Humanity: The Age Of AI

Context

Throughout the millennia, mankind has experienced evolutionary epochs of technological advancements, driven by the human brain’s ability to generate innovative ideas and iteratively refine them to push the boundaries of progress. For instance, the transition from the Stone Age to the Industrial Revolution represents a monumental leap in technological development, with the latter building upon the tools and discoveries of the former.

What catalyzed this evolutionary trajectory in technology?

Reflect upon this: every requisite for innovation surrounds us. We draw inspiration from birds to design planes, from horses to engineer cars, and utilize basic materials like stones and sticks to fashion tools. These initial tools then enable us to extract superior materials such as iron, propelling us further along the technological spectrum.

How did we traverse through these diverse stages?

The crux lies in our ability to think creatively, intuitively generating fresh ideas by synthesizing learnings from a myriad of contexts. This ability to ideate, coupled with our innate propensity for curiosity and exploration, fuels the continuous cycle of technological evolution.

The Limitation Of Humans

We humans are limited by our abilities to perform computational intensive tasks while being incapable to think it large-dimensions of possibilities, edge cases, etc. For example, being able to calculate every single unique number 5 written down on a piece of paper to the molecular level. This is impossible to learn and comprehend. And so, our intelligence will only get us so far given a certain period of time. Manually learning this wouldn’t be possible since we only live for on average 73.4 years. Each human has to re-learn EVERYTHING to be able to get back up to speed as a world-leader. Each birth is a reset to the intelligence of humans. And so the only way to truly evolve exponentially is if we could carry over intelligence for generations to come and reach a point of merely uploading intelligence to a new vessel.

The Birth Of AI

It’s remarkable to think of but with the use of current technology we are able to bring to life intelligence, to a degree. We are able to store and iterate on intelligence. And as our hardware technology evolves the intelligence stored in them will be so small that we will be able to carry it on our phones. AI is the most pivitol point in humanity because it is the only thing in the world that has the capabilities to exponentially accelerate the ability to learn from multiple contexts as a single entity, being able to intuitively learn from past contexts (maybe not yet now, but it definitely has the potential to).

The only limitation to AI is it’s hardware to train itself on and the data it’s trained on. Like humans, it must be able to explore the environment it’s placed in / can “imagine”. E.g. as humans if we think of ourselves walking down the street at night and see a group of hooded men in an alleyway we obviously choose to get away as fast as possible while being as undetectable as possible. This is the “imagination” we want in such a system. To think of itself in different contexts with the past learnings and experiences from previous, maybe even unrelated contexts.

Current Day Algorithms

What is our current state? Why can’t we achieve enhanced algorithms without training models today? Well, it’s just like the birth of life. With each execution we “reset” the intelligence and start from scratch, basically brute forcing with some human-defined intelligence integrated. And so, it’s merely a reflection of our bounded intelligence. To reach new levels, there must be something that can think beyond our capabilities with intuition. And so AI can develop intuition and become the new system capable of not resetting when restarted and having the ability to refer to past experiences to think of new ways to solve problems beyond our human-defined bounds.

And so what does this mean for the future of humanity?

Future Of Humanity With AI

With any new technology there comes risks and rewards with varying degress. However, with this specific technology there is existential risk of extinction unwillingly if not careful. There are 2 scenarios that AI will take to varying degress simultaneously:

Human + AI Augmentation

As we use tools, e.g. the keyboard i’m using to write this article, to convey our thoughts and ideas and bring them into reality that means it is subjective to the user behind it. But what if we use an intelligence greater than our own to help us build structures that are the most optimial physically, for rockets, plane-buses, bridges, houses, etc. What if we make them learn about the human body to achieve optimal human performance, strength, focus. To increase life expectancy. We can use it to cure diseases. To upload memories or have people live on via uploading their brain. The possibilities are really endless.

If you don’t envision this, think about Nikola Tesla invented the light bulb to replace candles via electricity. You would have never imagined the technological advancements after the initial invention. To the normal person it sounds insane, but thats why leaders think differently and push the bounds of what’s possible. To prove to the normal person it is possible and then integrate it into their normal lives.

I want to see the future like the anime Cyberpunk 2077 were we have cybernetic augments in our bodies that ehnance different areas of our lives. But when you watch that, the matrix also has very advanced things and it’s an uprising for all. However, AI will provide the abilitiy to do more with less in the future. And this is why there will be mass job layovers. But that’s because robotics and AI will be more efficient than humans and humans will be used to do other jobs, not the labour intensive ones.

AI Overthrow

I have the vision all current cybersecurity done will be automated by an AI, able to think in the dimensialities we cannot, will make manual cybersecurity auditors redundant and then a new era of cybersecurity will be born. Those working on exploitation using AI, where it will be a worm that infects every system and acts maliciously, causing an internet shutdown globally or the division of internet - like boarders when flying from one country to another, or even both quite frankly.

Those that control AI and the internet control the world. Think of who controls the internet and world now and now think of those people having control of the most devastating weapon in terms of freedom, privacy and existence in the age of the internet. If you’re not fully envisioning the realities yet, watch the Matrix.

On top of that, malware, ransomeware, worm developers will be using AI to enhance their attacks. There is always the bad actor in the world and with the power to host an intelligence greater than our own that can live on by itself as a self-mutating entity, the only way to destroy it is to remove it from the internet or where it’s hosted. And when our lives are based off the internet, e.g. email, bank, identity, we can really be taken off the face of the earth without us even knowing.

Think about this deeper, anon. The world is going to become a very scary place, very soon.

What Am I Doing To Prepare?

If you’re not already convinced of the infinite possibilities of AI and it’s ability to completely rework our existance as a species then you should carry on living your daily life like the most pivitol event in human history is not happening as you take your very breath.

Currently, I’m forcing myself to learn and love math. As with anything hard I’ve learned, it all came from a big goal of interested, e.g. automating exploits, but to get to that goal is a lot of learning things you might not want to learn initially, but as you progress you learn to love what you learn due to the reason behind learning it - to solve the problem at hand.

Being nieve in AI and math, here’s my personal roadmap, which I think makes logical progressive sense:

1. Linear algebra: to be able to represent and manipulate our intelligence (vectors + matrices). Starting w/ “No Bullshit Guide To Linear Algebra” and “Linear Algebra Done Right”.
2. Multivariable calculus: for understanding how algorithms minimize or maximize functions, how parameters change over time, and for generalizing algorithms to multiple dimensions; the ability to adapt behavioural thinking;.
3. Statistics and probability: to design learning algorithms; neural networks - what is the probability of this decision working over another.
4. Descrete math: for algorithm design and graph theory; multi-dimensialitiy thinking.

As I start my venture into the world of AI, I promise to my future self I will be a world-leader in AI cybersecurity. There is nothing more powerful than developing and controlling the most powerful AI models, in all fields, but espcially in the cybersecurity weaponry and medical fields, because these will determine life and death.

I will regret not having put the effort into learning this field now later in life and so to minimise regret I will learn math and ultimately AI.

Final

I hope to have sparked a new found urgency to learn about AI, such as I. I also think biological engineering will be quite interesting with the help of AI. This is a super exicitng time to be alive and there is a lot to look forward to in the future, especially if you’re at the forefront of it all.

I’m extremely greatful to all my friends giving me insight into the AI world, espcially Mitch Mingram and Lucas Martin Calderon for giving me the perspective into the realities of the future and helping me understand the very core of AI.

Godspeed, anon.