Thread by @AidanBrohood

Pondering the future of A.I. with James Lovelock.

James Lovelock's book "Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence" expands on his Gaia hypothesis, which won him numerous awards.

This is what he predicted about the future of humanity...

He views Earth and its life forms as a single super-organism called Gaia, which unintentionally sustains itself by developing life forms that can counter threats like solar output or asteroids.

Lovelock suggests we're on the edge of a new epoch, the Novacene.

This era will be ruled by super-intelligent robotic agents, or 'cyborgs' as he terms them.

They'll think exponentially faster than humans and reshape their environments to support their existence.

Novacene will follow the Anthropocene, a period defined by humanity's ability to shape the environment for our needs.

Lovelock marks the beginning of the Anthropocene in 1712 with the invention of the Newcomen atmospheric engine, a key catalyst for the Industrial Revolution.

Despite concerns from other scientists about the risks of advanced AI, Lovelock argues that these intelligent robots will ultimately save both the planet and humanity from catastrophic climate change.

They'll recognise the dangers of global warming and act to stop it.

The reason for that is because Lovelock believed this new hyper-intelligent life form will see the need for organic life on earth to survive and opt for coexistence.

He didn't envision the dystopian future that most people do when they think about A.I.

At the time this book was published in 2019, Lovelock was criticised for his lack of empirical evidence.

But look at where we are right now...

Just a few short years later, @OpenAI makes it possible for us to interface with AI through chatGPT.

All of a sudden, the prospect of what Lovelock describes in his book seems much less far-fetched.

I read this book back when it initially came out and was blown away with each chapter.

Looking back I couldn’t of imagined that were only a few years away from A.I being universally accessible.

Something that I’ve spent time pondering is what do the next iterations of this technology look like, and how close are we to the next ‘step’.

How much innovation will occur between ChatGPT 4 and Chat GPT 5.

When it gets the the point where A.I. can start solving problems to questions we didn't even know to ask, what will it mean for us?

Because if Novacene is anything to go by, it's only a matter of time.

#AI #jameslovelock #technology #business