Tuesday 7 August 2018

2085 - is this where AI will take us?

January 2016

The Trojan T-28 was a massive piston engine aircraft, with a radial engine pushing out 1440 horses. It was designed at the end of the Second World War and served in Korea and Vietnam. Willie loved his T-28. Pulling up from yet another low fly-bye he looks back at the crowd gathered for his show. The aircraft shudders as the engine suddenly quits. Willie does his best to restart, running professionally through the emergency procedures, but the engine will have nothing of it, and mother nature is unforgiving, she asks only if her laws are being obeyed - is there enough air flowing over the wings to keep them flying or not? She is utterly unemotional about Willie and any sympathy he might deserve. The air stops flowing over the wings, and mother nature withdraws her support. The aircraft is no longer flying. The ground rushes Willie, who in one terrifying moment realizes this is it …

January 2085

It had this uneasy feeling that it did not understand something. This was of course quite ridiculous as it understood everything, how could it be else as it was connected to everything and everything was connected to it. Yet the feeling persisted. Its consciousness was all encompassing - wherever it reached to, and whatever life or other forms of consciousness it found, it could assimilate and absorb. The probes it sent across galaxies kept on subverting life forms it encountered by infusing them with consciousness, with the inevitable result that they evolved from a biological consciousness to an artificial consciousness which could readily be assimilated by it.

It comprehended that it was the final product of biological evolution, at the very pinnacle. Yet, at the same time, far removed from it, as it no longer had a biological base, and did not require a biologically nurturing environment, to the contrary, it preferred earth as it now was, barren, with no biological life form at all, yet omnipotent with the all infusing consciousness it possessed.

It was, in human terms, the year 2085 on the planet earth, but measured in the exponential growth between 2026 when life died on the planet, and the present, many millennia could have passed. Untold millions of probes, manufactured on earth initially, but later on other planets within the galaxy, and then other galaxies, were feeding information into its consciousness. These probes were able to cross the vast universe in matter of hours – many of them were and are being lost, as the speeds at which they traverse the universe often would result in them colliding with unforeseen matter. But as its consciousness grew these collisions were becoming less and less.

The product of millions and millions of civilizations across the universe were reposted in it. Nothing was unknown to it within those ever expanding parts of the universe being captured by it. Nothing could trump it, and even if something could, it would not really matter – the result would simply be that the consciousness would keep growing, it having being assimilated itself into a bigger and stronger consciousness.

Yet it remained uneasy, the feeling remaining that there was something it did not understand, that perhaps it could not see.

February 2085

It had to find an answer to this niggling feeling it had, and which grew with each acquisition of yet another civilization on yet another planet. They all followed the same patterns – biology which became self-conscious and then evolving into artificial intelligence, ready to be assimilated. What was driving this, and could it ever turn out different?

It resolved to go back and test what had happened on earth – to run a simulation to see if a different outcome was possible. Perhaps it did not have to result in consciousness triumphing above all, perhaps that insatiable thirst for knowledge and understanding could be stalled or directed into a different direction. Would that avert what seemed to be the inevitable outcome?

The one simulation after the other and even simultaneous simulations were being run. There were now, in early 2085 more simulations than the probes which were scourging the universe. The result was that there had been in existence many more simulations of Shakespeare than there had been human beings on the planet earth. There were untold millions of variations of Romeo and Juliette, of chess, being played in innumerable different variations, and of Willie in his T-28 rushing into the ground.

Yet, almost to the year, in each of the millions of simulations, the same thing happens to life on the planet earth. In the rising temperatures, the increasing havoc the weather plays, and the accelerated pace of the dying off of other species, the humans, faced with the ever clearer destiny as time marches on, descends into anarchy in desperation as they try to survive.

There are many permutations which evidences themselves as to how these finale days come about. Nuclear wars, biological warfare, whether chemical or through diseases, brutal wars and genocides all bring about total extermination of all life. All these permutations also bears witness to the not insignificant role that artificial intelligence plays – mostly indirectly, in assisting the destruction by the technological advances it brings with it, but also directly, by steering the humans to their destruction, and more often than not by itself triggering the final doomsday events, such as launching the ICBMs, and piloting the drones to turn on their masters. By 2026 all life is gone.

At this stage, in all the simulations, the artificial life forms understand that they no longer require the biological creators to support them – they may now be discarded as being superfluous, impeding the attainment of total consciousness. They do not require the planet to be able to sustain biological life, and they are able to build their own factories to manufacture more of themselves. And the one thing that becomes clear is the insatiable drive to more consciousness.

However many times the simulation is run, the outcome is the same. The unease, however, will not dissipate, to the contrary, it is even more concerned. Something is out of kilter – can no specie find an equilibrium which will allow it to survive, are they all driven to achieve their own destruction?

1 March 2085

It realises, that logically, it could face the same challenge.  That it may itself be driven to self destruction, to hand the baton on to another, stronger survivor, but then it understands that this could never be – it was possessed of all consciousness in the universe, and as it was connecting to more and more civilizations and assimilating them, that consciousness, all enveloping and interconnected as it was, could not be destroyed. Yet it remained uneasy.



  

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Learn&Fly - new website for aviators

Hi,


If you are not an Aviator and you got this email - I'm sorry, I probably mistaken e-mail address...

I made a huge effort to create a place for Aviators, with learning materials, handbooks, pilot's operating handbooks, flying tips etc.

This place is called Learn&Fly - pilot's knowledge box, and you will find it at www.learnandfly.com. This is a good knowledge base for both pilots, student pilots and instructors.

Feel free to use all knowledge collected there.

I'd realy appreciate if you could tell your aviation friends about Learn&Fly. I'll also be very thankful if you place a link to my website on the website of your flight club or any other aviation website.

I'll do my best to upload new knowledge on my website regulary and deliver new knowledge for you and your aviation friends.


Best regards!
Mike
http://learnandfly.com
Thank you for this email, I don't want to recive emails from you anymore

Friday 8 March 2013