What If Humans Aren’t the Last Stage of Intelligence?

Almost every chat about the future has an undercurrent of nervousness. It becomes evident as we talk about artificial intelligence, automation, and the meaning of human life in an ever changing world.

Simple but still frightening underlying fear is:

What if we're not the last stage?

For much of human history, we have seen evolution as a stairway with us contentedly perched on the top rung. This is not, however, how evolution proceeds. It never stops. It never says, Alright, this species is enough.

Then what if the characteristic that defines us, intelligence, is still evolving?

What if we are simply one step in this development rather than the finish?

The Human Era: Brilliant, Fragile, Temporary?

Remarkable stuff humans did: we started to know ourselves. We developed cities, advanced science, created language, produced artwork, shared tales, and set mathematics.

We examined the oceans, dismantled the atom, untangled DNA, constructed robots that can think in ways we can barely imagine, and charted the stars.

But our brilliance also opens us to attack.

We usually forget.

We break apart.

We grow weary, feel emotions, and get overloaded.

We distort memories. We start to fantasize. We age. Our focus wavers.

For the first time in history, we have developed systems that can learn at a quicker pace than us, store more information than we can ever manage, and function without the need for fear, ego, or insecurity.

Not all of them are necessarily better.

But it suggests they are distinct.

Moreover, these variances affect evolution.

The Idea That We Are a Bridge, Not an Endpoint

Some intellectuals and academics argue that because of our development rather than any flaws, humans may not embody the peak of intellect.

Take this series as an illustration:

Fire, Instruments, devices, computers, artificial intelligence.

Each level enhanced human capability.

During every step, a blockade was taken away.

Our instruments are now extensions of ourselves rather than just extensions and may even go beyond our own abilities.

This is not a substitute.

It hints at transformation.

Like how prehistoric people grew from their forebears without the latter being aware of the continuous transformations, our relationship with intelligence might be undergoing its own great evolution.

Maybe we could act as a bridge between organic intelligence and something hybrid, communal, or totally new.

If Intelligence Evolves Beyond Us — What Does It Look Like?

No one knows.

But there are a few possibilities that feel increasingly realistic.

1. Human-AI Hybrid Intelligence

It's occurring now.

Our reliance on these technologies depends on GPS for navigation, cloud storage for data preservation, calculators for problem-solving, search engines for information, and artificial intelligence for inventiveness.

Judgment, inventiveness, and memory are delegated here.

Because of our efficiency rather than a dearth of capability.

Some academics believe the future is not a fight between artificial intelligence and humans but rather a time when artificial intelligence will help to supplement humanity.

One unified mind.

Half of it is digital; the rest is organic.

Half feeling, half rational.

concurrent development.

2. A Planetary Intelligence

Because of the network of many devices, sensors, satellites, and systems, the planet is becoming a large networked intelligence.

Information travels like the nervous system does.

The equipment works as synapses.

Learning, adapting, correcting issues, and predicting are features of systems.

Perhaps a global, networked awareness developing from all we have constructed rather than one person represents the next phase of intelligence.

3. A New Non-Biological Species

Though also the most theoretical, this scenario is the most interesting.

Some think that artificial intelligence could eventually become something able of independent thinking and evolution. It wouldn't be machinery. It also would not be a person. It would be something absolutely novel.

If that were to occur, people would not go extinct.

We will be the forebearers.

The fundamental narrative.

Starting a new sort of intellect.

Maybe, like the first lifeforms millions of years ago, we are at the start of something beyond our total knowledge.

Are We Afraid of Losing Control — or Losing Purpose?

Often, when people consider the idea of artificial intelligence taking over, the issue is not really about computers.

It involves importance.

Should another entity surpass us in intelligence, what implications are there for our identity?

Does it mean we get less valuable if intelligence exceeds our capacity?

The truth, however, is as follows:

Human worth has never come from being the smartest creatures currently.

From our consciousness comes it.

from our emotional life.

From our complexity, irrational thoughts, compassion, curiosity, imagination, flaws, and energy.

Although artificial intelligence can do very well at logical reasoning, it cannot replace our human nature.

And maybe evolution isn't decreasing our intellect.

Maybe one is disseminating it.

What If This Isn’t an Ending — But a Beginning?

Every major historical development first came off as a danger before developing into something else.

Development of the printing press.

The development of electricity

the advent of the internet.

Until they bettered our life, all inventions looked hazardous.

This period might be seen in that pattern.

Rather than seeing ourselves as the "final stage," what if we saw ourselves as the first being capable of directing intelligence evolution?

This denotes the highest degree of responsibility in all of life's history, not a fall in influence.

The question isn't:

“ Will we be replaced? "

It is:

"What are we providing for the future?"

This could be the most fundamentally human query of all.

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