Editorials

We’re all aware that our natural world is the outcome of about 4 billion years of Darwinian evolution. Most people think of humans as the culmination—the top of the tree, but no astronomer can believe that. The Sun’s not even halfway through its life; the cosmos will go on for far longer, maybe forever. Humans may not even be the half-way stage in the emergence of ever more wonderful complexity in the cosmos.

There are chemical and metabolic limits to the size and processing power of flesh and blood brains. Maybe we’re close to these already. But no such limits constrain electronic computers. We are perhaps near the end of Darwinian evolution, but technological evolution of intelligent beings is only just beginning.

Their evolution will be ultra-rapid compared to the timescales of the Darwinian selection that led to humanity’s emergence – but even more billions of years lie ahead. So the outcomes of future technological evolution could surpass humans by as much as we (intellectually) surpass slime mould.

We humans thrive on a planetary surface; but if posthumans make the transition to fully inorganic intelligences, they won’t need an atmosphere. And they may prefer zero-g, especially for constructing massive artifacts. So it’s in deep space – not on Earth, nor even on Mars -- that non-biological ‘brains’ may develop powers that humans can’t even imagine.

Thanks to Prof [Michel] Mayor and his successors, we know that there are millions of earth-like planets spread through the Galaxy.

Does this aggravate the Fermi paradox? Not necessarily. Some who address this imagine that alien civilsations will be expansionist and aggressive. But even though Darwinian selection has favoured intelligence and aggression, post-human evolution, occurring via ‘secular intelligent design’, need not be aggressive or expansionist. Needing neither gravity nor an atmosphere they would not be on planets. A ‘flesh and blood’ civilization may be detectable for a few thousand years, but its electronic progeny and artifacts could survive for far longer.

The history of human technological civilization is measured in millennia (at most) – and it may be only one or two more centuries before humans are overtaken or transcended by inorganic intelligence, which will then persist, continuing to evolve on a faster-than-Darwinian timescale, for billions of years. ‘Organic’ human-level intelligence is, generically, just a brief interlude before the machines take over.

Were we to detect ET, it would be far more likely to be electronic where the dominant creatures aren’t flesh and blood -- and aren’t on planets.

Conjectures about advanced intelligence are far more shaky than those about simple life. If it’s evolved on other worlds, with a head-start, I’d conjecture three things about the entities that SETI searches could reveal.

1. They will not be ‘organic’ or biological.
2. They won't remain on the planet where their biological precursors lived.
3. But we won’t be able to fathom their intentions. Maybe it’s the science fiction writers who can teach us most.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in editorials are those of the individual authors, and do not necessarily reflect the position of The SETI League, Inc., its Trustees, officers, Advisory Board, members, donors, or commercial sponsors.