Some experts believe that humans who are curious about whether we are alone in the universe are looking for the wrong thing, according to the certain experts who believe that the search for alien life should concentrate on alien artificial intelligence.
Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is something we are very close to realizing, and once it does, the expectation is that it will accelerate rapidly and surpass our intelligence in a short amount of time. Eamonn Kerins, an astrophysicist and researcher for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) at the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, stated this week.
Scientists are beginning to believe that if we ever make contact with extraterrestrial life, it will be in the form of a computer. The idea centers on an occurrence referred to as the “singularity,” which is a mathematical term denoting a moment at which our comprehension of physics and math breaks down and we are unable to adequately characterize what we are attempting to describe.
The singularity, as it relates to computer science, refers to the point at which AI technology advances at a rate that causes it to grow uncontrollably and develop into a superintelligence that is beyond human comprehension. The singularity provides a glimpse into possible alien life forms that humans may come across, even though scientists disagree as to whether it will truly happen.
There are two scenarios. First, there exist civilizations that are enhanced by artificial intelligence, just like our own. Christopher Alexander, the Chief Analytics Officer of Pioneer Development Group, explained that the second possibility is that a civilization has created a fully sentient AI that is able to act on its own.
According to the report, an artificial intelligence (AI) life form would have had ample time to form and pass through a singularity because the universe is estimated to be roughly 13.8 billion years old—far longer than the life of our solar system and longer still than the existence of humans.
Staff editor at The Federalist Samuel Mangold-Lenett told that such a finding would have significant effects on Earth, but he also cautioned that despite significant technological advancements, humans have not yet been able to confirm the existence of any extraterrestrial life.
For now, our knowledge of artificial general intelligence is still theoretical. Mangold-Lenett stated that everything we know about our existence could be proven false if we were to encounter verified alien life, much less an extraterrestrial superintelligence like an AGI.
The radio waves that humans send out are the main target of SETI’s search for signs of life since they are a basic technology that alien life forms could probably detect as well. However, Phil Siegel, the creator of the Centre for Advanced Preparedness and Threat Response Simulation (CAPTRS), told that it’s possible that these efforts to detect such advanced forms of life would be easily evaded.
According to Siegel, any civilization that is sufficiently advanced to be intentionally discovered possesses AI-like technology. However, these civilizations may differ from our own and intentionally be difficult to find. What is to say that life created artificially would collide with its creators? In any case, he doesn’t think it’s any simpler or harder to identify artificial life. Therefore, if he were to spend the time searching, he might look for indicators that would let us identify any type of life.
According to report, SETI researchers have in certain situations evolved from merely searching for radio signals and have begun to think about searching for other “technosignatures.” It is an effort to identify applications of engineering and technology that, although they may not fully comprehend, humans are nevertheless able to recognize due to their widespread use.
Steve Croft, who works on the Breakthrough Listen project for the Berkeley SETI Research Centre at the University of California, Berkeley, told that some of this [the debate about superintelligence] almost doesn’t matter from the point of view of doing the search if you build a good enough anomaly detector. We might never understand what they’re up to, but we can figure it out later.
It is highly likely that some kind of biological life existed before artificial intelligence (AI) if alien life has been discovered.
According to Bull Moose Project president Aiden Buzzetti, finding an alien AI would mean that biological alien life existed at some point prior to the AI’s creation. The likelihood that any alien civilization or entity that preceded us will have vanished by the time we find evidence of them, but it is impossible to predict the precise mechanisms underlying artificial intelligence developed by as-yet-unidentified entities.
However, Buzzetti also doubted that this kind of technology could endure past the biological society that developed it.
Is there any technology or connectivity that an extraterrestrial AI would need to utilize? If so, wouldn’t it have deteriorated by then? Buzzetti enquired. Concerns would arise about how to use such technology in the first place in a safe manner. Looking for alien life is like looking for alien artificial intelligence. They are inseparable.
