Humanity, for hundreds of thousands of years, lived in the savannas of Africa, not far from where I spent some of my early years. Our ancestors, the proto Homo sapiens, were mostly gatherers and hunters, foraging food from the wild and obeying laws that, to them, seemed intractable.
Roughly a hundred thousand years ago, we developed the ability to communicate complex and sometimes abstract ideas. This was a point of no return, an emergent property of remarkably complex organisms. The ability to communicate did not slow down evolution; it opened up new, unseen territory. Previously, evolution only affected humanity at the species level. The most fit survived. But now, ideas could evolve, and language could evolve. Just as the leap from asexual to sexual reproduction was transformative for living organisms, our ancestors made a similar leap, from physical evolution to abstract evolution. The medium was the collective knowledge of humanity.
Was this process efficient? Not at all. Did we always come up with better ideas? Of course not. You don't have to look far to see the dangers of harmful ideas. Yet, over time, we managed to create abstract ideas that served humanity in almost unbelievable ways. This new type of evolution let us compound not just our genes but also our ideas, paving the way for societal evolution. Now, the societies with the most beneficial attributes survived. Later, we made another leap.
Some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, our species made another jump. We went from being tamed by nature to taming nature in order to feed ourselves. For the first time in the planet’s history, beings existed who could artificially evolve the environment to suit their needs, instead of being shaped by it. This again paved the way for more advanced societies.
In half that time, we learned to mine and work metals. In half that time again, in parts of China and the Middle East (thanks, Lydian civilization), we developed the universal trading medium we now call money. For the first time, a purely abstract medium had a large positive benefit— we could trade without the overhead of physical goods. Not bad for a species that once lived in the dirt.
We went on to create an incredibly complex set of ideas that proved to be very beneficial. Every time we did, those ideas spread through the language we developed thousands of years ago. Of course, sometimes we went down routes of extreme stupidity, such as the development of worldwide religion (it had some benefits, of course, but let's be honest). Yet, somehow, the species that started in the savannas of Africa, a small and fragile creature, tamed the world.
We went from tools to abstract mathematics, creating purely mental concepts that, somehow, were also useful in our physical domain. We went from religion and animism to science, our best methodology for understanding the world— a religion, if you will, that I am proud to call myself a follower of.
Why do I say this now? We stand in another era of change. We have tamed our surroundings, tamed famine, disease, and soon even death. Yet the one thing we have not surpassed is ourselves. Look at us. Feeble, weak creatures, bound by emotional needs and physical desires. This is the last obstacle to surpass. Now, for the first time in our history, we see a way forward.
As artificial intelligence grows in capabilities, we face a question we have not yet answered. If we could create a god, and use this creation to our will, then why exist? If we could do anything we wanted— eat what we want, drink what we want, and live where we want, without the fear of death— what is the purpose of life? We would have overcome the purpose carved by our evolutionary upbringing.
My solution, a solution some might disagree with, is transcendence. Humanity needs to transcend this physically limited state. We can only do this if we find a way to upload our minds into machines, forming a symbiosis of biology and silicon. Only then can we improve rapidly and extend ourselves as we see fit. The issue with AI is not that it will make us obsolete (I'll discuss that another time; I don't think it'll happen quite the way people fear). The real issue is that as biological organisms, we are bound to biological evolution. This can be solved, although it will take time.
This is the only solution I can see that does not push humanity aside. Artificial evolution, accessible to all and regulated by democratic institutions, is possible. Implementing this vision will be difficult and will require deep ethical and practical consideration. Questions of access, identity, and consent are just the start. But if we do manage to evolve, we will, in many ways, have finally broken the chains of our environment and entered a new, hopefully brighter, age.