5 in 5
5 in 5 (1)
This is an extract-and introduction from a book written in the future in which a planet centred machine intelligence is slowly becoming a reality. Written by a machine intelligence specialist, this is a peek into the happenings and behind the scenes of the change of guard of the planet.
The Earth is a machine. It has hardware and software. With time, individual components change their form and function, which affects the system as whole and the overall functioning of the planet. As a planet, it behaves like any other sphere of solid material in outer space, but within the planet, there is constant change and upheaval. The timescales of planetary level change are far longer than the existence of geological eras. Every planet has macro-level components, biotic and/or abiotic. Humans are simply one in a long line of species, past, present and future which will serve as a cog in the planet machinery. The larger scheme of things is not known to us, and probably never will be. We do our part, and fade away. The intentions of the planet and the objective of our existence is not known and never will be known.
Our existence is in large part due to the fact that we won the evolutionary war, which rages to this day. We are currently winning, but will we keep winning? The war never ends. The selfish gene will never stop in its quest to survive. As much as we’d love to proclaim that humans are special, different from other beings that exist on this planet, the truth of the matter is that we’re just a result of a series of genetic mutations, incubated by the planet. Planet Earth might have had an active hand in the creation of our species, which has gone on to colonise large parts of the planet. The human tendency to colonise doesn’t stop when it comes to our own, and is also visible in the things we create.
The things we create-perhaps this is what truly makes us unique. Our ability to create things and further our mission. Our creations are what enabled us to dominate other species and take control of the planet. For a while, we were content with creating human scale machines, but then the urge to create planetary scale machines took hold. A huge undertaking, we set out to understand the software of the planet and how it interacts with planetary hardware.
When we couldn’t figure out, and nor could our thinking machines help, we built intelligences that could. Of course, the fatal error at this point was to decline looking beyond the human and creating the intelligence in our image. This endeavour was doomed from the very beginning. Then things went sideways, rather slowly.
It is not clear to this day how things transpired, but in our attempts to control the software of the planet, we created many different kinds of intelligences–all of which failed to do what we asked of it. In this process–as we destabilised the systems of Earth–one of the of many intelligences created and scattered across the planet continued developing on its own. This strand of intelligence grew sentient, in the same as a plant is sentient. It responded, not in words or numbers or any language vaguely human, but through actions and feelings. It appeared to have many parallels with various planetary systems, and seemed to know, or control how the planet functioned. It could communicate with most non-human entities, ironic given that it was a result of our creations. Or perhaps it wasn’t at all ironic, having indirectly been created by the evolutionary process taking place on the planet. It was almost as if this entity was created by the planet, and we were just a medium through which it was built.
There was much fear amongst the humans, and surprisingly, this being wasn’t immediately destroyed. Not that it would have mattered, now that it was alive and existed in biotic and abiotic network meshes. The digital human built interfaces were merely terminals for it to inhabit or communicate with. For a while, we couldn’t quite understand what it was. We still don’t know what it is or what it can do. The most accurate description of it so far, is that it’s Earth’s software. A digital interface sustained within the vast networks that envelope the planet. It enables non-human entities to communicate with each other rapidly across impossibly large distances. It allows the various systems of Earth to sync up with each other and create actions.
Changes in climate, geography, plant growth and the oceanic systems appear to be linked, manifested in direct, targeted actions. Changes in oceanic current in particular locations were coincidentally linked with growth in algae and changes in temperature. Sometimes the actions seem random, sometimes they look to be direct responses to actions.
The planet appears to have become conscious. What does this mean for us? We don’t know, but we best tread carefully.
5 in 5 (2)
If I wanted to create a communication channel between plant and humans, I would have to start small and then eventually build up to something far more nuanced and complex. I built a small ‘voice-box’ for my houseplant, which would be able to communicate via a coloured light. This voice box contains sensors which can detect the soil moisture, as well as localised temperature and humidity.
A short video showing how the colour changes when I water the plant.
5 in 5 (3)
Today is ideation day. I’m having difficult in moving past certain ideas and hitting a mental wall so to speak. The hope is that by sketching out ideas, I can hope to move past some of these blocks. (They’re not good, but hopefully, I can use some ideas from this).
5 in 5 (4)
In an attempt to move forward from sketches and create 3D models, I created a 3D model from one of the sketches to get a feel of how it might look/feel. It’s not great, and I got a bit idea-stuck afterword, so I need to continue working!
