Posted on 12/25/2016 1:35:45 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
As we close out 2016, if you’ll allow me, I’d like to take a risk and venture into a topic I’m personally compelled to think about… a topic that will seem far out to most readers.
Today’s extraordinary rate of exponential growth may do much more than just disrupt industries. It may actually give birth to a new species, reinventing humanity over the next 30 years.
I believe we’re rapidly heading towards a human-scale transformation, the next evolutionary step into what I call a “Meta-Intelligence,” a future in which we are all highly connected—brain to brain via the cloud—sharing thoughts, knowledge and actions. In this post, I’m investigating the driving forces behind such an evolutionary step, the historical pattern we are about to repeat, and the implications thereof. Again, I acknowledge that this topic seems far-out, but the forces at play are huge and the implications are vast. Let’s dive in…
A Quick Recap: Evolution of Life on Earth in 4 Steps
About 4.6 billion years ago, our solar system, the sun and the Earth were formed.
Step 1: 3.5 billion years ago, the first simple life forms, called “prokaryotes,” came into existence.These prokaryotes were super-simple, microscopic single-celled organisms, basically a bag of cytoplasm with free-floating DNA. They had neither a distinct nucleus nor specialized organelles.
Step 2: Fast-forwarding one billion years to 2.5 billion years ago, the next step in evolution created what we call “eukaryotes”—life forms that distinguished themselves by incorporating biological ‘technology’ into themselves. Technology that allowed them to manipulate energy (via mitochondria) and information (via chromosomes) far more efficiently. Fast forward another billion years for the next step.
Step 3: 1.5 billion years ago, these early eukaryotes began working collaboratively and formed the first “multi-cellular life,” of which you and I are the ultimate examples (a human is a multicellular creature of 10 trillion cells).
Step 4: The final step I want to highlight happened some 400 million years ago, when lungfish crawled out of the oceans onto the shores, and life evolved from the oceans onto land.
The Next Stages of Human Evolution: 4 Steps
Today, at a massively accelerated rate—some 100 million times faster than the steps I outlined above—life is undergoing a similar evolution. In this next stage of evolution, we are going from evolution by natural selection (Darwinism) to evolution by intelligent direction. Allow me to draw the analogy for you:
Step 1: Simple humans today are analogous to prokaryotes. Simple life, each life form independent of the others, competing and sometimes collaborating.
Step 2: Just as eukaryotes were created by ingesting technology, humans will incorporate technology into our bodies and brains that will allow us to make vastly more efficient use of information (BCI) and energy.
Step 3: Enabled with BCI and AI, humans will become massively connected with each other and billions of AIs (computers) via the cloud, analogous to the first multicellular lifeforms 1.5 billion years ago. Such a massive interconnection will lead to the emergence of a new global consciousness, and a new organism I call the Meta-Intelligence.
Step 4: Finally, humanity is about to crawl out of the gravity well of Earth to become a multiplanetary species. Our journey to the moon, Mars, asteroids and beyond represents the modern-day analogy of the journey made by lungfish climbing out of the oceans some 400 million years ago.
The 4 Forces Driving the Evolution and Transformation of Humanity
Four primary driving forces are leading us towards our transformation of humanity into a meta-intelligence both on and off the Earth: 1.We’re wiring our planet 2.Emergence of brain-computer interface 3.Emergence of AI 4.Opening of the space frontier
Let’s take a look.
1. Wiring the Planet: Today, there are 2.9 billion people connected online. Within the next six to eight years, that number is expected to increase to nearly 8 billion, with each individual on the planet having access to a megabit-per-second connection or better. The wiring is taking place through the deployment of 5G on the ground, plus networks being deployed by Facebook, Google, Qualcomm, Samsung, Virgin, SpaceX and many others. Within a decade, every single human on the planet will have access to multi-megabit connectivity, the world’s information, and massive computational power on the cloud.
2. Brain-Computer Interface: A multitude of labs and entrepreneurs are working to create lasting, high-bandwidth connections between the digital world and the human neocortex (I wrote about that in detail here). Ray Kurzweil predicts we’ll see human-cloud connection by the mid-2030s, just 18 years from now. In addition, entrepreneurs like Bryan Johnson (and his company Kernel) are committing hundreds of millions of dollars towards this vision. The end results of connecting your neocortex with the cloud are twofold: first, you’ll have the ability to increase your memory capacity and/or cognitive function millions of fold; second, via a global mesh network, you’ll have the ability to connect your brain to anyone else’s brain and to emerging AIs, just like our cell phones, servers, watches, cars and all devices are becoming connected via the Internet of Things.
3. Artificial Intelligence/Human Intelligence: Next, and perhaps most significantly, we are on the cusp of an AI revolution. Artificial intelligence, powered by deep learning and funded by companies such as Google, Facebook, IBM, Samsung and Alibaba, will continue to rapidly accelerate and drive breakthroughs. Cumulative “intelligence” (both artificial and human) is the single greatest predictor of success for both a company or a nation. For this reason, beside the emerging AI “arms race,” we will soon see a race focused on increasing overall human intelligence. Whatever challenges we might have in creating a vibrant brain-computer interface (e.g., designing long-term biocompatible sensors or nanobots that interface with your neocortex), those challenges will fall quickly over the next couple of decades as AI power tools give us ever-increasing problem-solving capability. It is an exponential atop an exponential. More intelligence gives us the tools to solve connectivity and mesh problems and in turn create greater intelligence.
