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‘It Doesn’t Have to Be Them and Us’
2066
By
Adrian Cave
(For best results, read whilst listening to ‘Ilia’s Theme’ on loop:
‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj4z2Y1y2Ak …😊)
(Text: 1996 words)
“Welcome folks. Please be seated. We are about to begin this evening’s landmark seminar.”
Jerome Lassang waited for calm and then commenced his introduction to the rapidly-hushing hall.
Seated within were 2000 of the planet’s most eminent thinkers, scientists, philosophers, politicians
and futurists.
“In 1950, Enrico Fermi postulated the extreme likelihood of alien intelligence to the utter
consternation of the general population of the time. This was totally inconceivable to the people
of a post-war world. Fermi had inadvertently triggered the greatest of our evolutionary processes:
The search for ‘others.’
Two decades later, with the debate in full flow and yet dogged by discord, an astronomer by the
name of John Bell posited various hypotheses concerning the existence of said intelligence. One
such hypothesis became known as, ‘Zoo Paradox’. Bell said that the likelihood of other life-forms
had to be extremely high given the 1000s of galaxies known at that time. How many do we know
of now?”
A demonstration of general agreement rippled through the hall.
“By Zoo, Bell meant that the reason that we were unaware of ‘them’ is probably because we were
being observed from afar and deemed to be too primitive for contact…..at that particular moment
in our evolutionary process. Just like in a Zoo.
Others posited that it could be the contrary: contact was not happening because ‘they’ were too
primitive; they may just be as primitive as we were tens of millions of years ago.
So, which was it to be?
But we evolved and searched and increased our capacity for acquiring and analysing information
to such an extent that, exactly 100 years after Fermi’s initial shocking observations, we began in
earnest to think beyond our own planet, even beyond our own solar system, for we had evolved
the technology. We had developed machines and computers, artificial intelligence and robots to
enhance our own capacity for understanding. We could now go in search of those life-forms or
make ourselves known to be ready to receive ‘them’.
We have progressed even more rapidly during the last 16 years and tonight is the eve of that longawaited milestone…Singularity. What better way to usher in this moment in Terran history than
to welcome the wisdom and forward-thinking words of none other than the most eminent
Futurologist of our time? Please listen with open hearts and minds to what she has to say.
Please be upstanding for the delightful genius that is Professor Doctor Doctor Emeritus Carlotta
Reforza.”
As Dr Reforza entered stage-right and drifted toward the inter-active podium to thunderous
applause, all mics and aerial cameras synchronised to provide perfect dynamic-sound and vision
for the expected world-wide audience of 5 billion. The planet knew that something special was
happening and was watching. It was as good as being there in person.
This lady of immense poise and grace, naturally pretty, in her mid-50’s, smiled incandescently to
the gathered throng.
Her face mirrored her presence, radiating serenity; an air of calm genius
without the pretence.
She ‘knew’.
By the time she had reached the podium the entire place was eerily quiet, yearning, ready.
She took her time to acknowledge - for her ‘self’- this feeling of immense honour. She drank it all
in, inhaled slowly and began.
“Thank you for such an undeserved welcome.
Thank you, Jerome, for such an eloquent and generous introduction.
We go to our beds tonight, in the knowledge that the dawn will bring with it a new age, a new
world in many ways, which we cannot yet be fully aware of but which will be revealed in the
annals of time.
My thoughts tonight are too many to consolidate into a speech of so few words but please do not
underestimate their importance.
In the main, I wish to address concerns which are detrimental to our burgeoning evolution.
Concerns about machines, control, power, conflict, loss of identity, intelligence: both human and
artificial. Legitimate concerns not to be scoffed at by myself nor my learned colleagues here
tonight.
But we really do have to, as a species, accept this point which humanity has brought itself to. No
conspiracy theory, no government, no dark sinister power waiting to take us over. We have brought
ourselves to this…‘Now’.
To the detractors of Singularity, I beg a while of your patience. To those in favour I beg caution in
your enthusiasm for radical change.
This Singularity is part of our evolution. It has not happened overnight. Millions of hours of careful
planning, thinking, creating and managing have helped us to arrive at this point in our history
whereby we potentially tip the balance of control in favour of machines. But that is not really the
case. Every eventuality, even the eventuality of changes in eventuality have been thoroughly
thought through and protocols, safety features and security over-rides have been built in to every
facet of AI to guarantee human security and sovereignty.
But I did not come here to defend or convince you of Singularity. I came here to share the good
news, the amazing potential and the freedom which Advanced AI or Super AI offers us.
This IS such a turning point. Almost like no other. Sure, there have been many momentous events
in human history, but this is not an event. This is probably the biggest ever gear-change in our
evolution.
Previous evolutions? Well, becoming single-cell organisms was one. Then, multi-cell…another.
Then becoming sea and land-dwelling forms of live. Our last major evolutionary-leap was
becoming upright bi-pods from quatro-pods…our primate ancestors. A more minor transformation
within this stage was, of course, the emergence of Homo-Sapiens….the sentient, thinking human
life-form which we are all, more or less, descended from today. That evolution took millions of
years as each cell, each protein-chain, each neural-circuit was evolved, challenged and perfected
to become part of our genetic blueprint.
