Harvard Professor Says We Might Encounter Superhuman Intelligence on Earth in the Next Decade in These 2 Forms

Avi Loeb shared the two forms of superhuman intelligence we might encounter on Earth in the next decade: artificial superhuman intelligence (ASI) and extraterrestrial superhuman intelligence (ESI).

Avi Loeb Talks About Superhuman Intelligence on Earth

In a new blog post, Loeb, the head of the Galileo Project and founding director of Harvard University's - Black Hole Initiative, talked about superhuman intelligence on Earth. He wrote the entry after Nicolas Berggruen invited him to lunch at Harvard Square and asked about his view on consciousness. Per Loeb for him, "consciousness and free will are emergent meta-level phenomena of complex cognitive systems." While discussing consciousness, the discussion led him to artificial intelligence. For him, AI systems are not made of flesh and blood but rather silicon.

However, they could outsmart us even though they are our technological offspring, just as how his two girls have the potential to be smarter than him. Per Loeb, neural networks in Large Language Models (LLM) such as ChatGPT have a density of connections close to the number of synapses in the human brain. They will provide a testbed for evaluating his theory that consciousness and free will are emergent features of complex cognitive systems after they surpass this degree of complexity.

A complex system exhibiting intelligence can react to its surroundings efficiently and without making the mistakes that characterize a random walk. In the coming ten years, superhuman intelligence may confront humanity from two directions: artificial superhuman intelligence (ASI) created by humans and extraterrestrial superhuman intelligence (ESI). The human brain may not be capable of understanding ESI, and humans may need to use ASI to comprehend ESI.

Per Loeb, Nicolas said ESI likely surrounds us but goes unnoticed. Loeb acknowledged that our knowledge of dark matter, dark energy, the events leading up to the Big Bang, and how to integrate quantum mechanics and gravity into a predictive theory remains incomplete, even when considering the material components of the Universe.

Eventually, Nicolas and Loeb agreed that something must have happened before the Big Bang.

What Is ASI and ESI?

Artificial superintelligence (ASI) is a fictitious artificial intelligence (AI) system that runs on software and has a higher level of cognition than humans. Fundamentally, this superintelligent AI is capable of highly developed cognitive and thinking abilities that are much beyond any human's.

Even if ASI is still a theoretical state of the future, its foundation comprises several current technical processes. Before ASI becomes a reality, a few important technologies need to advance. These additional procedures are the foundation for artificial superintelligence -- large language models (LLMs) and large datasets, multimodal AI, neuromorphic computing, evolutionary computation, and AI-generated programming.

Extraterrestrial superhuman intelligence (ESI) involves aliens. Since they are not of our kind, it is assumed that it will not be easy for us to comprehend them.

Per BBC's Martin Rees, the notion of non-living extraterrestrial intelligence presents several remarkable possibilities. These entities would behave and think entirely differently from humans if they were real. They might not want to be found out. Their objectives may be incomprehensible.

Maybe they might have novel energy sources that we cannot yet imagine. If they have silicon-based brains, they will use less energy in colder areas far from planetary systems since they may realize that less energy is required to process "bits" at lower temperatures. They might even decide to hibernate for billions of years, waiting for the Universe's ongoing expansion to cool further the cosmic microwave background, the remnant radiation from the Big Bang.

Check out more news and information on Aliens in Science Times.