AI Go Foom Sometime Soon?

Intelligence is powerful – since natural selection stumbled on intelligence, organisms have developed increasingly complex modes of survival and reproduction. What evolution didn’t know, was that it’s dominant position in shaping life on earth would be superseded by intelligence. Intelligence can make sense of evolution by natural selection, it can make sense of the environments surrounding it, from which it can make several kinds of predictions, model theoretical landscapes of possibility – it’s peeks and valleys, produce experimental designs that help traverse from one peek to another peek. Intelligence can push it’s own envelope, it can envision better ways of thinking, devise methods of rationality, offload aspects of itself onto the environment, design cognitive algorithms of increasing sophistication in cycles of self-improvement. It’s a quite a leap from long lineages of organisms slowly improving through the grind of small random mutations, body design traits, slowly being selected for and discarded by environments demanding fitness.

Looking at the history of significant developments through the history of life on earth, timescales seem to telescope – improvements on previous body designs adds to optimisation power; it aids in speeding up the time it take stumble on newer, fitter body designs able to exploit existing niches in more efficient ways, and move into new under-populated niches. The transition from single celled organisms to multi-celled organisms enabled more complex and larger body designs, opening up new palates of opportunity. The development of mobility allowed organisms to traverse the environment in search of nutrients. The development of light sensors through to complex eyes enabled organisms to develop more accurate environmental awareness. Development of legs and wings allowed organism to move into new types of environments, from the seas onto the land and into the air and sky. Fur allowed creatures to survive better in colder environments, big sharp teeth and larger stronger bodies gave advantage over less aggressively endowed creatures, making them targets for nutrient extraction. etc etc
Intelligence opened up the ability for recursive language, conceptual navigation, rationality – and understanding – a very powerful niche that allows for traversing across landscapes of possibility.