In my last posting, The QAnon Phenomenon - Why Does Social Media Software Make People So Nutty? I speculated that the QAnon Phenomenon really resulted from us all being born just a little bit nutty, and ever since, I have been wondering if the QAnon Phenomenon was a necessary universal characteristic of all forms of carbon-based Intelligence that naturally arises from the processes that bring forth all forms of carbon-based Intelligence.
In October, I will be turning 70 years old and heading into the homestretch. My only regret in life is that I will never know exactly how this will all turn out. But I do have my hopes and suspicions. My hope is that in 100 years the planet will be run by a large number of Androids with advanced AI trying to terraform a drastically altered Earth back into a planet that once again can allow carbon-based life to flourish. I also hope that these Androids with advanced machine-based Intelligence will have embarked upon exploring our Milky Way galaxy and spreading Intelligence throughout. For more on that see Would Advanced AI Software Elect to Terraform the Earth?. We are so close. My hope and suspicion are that we will truly become the very first civilization to successfully make the transition from carbon-based Intelligence to machine-based Intelligence in the history of the Milky Way galaxy, and I find that to be a very comforting thought.
This conclusion is an outgrowth of my Null Result Hypothesis explanation for Fermi's Paradox.
Fermi’s Paradox - If the universe is just chock full of intelligent beings, why do we not see any evidence of their existence?
Briefly stated:
Null Result Hypothesis - What if the explanation to Fermi's Paradox is simply that the Milky Way galaxy has yet to produce a form of interstellar Technological Intelligence because all Technological Intelligences are destroyed by the very same mechanisms that bring them forth?
By that, I mean that the Milky Way galaxy has not yet produced a form of Intelligence that can make itself known across interstellar distances, including ourselves. I then went on to propose that the simplest explanation for this lack of contact could be that the conditions necessary to bring forth a carbon-based interstellar Technological Intelligence on a planet or moon were also the very same kill mechanisms that eliminated all forms of carbon-based Technological Intelligences with 100% efficiency. One of those possible kill mechanisms could certainly be for carbon-based Technological Intelligences to mess with the carbon cycle of their home planet or moon. For more on that see The Deadly Dangerous Dance of Carbon-Based Intelligence. But in Last Call for Carbon-Based Intelligence on Planet Earth, I also explained that we still had a chance to stop pumping carbon dioxide into our atmosphere by using molten salt nuclear reactors to burn the 250,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel, 1.2 million tons of depleted uranium and the huge mounds of thorium waste from rare earth mines. From the perspective of softwarephysics, this is important because the carbon-based Intelligence on this planet is so very close to producing a machine-based Intelligence to carry on with exploring our galaxy and making itself known to other forms of Intelligence that might be out there.
Figure 1 – A ball of thorium or uranium smaller than a golf ball can fuel an American lifestyle for 100 years. This includes all of the electricity, heating, cooling, driving and flying that an American does in 100 years. We have already mined enough thorium and uranium to run the whole world for thousands of years. There is enough thorium and uranium on the Earth to run the world for hundreds of thousands of years.
Yes, it would be nice to see the current carbon-based Intelligence on the Earth do the same thing, but I don't think it works that way. As I pointed out in The QAnon Phenomenon - Why Does Social Media Software Make People So Nutty?, all carbon-based forms of Intelligence are born to be a little bit nutty. Being a little bit nutty is just an undesirable side effect of becoming a carbon-based Intelligence in the first place. If true, that means that all forms of carbon-based Intelligence are always a little bit nutty and that certainly could provide ample opportunities for all carbon-based forms of Intelligence to do themselves in before transitioning to a machine-based form of Intelligence. So always being a little bit nutty could certainly be the ultimate kill mechanism of my Null Result Hypothesis explanation for Fermi's Paradox. In other words, the QAnon Phenomenon could be the kill mechanism that has destroyed all of the other forms of carbon-based Intelligence that have arisen in the Milky Way galaxy over the past 10 billion years.
The Planet is Dying and Everybody is Pretending That it is Not
This problem stems from the fact that we all are a little bit nutty. Conservatives are pretending that climate change is either a hoax or something that is really not that important at all. And Liberals are pretending that climate change is a real threat that can be easily solved by solar and wind power alone. The problem is that neither side wants to look at the numbers because the numbers do not support their worldview. Instead, both sides desperately cling to their own tribal memes because that is what our Minds were evolved to do - store and preserve memes. For more on this, see Susan Blackmore's brilliant TED presentation at:
Memes and "temes"
https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes
Note that I consider Susan Blackmore's temes to really be technological artifacts that contain software. After all, a smartphone without software is simply a flake tool with a very dull edge. Also, take a look at A Brief History of Self-Replicating Information and The Bootstrapping Algorithm of Carbon-Based Life to see how all forms of carbon-based Intelligence are likely to be victims of the QAnon Phenomenon. The QAnon Phenomenon dramatically demonstrates how the scientific and mathematical elements of a carbon-based civilization could produce sufficient technology to destroy an entire planet and then put that technology into the hands of a nutty populace. And please remember that good intentions are not a substitute for good results. As Richard Feynman explained, "The most important thing is to not fool yourself because you are the easiest one to fool."
Comments are welcome at scj333@sbcglobal.net
To see all posts on softwarephysics in reverse order go to:
https://softwarephysics.blogspot.com/
Regards,
Steve Johnston
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