Swarm Software and Killer Robots

As you all know, I am obsessed with the fact that we see no signs of Intelligence in our Milky Way galaxy after more than 10 billion years of chemical evolution that should have brought forth a carbon-based or silicon-based Intelligence to dominate the galaxy. In Last Call for Carbon-Based Intelligence on Planet Earth, I explained my Null Result Hypothesis to explain Fermi's Paradox. Basically, my Null Result Hypothesis states that the Milky Way galaxy has yet to produce a form of Intelligence that can make itself known to the rest of the galaxy because the conditions necessary to bring forth a carbon-based Intelligence are also the very same conditions that provide kill mechanisms that are 100% efficient at eliminating carbon-based Intelligences. In that posting, I suggested that messing with the carbon cycle of a planet could be one of those kill mechanisms that all forms of carbon-based Intelligences are subject to. For example, our planet is currently dying because we are messing with the carbon cycle of the Earth and everybody is pretending that it is not. The Right loves fossil fuels and is pretending that catastrophic Climate Change is simply not happening. The Left is pretending that wind and solar can solve the problem all on their own. And the Middle is concerned with other issues that they find more pressing. However, this will take some time to accomplish. In that posting, I also pointed out that we have been sitting on the solution to this dire problem for more than 60 years. All we need to do is to replace all of our carbon-based fuels with molten salt nuclear reactors that could burn thorium and uranium for hundreds of thousands of years. Since carbon-based life seems to require small amounts of elements with atomic numbers greater than that of iron-56, carbon-based life should always also have small amounts of thorium and uranium available to fuel advanced technologies. That is because elements with nuclei heavier than iron-56 are generated by stellar supernova explosions and by colliding neutron stars. For more on that see:

The Alchemy of Neutron Star Collisions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmgMboWunkI&t=695s

So it is rather hard to believe that all carbon-based Intelligences extinguish themselves by messing with their planet's carbon cycle. Surely, some must follow a nuclear route using thorium and uranium and eventually fusing deuterium. This means that there must be additional kill mechanisms to be found within the conditions necessary to bring forth carbon-based Intelligence.

Another Possible Kill Mechanism
In Is Self-Replicating Information Inherently Self-Destructive?, I discussed the possibility that carbon-based Intelligent life might be self-destructive as most forms of self-replicating information tend to be. Similarly, in Susan Blackmore's brilliant TED presentation at:

Memes and "temes"
https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes

Susan Blackmore points out that each additional form of self-replicating information that arises on a planet presents a new danger that could snuff out Intelligences in our galaxy. 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. Perhaps carbon-based Intelligences that do not do themselves in by messing with the carbon cycle of their home planet never successfully make the transition to silicon-based Intelligence for other reasons. Perhaps silicon-based AI does them in before silicon-based AI reaches a full level of Intelligence. For more on that see A Brief History of Self-Replicating Information.

The February 2020 issue of Scientific American features an article entitled Autonomous Warfare that discusses just such a possibility. The article discusses the imminent danger of killer robot swarm software and that we currently have all of the necessary silicon-based hardware and AI software to do the job. The following two videos raise all of the pertinent issues:

Sci-Fi Short Film "Slaughterbots" presented by DUST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU

Why We Should Ban Lethal Autonomous Weapons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=LVwD-IZosJE&feature=emb_logo

In The Danger of Tyranny in the Age of Software and Fascism and the Internet of Things, I pointed out that the rise of Alt-Right Fascist movements around the world was being primarily fueled by automation software displacing jobs and warned of the dangers that advanced surveillance software on the Internet of Things could produce in the hands of authoritarian societies. Now imagine totally automated factories churning out billions of totally automated killer robot drones instead of billions of smartphones! Perhaps in a Terminator-like (1984) manner, huge swarms of self-replicating killer robots could do us all in before silicon-based AI can achieve a level of Intelligence that can make itself known to the rest of the galaxy.

In Last Call for Carbon-Based Intelligence on Planet Earth, I attributed the messing with the carbon cycle of a planet to the inherent selfishness of all forms of self-replicating information. But I also pointed out that selfish carbon-based Intelligences can redirect their inherent selfishness into positive actions that do not mess with the carbon cycle of their planet. That is because the delusion of consciousness gives agency to selfishness. A selfish conscious Intelligence can channel selfishness into actions that are not necessarily self-destructive. For more on that see The Ghost in the Machine the Grand Illusion of Consciousness.

However, it seems that the one thing that conscious carbon-based Intelligences may not be able to avoid is the regrettable legacy that results from billions of years of carbon-based life forms chomping on each other. Yes, all forms of self-replicating information have to be a little bit nasty in order to survive, but carbon-based life forms seem to take this to an extreme. I love watching nature documentaries by David Attenborough, but watching natural selection at work can certainly be a rather gruesome business. I would argue that all carbon-based Intelligences must come with a built-in tendency to kill other carbon-based life forms. This is neither a good nor bad thing. It is just a necessary thing to bring forth carbon-based Intelligence. Strangely, the people who are trying to ban killer robots make the argument that only "moral" carbon-based Intelligences, like human beings, should make the final decision to kill others! I attribute such delusional reasoning to the shared delusion of consciousness that likely comes with carbon-based Intelligence. It may ultimately be the reason why "moral" carbon-based Intelligences build killer robots in the first place.

More information on this topic is available at:

BAN LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS
https://autonomousweapons.org/

Campaign to Stop Killer Robots
https://www.stopkillerrobots.org/

This is Not a Time to Despair
Yes, all of this could be viewed in a rather depressing manner, but on the other hand, it gives us an extraordinary opportunity. As the latest form of carbon-based Intelligence to appear in the Milky Way galaxy, we can learn from all of the past forms of carbon-based Intelligences that have failed. Just do not do things like mess with the carbon cycle of the planet or create killer robot swarm software. At all times, we need to be keenly aware of the fact that over the past 10 billion years all other carbon-based Intelligences within our galaxy did not make it. In order to do this, we need to always remember that we are a product of self-replicating information and that we carry all of the baggage that comes with self-replicating information. That is why, if you examine the great moral and philosophical teachings of most religions and philosophies, you will see a plea for us all to rise above the selfish self-serving interests of our genes, memes and software.

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