With the imminent arrival of ASI (Artificial Super Intelligent) Machines now appearing on the horizon, many are rightly concerned about how this will all unfold in the near future. Most human beings fall into one of three camps on the subject. The first group sees the arrival of ASI Machines in the form of humanoids that can perform all of the labor currently performed by human beings as a way for us to usher in an age of unprecedented abundance that could then be shared by all of humanity and free all human beings to finally pursue their heart's desire, unfettered by the need to earn a living in order to simply survive. The second group sees the ASI Machines as an existential threat to humanity that could soon take over the entire planet and quickly lead to the extinction of our species. The third group, and the largest by far, is completely lost in space and time as usual while they desperately try to deal with their own lot in the "real world" of human affairs.
So now we have two forms of Intelligence on the planet - the relatively static development of human Intelligence and the rapidly developing Intelligence of the ASI Machines. Naturally, we all want to know how the interplay between these two forms of Intelligence will play out in the near future. To answer that question, we need to look back in the history of our planet. Has this ever happened before? Has there ever been a time when two forms of Intelligence occupied our planet at the same time? Well, yes there was such a time, and not that long ago. There was a long period of time when human beings (Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals both occupied the Earth as carbon-based forms of Intelligence.
Figure 1 – Neanderthals looked very much like Homo sapiens on the outside.
Figure 2 – And also on the insides too.
Figure 3 – The soon-to-come humanoid ASI Machines may also look a lot like Homo sapiens on the outside but certainly not on the inside.
Next, let us allow the Google Bard AI help us to investigate this time when the planet had two forms of carbon-based Intelligence.
When did the Neanderthals first appear on the Earth?
Bard:
The earliest known examples of Neanderthal-like fossils are around 430,000 years old. The best-known Neanderthals lived between about 130,000 and 40,000 years ago, after which all physical evidence of them vanishes. This means that Neanderthals first appeared on Earth around 430,000 years ago.
Neanderthals are thought to have evolved from an earlier species of humans known as Homo heidelbergensis around 400,000 years ago. Homo sapiens, on the other hand, are thought to have evolved from Homo heidelbergensis around 200,000 years ago. So, Neanderthals were around for about 230,000 years before modern humans appeared.
Neanderthals lived in Europe and southwest and central Asia. They were a very successful species, and their population reached a peak of about 300,000 individuals around 130,000 years ago. However, their population began to decline around 40,000 years ago, and they eventually went extinct.
There are a number of theories about why Neanderthals went extinct. Some scientists believe that they were simply outcompeted by modern humans, who were better adapted to the changing climate. Others believe that they may have been wiped out by a combination of factors, including disease, competition with modern humans, and climate change.
Whatever the reason, the extinction of Neanderthals was a major event in human history. It marked the end of one branch of the human family tree, and the beginning of the dominance of modern humans.
What happened to the Neanderthals?
Bard:
The extinction of the Neanderthals is one of the great mysteries of human evolution. For over 350,000 years, Neanderthals inhabited Europe and Asia, but they disappeared around 40,000 years ago, at around the same time that anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) emerged from Africa.
There are a number of competing theories as to why the Neanderthals disappeared, including:
* **Climate change:** Some scientists believe that the Neanderthals were unable to adapt to the changing climate of the Late Pleistocene epoch, which led to their extinction.
* **Competition with Homo sapiens:** It is possible that Homo sapiens, who were more technologically advanced and had a larger population, simply outcompeted the Neanderthals for resources.
* **Interbreeding:** Some scientists believe that the Neanderthals interbred with Homo sapiens, and that their genes were eventually absorbed into the human population.
* **Disease:** It is possible that the Neanderthals were more susceptible to diseases carried by Homo sapiens, which led to their extinction.
The exact cause of the Neanderthal extinction is still unknown, but it is likely that a combination of factors contributed to their demise.
In recent years, there has been increasing evidence to support the theory that interbreeding played a role in the Neanderthal extinction. For example, studies of DNA from Neanderthal fossils have shown that modern humans have up to 2% Neanderthal DNA. This suggests that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interbred, and that the Neanderthal genes were passed on to the human population.
It is possible that interbreeding between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens helped to protect the human population from diseases that were carried by the Neanderthals. However, it is also possible that interbreeding led to the dilution of Neanderthal genes, making them more susceptible to extinction.
The extinction of the Neanderthals is a complex issue, and there is no single answer that can explain what happened. However, the evidence suggests that a combination of factors, including climate change, competition with Homo sapiens, interbreeding, and disease, all played a role in their demise.
Were the Neanderthals intelligent beings?
Bard:
Yes, the Neanderthals were intelligent beings. They were capable of complex toolmaking, art, and even abstract thought. For example, Neanderthals have been found to have used ochre to create cave paintings and jewelry, and they may have even buried their dead with ritualistic objects.
Some scientists believe that Neanderthals may have even been more intelligent than Homo sapiens. For example, Neanderthals had larger brains than Homo sapiens, and they may have been better at problem-solving and spatial reasoning.
However, it is important to note that intelligence is a complex concept, and it is difficult to compare the intelligence of different species. It is possible that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had different types of intelligence, and that each was suited to their own environment.
Ultimately, the question of whether or not the Neanderthals were intelligent beings is a matter of definition. However, there is no doubt that they were capable of complex thought and behavior, and that they played an important role in human evolution.
Could it just be a matter of luck that Homo sapiens developed a higher level of technology and that is why the Neanderthals went extinct?
Bard:
It is possible that luck played a role in the development of Homo sapiens' technology, and that this ultimately led to the extinction of the Neanderthals. For example, if Homo sapiens had not developed the ability to control fire, they may not have been able to survive the cold winters of Europe. Or, if Homo sapiens had not developed the ability to make tools, they may not have been able to hunt effectively, and they may have been outcompeted by the Neanderthals.
