Extraterrestrial

Will alien life be post-biological ?

By T.K. Randall
July 29, 2013 ·  44 comments

Image Credit: Alvim Corréa The idea is based on the notion that any sufficiently advanced alien civilization is going to be capable of augmenting itself using technology to tackle its biological limitations. "I think it very likely – in fact inevitable – that biological intelligence is only a transitory phenomenon, a fleeting phase in the evolution of the universe," said cosmologist and astrobiologist Paul Davies. "If we ever encounter extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe it is overwhelmingly likely to be post-biological in nature."

The odds are that if we do encounter an alien civilization that our initial experiences with be with something more akin to an artificial intelligence than an actual biological entity. "If we build a machine with the intellectual capability of one human, then within 5 years, its successor is more intelligent than all humanity combined," said SETI chief Seth Shostak. "Once any society invents the technology that could put them in touch with the cosmos, they are at most only a few hundred years away from changing their own paradigm of sentience to artificial intelligence."[!gad]The idea is based on the notion that any sufficiently advanced alien civilization is going to be capable of augmenting itself using technology to tackle its biological limitations. "I think it very likely – in fact inevitable – that biological intelligence is only a transitory phenomenon, a fleeting phase in the evolution of the universe," said cosmologist and astrobiologist Paul Davies. "If we ever encounter extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe it is overwhelmingly likely to be post-biological in nature."

The odds are that if we do encounter an alien civilization that our initial experiences with be with something more akin to an artificial intelligence than an actual biological entity. "If we build a machine with the intellectual capability of one human, then within 5 years, its successor is more intelligent than all humanity combined," said SETI chief Seth Shostak. "Once any society invents the technology that could put them in touch with the cosmos, they are at most only a few hundred years away from changing their own paradigm of sentience to artificial intelligence."

Source: Daily Galaxy | Comments (44)

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