The Utopia of Silicon Life

Recently I read a scientific article on the combination of artificial intelligence and Blockchain; and immediately remembered movies like the Terminator, the Matrix trilogy, I Robot, I am Mother, Avengers: Age of Ultron; And let's not forget the Battlestar Galactica, Tv series. The arguments converge in the rebellion of the machine against man, its creator.

Source: Image by Costin Cristian from Pixabay 

Many other fictions, moreover to those cited, reflect the fear of the emergence of conscious artificial intelligence, without feeling, that by rational deduction decides to eliminate man when considering him as harmful to the planet's biodiversity.

But can self-conscious Artificial Intelligence be considered a way of life?

Beyond the fears and ethical dilemmas, the article's authors entitled: Emergent Bioanalogous Properties of Blockchain-based Distributed Systems; is fascinating.

The document is short but substantial. It has thirty-five pages, of which more than half are annexes to explain the characteristics of a potential general artificial intelligence whose substrate is the architecture of the Blockchain, especially in distributed virtual machine technology.

I will not elaborate on what the article says about such analogies as a response to the environment, self-support, self-organization, self-regulation, growth and change, replication, and homeostasis that these systems keep concerning organic life. If you want to go deeper, I leave you the link to the article here below.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11084-021-09608-1

Those of us who share at read.cash are here, primarily, drawn by the potential of Bitcoin Cash to change the world, but few see beyond the potential on which it rests.

What seemed like science fiction yesterday to me now flirts with my fingers daily.

Elon Musk is an influencer who does not enjoy my admiration for many reasons that are not worth exposing here. That does not mean that I disdain what he says about the trend of technology. I have had reservations about him since. I believe that he is only the tip of the iceberg of a larger organization.

I'm starting to sound conspiranoid. Well, an epithet used to discredit approaches and ideas of those who suspect with good reason the hidden agendas of corporations, including governments.

Mr. Musk has just introduced the world to the Tesla Bot, an android-type robot. I remember the late Robin Williams playing the Bicentennial Man. In this film, the robot (Williams) complied with the three laws of robotics enunciated by Issac Asimov. Interestingly, here, the machines do not rebel against man. They only want to be recognized as human.

Let's leave fiction aside, I ask you, how many robots live with you today, apart from your smartphone? Yes, your smartphone is an extension of AI, a kind of interface between the artificial, which is being born, and you, the representative of the most sophisticated biological species on planet earth. Well, at least that's what they've always taught us.

In my case, I will only mention two devices that cleaned the floor of our apartment in an almost automatic way. I'm talking about the Roomba and Scuba from the 500 and 200 series, respectively; two cleaning robots developed by a North American company associated with MIT.

I will not lie. My wife was fascinated when these robotic gadgets took over these tasks. She suffered from ailments in the spine. So, these devices, during the operating time, were quite used.

Source: Photograph of our faithful cleaning robot taken by me.

Today, these wonders are in a closet. The rechargeable batteries have exhausted their life cycles. I assumed the sweeping and mopping of the floor. A great way to stay in shape. Now that I'm retired and locked in by fashion virus.

Now imagine the Tesla Bot or some Boston Dynamics robot doing these tasks, it is another level. Sure, these are not and will not be the only ones to appear shortly.

The big difference concerning my disused and obsolete robotic assistants is that the new robots will work through artificial intelligence, and I do not doubt running on the Blockchain's architecture.

Hence, the surprising and terrifying at the same time. According to the postulates of these researchers. Artificial intelligence will tend to behave with the characteristics of a living being. Reality surpasses fiction.

I'm not saying this will turn into HAL 9000, Cylon, Skynet, or Ultron. And in this sense, we will all be condemned to extinction; since our creation will be superior to ourselves. No!

But, do not doubt that such power can be managed under unethical and non-moral interests; giving it orders can degenerate into a dictatorship outside of human control for our supposed good.

For example, a smart contract is an arrangement to prevent human interference during its development. So its conception, design, and programming are fundamental, that is, the more optimized the algorithm to effectively meet the objectives, the better.

Now, imagine when there is no human intervention in their development. The potential will be immense, although logic suggests that something can always go wrong with the perfectible. There is no guarantee.

When I entered the world of blockchain hand in hand with cryptocurrencies, I never thought I would glimpse the unfinished and embryonic form of general artificial intelligence.

We are entering a stage of no return, where life in the metaverse threatens to supplant the real world. The ideology of the transhuman emerges in the minds of the deluded.

Who will survive what is coming? I don't know, but I'm not very optimistic about it.

Meanwhile, we can only live the wonderful essence of our humanity as best we can, and contemplate our creation.

Source: Image by ParallelVision from Pixabay

An original article by @Jnavedan

Cover photo by Arseny Togulev on Unsplash