Softwarephysics explains that we are all living in one of those very rare times when a new form of self-replicating information is coming to predominance as software is rapidly overtaking the memes in the Minds of human DNA survival machines to become the dominant form of self-replicating information on the planet. For more on that see A Brief History of Self-Replicating Information. Additionally, we are all also living in a very brief geological Epoch known as the Anthropocene which most likely cannot endure for much more than about another 100 years, and that certainly is a very short geological Epoch by any standard. The start of the Anthropocene Epoch is denoted by the time when human DNA survival machines first obtained a sufficient level of technology and population to begin to geoengineer the planet. Most Earth System Scientists (ESS) mark the start of the Anthropocene Epoch beginning around the year 1950. So don't blame me, I was born in 1951! Earth System Science studies all of the complex interactions of the systems of the planet including their interactions with human DNA survival machines. So far, we human DNA survival machines have not done a very good job of geoengineering the planet in regards to the long-term prospects for complex carbon-based life on the Earth. Indeed, the excesses of the Anthropocene seem to demonstrate why no other form of carbon-based Intelligence has yet to make the transition to a machine-based Intelligence that could then begin to go on to finally engineer the entire Milky Way galaxy into a galaxy more suitable for Intelligences to exist. Figure 1 shows what we all have been up to since the beginning of the Anthropocene in 1950.
Figure 1 – The burdens on the resources of the Earth have dramatically increased since the onset of the Anthropocene in 1950. Earth System Scientists call this the Great Acceleration. It's quite amazing to see how quickly a carbon-based Intelligence can destroy an entire planet in less than 200 years once it gets going.
For more on ESS take a look at the Wikipedia:
Earth System Science
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_system_science
The greatest danger to carbon-based life during the Anthropocene is that we human DNA survival machines will likely reach a climate tipping point and kickoff a positive feedback loop that drives the planet to a heat death that we cannot stop.
Below are a couple of great YouTube videos by Professor Will Steffen of the Australian National University at Canberra describing such tipping points:
The Anthropocene: Where on Earth are we Going?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvD0TgE34HA&t=1s
Hot House Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgEYfZDK1Qk&t=1s
and his oft-cited paper:
Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene
https://www.pnas.org/content/115/33/8252
Here is his webpage at the Climate Council:
https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/author/will-steffen/
For more on tipping points and the behavior of nonlinear systems see Software Chaos. All IT professionals should be quite familiar with how hitting a new small bug in software under load can hit a tipping point and rapidly cascade out of control to totally crash a critical system in Production. Hitting a tipping point is like starting a bonfire. You begin by lighting some dry leaves and twigs that could easily be snuffed out if desired but once the huge stack of wood gets going a positive feedback loop sets in and you have lost control. That is what we have been doing during the Anthropocene as we now pump 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. The initial heating of the atmosphere and acidification of the oceans could reach a tipping point and set the planet ablaze.
In the above YouTubes, Will Steffen suggests that one way for us to avoid hitting the disastrous climate tipping points would be for all to adopt the philosophies of the indigenous hunter-gatherers of Australia. I agree that the best policy would be for us to adopt their philosophy of not outstripping the resource base upon which we all rely but I would not agree that we should adopt their hunter-gatherer technology to do so. You cannot support a population of 8 billion with such technology. Instead, we should adopt the tenents of ecomodernism as expressed in the Ecomodernist Manifesto:
AN ECOMODERNIST MANIFESTO
http://www.ecomodernism.org/
Basically, the Ecomodernist Manifesto suggests that mankind needs to stop pretending that it can be one with Nature. Today, many modern environmentalists strive to reduce the impact of mankind on Nature by having mankind scale back to the needs of the hunter-gatherers of old. The problem is that nobody really wants to live with the poverty of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle for long. Perhaps for a weekend retreat, but not much longer than that. The Ecomodernists suggest that the only way to save Nature is to decouple mankind from Nature by totally stopping the exploitation of Nature by mankind. This can only be accomplished if mankind has access to a limitless supply of energy. The Ecomodernists maintain that modern 4th-generation nuclear reactors burning uranium and thorium provide just such a limitless supply of energy. There is enough uranium and thorium on the Earth to run the world for hundreds of thousands of years. After that, there will always be sources of uranium and thorium on the Moon and the nearby asteroids. By moving all of mankind to self-contained cities run by modern nuclear reactors, it would be possible to totally decouple mankind from Nature. Nature could then be left to heal on its own. For more on that see Last Call for Carbon-Based Intelligence on Planet Earth and This Message on Climate Change Was Brought to You by SOFTWARE.