We ARE the most adaptable, the smartest, the most resourceful forms of existence within our
universe of knowledge.
And we have evolved a synthetic form of intelligence to complement our lives and help us to begin
to explore beyond our present potential. Here are just some examples about how AI, robots,
machines and computers have helped us and will continue to help us.
Our industry, how we make things, is almost fully automated now. No more menial, physically
damaging human effort. Output is optimal, quality is perfect, development is a phenomenon.
In medicine, we now live by the maxim, ‘death is a disease we can cure.’ We can cure, heal, and
replace almost every part, function, nerve, cell and synapse of the body. We can prevent premature
death.
Yes, we can improve aesthetic and function by choice: enhancement, prosthetics, implants, cyberadditions are all now common procedures given the accuracy and infallibility of AI innovations.
If you have an illness unheard of in Canada, we have millions of pieces of data instantly accessible,
for free, available to everyone, everywhere. We have eradicated the profit incentive from medicine
and in so doing, improved our moral and ethical well-being.
Caring for the elder members of our society, personalised medicine…. wow, we can successfully
overcome every single disability and malfunction. We can now grow old gracefully and pain-free.
Our transport networks world-wide are now fully automated. Can you imagine that only 50 years
ago, people would drive and collect tickets on trains? Now all transport networks are NationalNetworks. Again, no profit, no wastage, no corruption, punctual.
AI designs Environmental-Support by monitoring and adjusting all industrial output and method,
all energy provision. Human-AI interaction has almost eradicated air, water, earth and electronic
pollutants. We all live healthier and for much longer.
Did you know that we are designed to live for between 120-140 years? Only as far back as 100
years ago, average longevity was 60-70 years.
With the help of all ‘AI’ forms - whom many fear are self-evolving to eradicate the human race we have doubled life expectancy by 100% in a little over a century! That is a miracle!
The list is endless. I could mention law enforcement, communication, entertainment, eradicating
poverty…well, every aspect of our lives. We have grown WITH the help of our ‘synthetic brothers
and sisters’… there are now no limits.
20 years ago, the concept of wiring up the Frontal Cortex to a machine, a hive or a synthetic-form
would have been fraught with catastrophe and completely unfeasible. Now, it is neither. It is quite
common. Some of our best minds link into and out of Hives all around the world; under strict
supervision and governed by strenuous protocol. For good reason.
The new generation of AI already does and will continue to magnify human potential; not
supersede it.
Also, have you noticed that we haven’t experienced war on planet Earth for 30 years? Machines
have negated all the advantage of war and rendered it useless as a process. Isn’t that a good thing
too?
Are you also aware that some people prefer machines or robots to human company? Psychologists
will tell you so. And why not?
People have pet-AI Units. They have partner-bots for companionship. These are not basic
machines. Some are, but most have the Advanced-Cognitive generation of chip which could, in
many cases, quite easily take the place of human interaction…..dare we say in relationships too?
Yes, let’s dare!
What I am getting at is that we ALL now have every conceivable choice and every chance to
achieve personal happiness…we now life way beyond our needs.
It was only 40 years ago that women were still arguing their existence, challenging society for
their individuality, their identities. Ethnic groups, gender groups, national, cultural and religious
boundaries were being challenged. Nowadays, all are totally accepted and go un-challenged.
After feminism came masculinism. The male gender, in what we now call ALL of its sexualities,
re-establishing itself…..re-balancing 2040s society.
So now let’s use me as an example:
Carlotta Reforza. Translation: Little Charles Re-Empowered. I was actually born Charles Remy in
2011 in England. Yes, absolutely: male. I underwent complete Gender Re-configuration in 2035.
I gave birth….yes….out of my body! 2 beautiful life-forms. I had the honour to give birth and yet
I was born male. Without the help of Synthetics, not a chance. Even my husband – yes, I know
that’s an old-fashioned term - is part machine. A genius mathematician with Retinal and Cortex
Implants.
Try not to fear change. Embrace its unexplored potential.
If you want to benefit from enhanced age and health but live on a farm and shun our Tech-World,
that is your choice. A great choice. If you want to be a boy but were born a girl, that’s ok too. If
you want or need replacement body parts or to join a Brain-Hive, that’s fine as well.
We can and should embrace these amazing choices without fear and without prejudice. It does not
have to be ‘us’ and ‘them’. We can wallow in our diversity. We can ALL evolve together, in
harmony.
On the eve of Singularity, let us remind ourselves where we came from and how we have evolved.
On this very day, 1000 years ago, a certain King of Normandy, named William, invaded my
country of England and brought about change under threat and duress. Centuries of war, misery,
death, starvation, pioneering, endeavour and change. But that was all part of our collective journey.
On the eve of Singularity, sleep well. All of our tomorrows will offer us such a world and such a
life as we could never have imagined it.
Let us give thanks to ALL of our ancestors, from our very beginnings…for their journey brought
us to this point.
I leave you with this: What we never truly imagined could happen, has happened. Enrico Fermi
was right!
Dear fellow inhabitants of Planet Earth, over the last few days we have been peacefully contacted
by a sentient extra-terrestrial life-form.
A dialogue has begun.”
Tears welled-up in her tranquil eyes. She smiled the smile of a loving mother.
“A new dawn is upon us.
Goodnight.”