It is deceiving to identify human intelligence as being purely human because in a close observation of organisms (no matter how primitive they may be) we detect a certain level of intelligence. And that’s what has advanced, through millions of years of evolution, to become what we call human intelligence.
Given
that a number of decades ago, scientists tried and failed to create “life” in
the lab using only energy and inanimate matter such as chemicals, we must
conclude that the existence of organic intelligence depends on the existence of
life itself.
But will
someone eventually find a way to produce life using only energy and inanimate
matter, thus open the door for the creation of organic intelligence that can
evolve and become human-like artificial intelligence?
The
answer to that question requires that we probe and try to understand the
relationship that exists between the two states: “existence” and
“nonexistence.” And the best way to do such probing, is to set-up an example.
Here it is:
You walk
in the desert and see a watch in the sand. You conclude that someone must have
been here before you, and lost his watch. Why is that? Because you are
conditioned since early childhood by the idea that things do not appear out of
nowhere. If they exist, it’s because someone made them and brought them here.
In fact,
until not long ago, even the most learned of physicists adhered to the law of
thermodynamics which said that you cannot create something out of nothing, or
annihilate something into nothingness. You can only transform one form of
existence into another form.
This
being the case, who made the universe which contains all that exists? And if
you know who he or she is, who made them? Or where did they come from? Well, my
friend, it was questions such as these that prompted most cultures to create
mythologies — dogmas to believe and not question — that help explain the
existence of the universe.
But
then, more precise detection instruments in the hands of scientists revealed
that things — particles or energy bundles or whatever — do appear out of
nowhere and disappear into nothingness all the time. This forces us to question
the notion that if something exists, it’s because someone made it and brought it
here.
That notion
being no longer true, and because everything that “is” or “is not” can only be
regulated by some kind of law, we conclude that the Law of Probability applies
here more plausibly than any other. That is, a thing (particle or energy
bundle) has a 50 percent chance of existing, and a 50 percent chance of not existing.
Assembling
all those elements into a theory, we can plausibly hypothesize that some 13 or
14 billion years ago, there appeared a particle or energy bundle containing the
proper physical laws, the correct constants, and especially the ability to
replicate itself trillions of times or more every femtosecond or less.
The
replication exploded into a Big Bang, and formed the universe in which we live.
It continues to replicate itself till it will no more — or so we can speculate —
at which time the universe will collapse into a crunch that will reverse the expanding
cycle.
And so,
we again ask the eternal questions: Who made the universe? Who made us?
The
answer is that we came into existence as a versatile particle or energy bundle
in response to the law of probability, and evolved to become the naturally
intelligent human beings that we are. We’re so intelligent, in fact, and so
self-aware that we inquire about our origin. But as it happens, we’re not
intelligent enough to create life or replicate our intelligence by artificial
means.
We must, therefore, live with the idea and accept that artificial intelligence replicating organic intelligence will never happen.