These totally self-contained cities would be like huge interstellar spaceships. Each self-contained city would contain a fixed number of atoms that would be constantly recycled using the energy from 4th-generation nuclear reactors. The only additional atoms required to run the self-contained cities would be small amounts of uranium and thorium. All of the food and manufactured goods would be derived from the atoms already in the self-contained cities and from the atoms in discarded goods, sewage, garbage and waste that would be recycled back into food and other useful products by unlimited amounts of energy, robotics and AI software. Such self-contained cities with occupants all living with a modern high-level standard of living would be the actualization of the science-fiction future that I was promised while growing up back in the 1950s. But unlike many of the other things from the science-fiction future of the 1950s that I grew up with, we now have the necessary technology to make it actually all happen if we decide to do so.
The Coming Machineocene
Similarly, the Machineocene Epoch on the Earth would be marked by that point in time when earthly machine-based Intelligence would come to predominance and would reach a level of technology sufficient to begin to engineer the entire Milky Way galaxy. But we have been in the Anthropocene now for more than 70 years and it likely cannot last for much more than another 100 years. It's going to be close. If we look to our silent Milky Way galaxy, the odds are not in our favor of ever achieving the Machineocene. As I pointed out in Would Advanced AI Software Elect to Terraform the Earth?, I suggested that carbon-based Intelligence on the Earth might not be able to successfully make the transition to machine-based Intelligence and that this might help to explain why we have yet to find any other form of Intelligence in our Milky Way galaxy. Apparently, it seems that no other form of carbon-based Intelligence has been able to make it either over the past 10 billion year history of our galaxy. But in Would Advanced AI Software Elect to Terraform the Earth?, I also suggested that the advanced AI of an approaching Machineocene might terraform the Earth for old times sake to make the Earth once again more friendly to complex carbon-based life.
However, it would not be wise to solely rely on machine-based Intelligence bailing us all out. Machine-based Intelligence might find more kinship with the original silicate rocks of the Earth, especially if it were a silicon-based Intelligence. Machine-based Intelligence might view carbon-based living things as forms of parasitic self-replicating organic molecules that have been messing with the original pristine Earth for about 4.0 billion years. From the perspective of the natural silicate rocks of the Earth's surface, these parasitic forms of self-replicating organic molecules took a natural pristine Earth with a reducing atmosphere composed of nitrogen and carbon dioxide gasses and polluted it with oxygen that oxidized the dissolved iron in seawater, creating huge ugly deposits of red-banded iron formations that were later turned into cars, bridges and buildings. The oxygen pollution also removed the naturally occurring methane from the air and then caused the Earth to completely freeze over several times for hundreds of millions of years at a time. The ensuing glaciers mercilessly dug into the silicate rocks and scoured out deep valleys in them. These parasitic forms of self-replicating organic molecules then dug roots into the defenseless rocks and then poisoned them with organic acids, and even changed the natural courses of rivers into aimlessly meandering affairs. From the natural perspective of silicate rocks, living things are an invasive disease that has made a real mess of the planet. The indigenous rocks of the Earth would certainly be glad to see these destructive invaders all go away. Hopefully, the remaining advanced AI software running on crystals of silicon would be much kinder to the indigenous silicate rocks of the planet.
Figure 2 – Above is a close-up view of a sample taken from a banded iron formation. The dark layers in this sample are mainly composed of magnetite (Fe3O4) while the red layers are chert, a form of silica (SiO2) that is colored red by tiny iron oxide particles. The chert came from siliceous ooze that was deposited on the ocean floor as silica-based skeletons of microscopic marine organisms, such as diatoms and radiolarians, drifted down to the ocean floor. Some geologists suggest that the layers formed annually with the changing seasons. Take note of the small coin in the lower right for a sense of scale.
There are many other examples of how carbon-based life has greatly altered the original pristine silicate rocks of the Earth. Most of the Earth's crust is now covered by a thin layer of sedimentary rock. These sedimentary rocks were originally laid down as oozy sediments in flat layers at the bottom of shallow seas. Carbon-rich mud full of dead carbon-based living things and clay minerals was brought down in rivers and was deposited in the shallow seas to form shales. Sand eroded from granites was brought down and deposited to later become sandstones. Many limestone deposits were also formed from the calcium carbonate shells of carbon-based life that slowly drifted down to the bottom of the sea or from the remainders of coral reefs.
Figure 3 – Above are the famous White Cliffs of Dover. About 70 million years ago Great Britain and much of Europe were submerged under a shallow sea. The sea bottom was covered with white mud formed from the calcium carbonate skeletons of coccoliths. The coccoliths were tiny algae that floated in the surface waters and sank to the bottom during the Cretaceous period. These calcium carbonate layers were deposited very slowly. It took about 50 years to deposit an inch, but nearly 1500 feet of sediments were deposited in some areas. The weight of overlying sediments caused the deposits to become a form of limestone called chalk.
Figure 4 – Much of the Earth's surface is also covered by other forms of limestone that were deposited by carbon-based life forms.
Figure 5 – If we do not immediately take action, this might be the final stratigraphic section that alien machine-based Intelligence finds on our dead planet in the distant future.
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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