4. Opening the Space Frontier: Finally, it’s important to note that the human race is on the verge of becoming a multiplanetary species. Thousands of years from now, whatever we’ve evolved into, we will look back at these next few decades as the moment in time when the human race moved off Earth irreversibly. Today, billions of dollars are being invested privately into the commercial space industry. Efforts led by SpaceX are targeting humans on Mars, while efforts by Blue Origin are looking at taking humanity back to the moon, and plans by my own company, Planetary Resources, strive to unlock near-infinite resources from the asteroids.
In Conclusion
The rate of human evolution is accelerating as we transition from the slow and random process of “Darwinian natural selection” to a hyper-accelerated and precisely-directed period of “evolution by intelligent direction.” In this post, I chose not to discuss the power being unleashed by such gene-editing techniques as CRISPR-Cas9. Consider this yet another tool able to accelerate evolution by our own hand.
The bottom line is that change is coming, faster than ever considered possible. All of us leaders, entrepreneurs and parents have a huge responsibility to inspire and guide the transformation of humanity on and off the Earth. What we do over the next 30 years—the bridges we build to abundance—will impact the future of the human race for millennia to come. We truly live during the most exciting time ever in human history.
And we ol' fahts are spenders and voters, especially when SS keeps us happy
Nothing but good comes with President Trump
I am betting this dude has a phd, he surely can pile the bs high.
This sort of naive yearning and dreaming, combined with the scientific and technological ability to make it reality, will lead to things hideous beyond imagining. As in the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of man be.
I think this guy is already a new species, and not in a good way.
I don’t want to know anybody enough to want to be connected to them.
Will this include the “humanity” in the 3rd world?
Familiarize yourself with G.B. Shaw’s “Back to Methuselah” sequence of plays, which speculates on the effects of human longevity increases made possible through genetic engineering, and John Boorman’s “Zardoz”, which takes this one step further to a time when genetically modified “immortals” no longer desire to continue to live. In both these works, the exploration of space proved to be a dead end, as there is little to be gained by near-solar system interplanetary space travel and the vastness of space itself makes intergalactic space travel impossible to achieve. Mankind’s destiny is in his realization that the Earth is his domain and that the Earth is, effectively, the center of the universe.
End poverty, population growth ends too. At least that is the conclusion I drew from sociology. And with more and more of the world out of the worst poverty, less and less populations will be growing.
Put down the bong, dude.
Exponential Growth Will Transform Humanity in the Next 30 Years>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Not without being subjected to a totalitarian state.
These fascist Utopians need to eff off and leave us alone.
The first genius level human interfaced with an AI will birth an entire new generation of technology bounds ahead of what we have when that happens.
Humanity won’t be able to deal with that shock.
“This guy” is very wealthy (self made), and is on the leading edge of technology.
He is leading Planetary Resources, a company to mine asteroids, which has already suceeded in getting the USA to change its laws on private property in space, which was frittered away decades ago in the Outer Space Treaty.
He knows what he is talking about. AI is hitting the streets now, and calling you on the phone to telemarket. These developments that he discusses are funded and being worked right now.
Just what is to be the potential benefit of so many people all simultaneously having instantantaneous access to so much information if so many of them consider “intelligence” to be a great number of concepts and ideas that, in the words of Reagan, “simply aren’t true”?
There are other things being mined for profit, too. If you’re an idea person with a gift of envisioning potentially marketable products, be very wary of search engines. Google Trends goes down pretty deep.
“1. Wiring the Planet: Today, there are 2.9 billion people connected online. Within the next six to eight years, that number is expected to increase to nearly 8 billion, with each individual on the planet having access to a megabit-per-second connection or better. The wiring is taking place through the deployment of 5G on the ground, plus networks being deployed by Facebook, Google, Qualcomm, Samsung, Virgin, SpaceX and many others. Within a decade, every single human on the planet will have access to multi-megabit connectivity, the world’s information, and massive computational power on the cloud.”
Sounds like my Roku and cable.
Thousands of channels and nothing to watch.
No. He’s an M.D. and an engineer (though I’m not sure what kind of engineering). He’s a self-promoting ‘futurist’, who doesn’t seem to have much of a scientific background.
1. The divine energy or consciousness is present everywhere within nature and man and is therefore the divine essence or spark in the minds of humans, thus Orwell's Big Brother states that reality is inside his skull. This means that every person is a potential god because they are aspects of the evolving divine consciousness.
2. The divine energy is represented by both female and male energies. These two major aspects of the divine are the goddess and god, although the divine, being beyond limitations of gender, is androgynous (transgender).
3. Animism: nature is infused with evolving divine spirit, consciousness, or life force and is thus alive with divine energy or soul, meaning for example, that Gaia (earth) and mystical concepts such as 'evolution' are alive.
4. Magic and/or occult science: the principle instrument of initiates, adepts, and god-men employed to acquire hidden knowledge (gnosis).
5. Spiritual evolution: evolutionary progress over time resulting in apotheosis, or the ‘Meta-Intelligence.
6. Subjectivism: there is no objective truth and reality; whatever one wishes to be true and real is subjectively true and real for that person, i.e., the author of the article under discussion..
7. History as a linear record of events in space and time is scientifically untenable and thus replaced with escalator and reincarnation models.
8. Mystical experience eventuating in ‘global’ or ‘cosmic’ consciousness
In conclusion, "As in the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of man be."
Look, there are just some brains that I don’t want to connect to.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.