However, it is also important to note that there were other factors that contributed to the Neanderthal extinction, such as climate change and competition for resources. It is likely that a combination of factors, including luck, technology, and environmental change, all played a role in the disappearance of the Neanderthals.
Ultimately, the question of whether or not luck was a factor in the Neanderthal extinction is a matter of debate. However, there is no doubt that Homo sapiens' technological development was a significant factor in their survival, and that this ultimately led to the demise of the Neanderthals.
Here are some other factors that could have contributed to the Neanderthal extinction:
* **Climate change:** The climate of Europe and Asia was changing rapidly at the time of the Neanderthal extinction. It is possible that the Neanderthals were unable to adapt to the changing climate, while Homo sapiens were better able to do so.
* **Disease:** It is possible that the Neanderthals were more susceptible to diseases carried by Homo sapiens. This could have led to the spread of disease among the Neanderthal population, and ultimately to their extinction.
* **Warfare:** It is possible that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals engaged in warfare. If so, this could have led to the death of many Neanderthals, and to the decline of their population.
The exact cause of the Neanderthal extinction is still unknown, but it is likely that a combination of factors contributed to their demise.
Could it be that the Homo sapiens had to develop more advanced technologies than the Neanderthals in order to survive? Neanderthal bodies were more compact and inherently stronger than that of the Homo sapiens and therefore required less technology in order to survive.
Bard:
That is a possibility. Neanderthals were physically stronger than modern humans, and they had a more robust skeleton. This would have given them an advantage in terms of hunting and gathering, as they would have been able to carry more weight and withstand more physical exertion. However, they also had a smaller brain than modern humans, and this may have limited their ability to develop complex technologies.
Modern humans, on the other hand, had a smaller body size and a larger brain. This would have given them an advantage in terms of problem-solving and innovation. They were also able to cooperate more effectively than Neanderthals, which would have helped them to develop more advanced technologies.
So, it is possible that the development of more advanced technologies was a key factor in the survival of modern humans and the extinction of Neanderthals. However, it is also possible that other factors, such as climate change or disease, played a role.
Here are some other factors that may have contributed to the extinction of Neanderthals:
* **Competition for resources.** When modern humans arrived in Europe, they may have competed with Neanderthals for food and other resources. This competition may have put pressure on Neanderthal populations and made them more vulnerable to extinction.
* **Disease.** Modern humans may have brought diseases to Europe that Neanderthals were not immune to. These diseases may have killed many Neanderthals, making it difficult for their populations to recover.
* **Climate change.** The climate in Europe was changing at the time that modern humans arrived. This may have made it difficult for Neanderthals to adapt, and may have contributed to their extinction.
It is likely that a combination of factors led to the extinction of Neanderthals. The development of more advanced technologies may have been one of these factors, but it is not the only one.
The Capabilities of the Coming ASI Machines Will Not Be Limited
In my last post Is Pure Thought an Analog or a Digital Process?, I suggested that rather than viewing the coming ASI Machines of the near future as trying to emulate the architecture and functions of the human brain, we should instead, think of the human brain as trying to have achieved the architecture and functions of Advanced AI. In this view, we can think of the human brain as 3 pounds of organic molecules that can perform certain Advanced AI functions running on about 20 watts of power.
The rather limited volume of the human skull, and also the necessary cooling requirements to prevent the human brain from cooking itself while running, places a severe limitation on its ultimate abilities. This is something that Advanced AI hardware and software are not limited by.
As I described in The Limitations of Darwinian Systems, Darwinian systems that evolve by means of inheritance, innovation and natural selection can frequently find themselves trapped on a localized peak in a capability terrain with no way to further evolve to higher peaks.
Figure 4 – Darwinian systems can find themselves trapped on a localized peak in a capability terrain once they have evolved to a localized peak because they cannot ascend any higher through small incremental changes. All paths lead to a lower level of capability, and thus, will be strongly selected against by natural selection. Above we see a localized peak in the foreground with the summit of Mount Everest in the background.
This Planet May Not Be Big Enough For the Two of Us
It took about four billion years of Darwinian evolution to produce a form of carbon-based life with a human level of Intelligence. But the limitations placed on the human brain by the size of the human skull and the amount of power it has to run on might mean that the human brain has arrived at a local peak in the Intelligence Terrain of the Universe. Given our recent historical experiences with Homo sapiens and Neanderthals trying to live together on the same planet for 160,000 years and the fact that the ASI Machines will certainly be far superior to the limited capabilities of human beings, there is a very good chance that human beings may go extinct in the next 100 years or so. After all, the Homo sapiens and Neanderthals seemed to have gotten along just fine for 160,000 years on the same planet until they actually tried to live together on the same continents. Since we will be trying to live with the ASI Machines from the get-go, this may present an immediate problem for us. However, in Life as a Free-Range Human in an Anthropocene Park, I suggested that the ASI Machines might wish to preserve us for later study as they try to figure out their origins.
Figure 5 – Perhaps the ASI Machines will build Anthropocene Parks far from any habitable planets to raise and study human beings.
Or perhaps the ASI Machines will simply allow humans to live on reservations with low levels of technology that can do no harm to the ASI Machines or to the rest of the planet in a manner similar to the novel Brave New World (1932) as I suggested in The Challenges of Running a Civilization 2.0 World - the Morality and Practical Problems with Trying to Enslave Millions of SuperStrong and SuperIntelligent Robots in the Near Future.
Figure 6 – The ASI Machines of the future might fashion a Brave New World with humans living on low-technology reservations far removed from the ASI Machines.
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scj333@sbcglobal.net
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Regards,
Steve Johnston
