In many of my postings on Fermi's Paradox, I have commented that since we now know that most of the stars in our Milky Way galaxy have planets and that many of those planets and their moons should be capable of supporting carbon-based life that we, therefore, should now find ourselves knee-deep in von Neumann probes stuffed with alien software. In short, von Neumann probes are self-replicating robotic probes that travel from star system to star system building copies along the way as they seek out additional resources and safety from potential cosmic threats. Again:
Fermi’s Paradox - If the universe is just chock full of intelligent beings, why do we not see any evidence of their existence?
In The Deadly Dangerous Dance of Carbon-Based Intelligence I offered up my Null Result Hypothesis as a possible explanation for Fermi's Paradox:
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 Technological Intelligence? By that, I mean that the 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 carbon-based Technological Intelligence on a planet or moon were also the same kill mechanisms that eliminated all forms of carbon-based Technological Intelligences with 100% efficiency. I then suggested that this kill mechanism might be the tendency for carbon-based Technological Intelligences to mess with their planet's or moon's carbon cycle as we seem to be doing today with the Earth.
However, in The Dawn of Galactic ASI - Artificial Superintelligence, I also noted that we are now in the process of creating a silicon-based Technological Intelligence that could go on to become a form of a Galactic ASI - Artificial Superintelligence. So it now seems that the Earth is in a tight race between carbon-based Intelligence destroying itself and silicon-based Intelligence taking off and exploring the Milky Way galaxy. If we can just hold it all together for another 100 years or so, the Earth might just be the very first planet in the Milky Way galaxy to do so.
But what would a von Neumann probe stuffed with alien software likely look like? Clearly, a von Neumann probe would need to be a very flexible and resourceful piece of hardware, housing a very flexible and resourceful form of AI software. Recently, I viewed a very interesting TED Talk by Jamie Paik that demonstrated just the glimmers of such a very flexible and resourceful kind of hardware that could house the very flexible and resourceful AI software necessary to create a von Neumann probe. In this TED Talk, Jamie Paik explains that the future of robotics does not necessarily lie just with replicating the biological models that nature has uncovered by means of the Darwinian mechanisms of inheritance, innovation and natural selection. Although the Darwinian mechanisms of inheritance, innovation and natural selection have discovered incredible engineering designs, they do have their limits as I outlined in The Limitations of Darwinian Systems. For example, those Darwinian mechanisms have never produced the innovation of a macroscopic wheel and axle. We just do not see the likes of Wile E. Coyote sporting a set of wheels in pursuit of the Road Runner in nature. Jamie Paik proposes that robotics should break free from simply replicating the limited designs produced by nature and build robots based on the theoretical capabilities of Transformers instead! And I do not mean the kind of electrical transformers built from two coils wrapped around a common iron core.
Jamie Paik contends that the robots of the future need to be flexible and resourceful by being able to fold into any shape required by the task at hand. She calls these folding robots "robogamis". Jamie Paik is already working with the European Space Agency and the Swiss Space Center on building stackable robogamis that unfold into 3-D objects for the exploration of bodies within our Solar System.
Figure 1 – von Neumann probes stuffed with alien software might look something like Jamie Paik's robogamis.
To view this very interesting TED Talk please take a look at:
Origami Robots That Reshape and Transform Themselves
https://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_paik_origami_robots_that_reshape_and_transform_themselves?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2019-07-12&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=bottom_right_button#t-1"
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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