Hello everybody!
How are you doing these days? I’ve recently discovered a fantastic book that I want to share with you this week.
📚 Have you ever heard about the Gaia hypothesis? It was formulated by the British chemist, James Lovelock, in the 1970s. The hypothesis suggests an innovative view of our planet’s possible future when living organisms form a common, complex system with their inorganic surroundings on Earth. According to Lovelock, this self-regulating system will allow the creation of favorable conditions to keep life blooming.
In his book, Novacene, Lovelock proposes the idea of Novacene as the new age, starting right after the Anthropocene, which is supposedly coming to an end. Anthropocene is a proposed geological era marked by human dominance over the environment, presumably starting at the moment when humans started having a significant impact on Earth and its ecosystems. During the Novacene, however, Lovelock suggests we’ll start cohabitating with the new beings, who will evolve from the artificial intelligence systems we currently have. Those beings will be nothing like science fiction portrays them today; in fact, they won’t be malicious, will depend on the organic resources of the Earth (just as we do), but will be hyper-intelligent, thinking at least 10,000 times faster than us!
It may sound crazy now, but if we look around we’ll see how the machines are becoming more intelligent every day and are already offering practical solutions to our problems. If those hybrid beings manage to protect us from different threats, maybe it won’t be a bad idea to embrace the Novacene era. 🤔Let’s admit it - we, as humans, have been failing our planet for decades now…
What do you think about the Gaia hypothesis? Do you think it’s a good solution or do you see it more as a threat?
Have a wonderful weekend ahead and thank you for reading,
Eva.
This rings an interesting chord, especially in context with this article: https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917
Obviously read with caution, I don't think this "interview" is independently verified, and the person posting it has some vested interest in its perception.
Which way this goes I think depends a lot on how we choose to treat AIs. Do we assign ownership? Authorship? Parenthood? Are AIs accountable as legal entities? Are their creators? There are some interesting discussions to be had for sure.