed of light, eventually leading to a sublime, universe- wide awakening,” Kurzweil said.

But the question is how the evolution of computers, will affect humans. Are computers going to develop themselves into a superior source of knowledge? I believe that, humans will eventually become self destructive. They will lose their control over technology because they have become so dependent to it. For instance look at how technology shaped our lives today. The human’s mind has become so indolent with regard to so many things including calculation, the memorization of phone numbers or planning a trip with new technology, that includes the navigational system, GPS. And once you become dependent on something other than yourself, you participate in your own destruction.

Contrary to Jaron Lanier’s belief in his book, You Are not a Gadget, where he declares that “humans are real, but information is not”, I believe information is real too, because it has power. Information is alive and has affected all of our lives. It’s conscious because its effects have changed our entire life style. One case Lanier raised focuses on Wikipedia. He recalls this source as the “Oracle illusion” in which human authorship is stronger than net. True, but a point I would like to raise here concerns information access. In comparison with a human’s manuscript, Wikipedia is a much easier accessed source of information and therefore is more practical.

Therefore, I believe that eventually internet will reach a higher level than human brain and if the technologically fast pace isn’t controlled critically by humans, Singularity will happen.