ROBOTS CREATED BY ALIENS WILL CONQUER SPACE AHEAD OF HUMANS, LEADING ASTRONOMER PREDICTS
We are likely to be fixed to this world.
Lord Martin Rees says
machines could take over from humans within a few centuries and go on to enjoy
billions of years of supremacy.
The Astronomer Royal and
Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge
pointed out that we still don’t understand the origins of life, but will
likely learn more about it over the next ten to 20 years.
However, he believes that
that alien intelligence, if it does exist, could be electronic and nothing like
humans.
“Just because there’s life
elsewhere doesn’t mean that there is intelligent life,” Lord Rees told the
Conversation. “My guess is that if we do detect an alien intelligence, it will
be nothing like us. It will be some sort of electronic entity.”
He believes there’s a
chance of a major global setback taking place this century, identifying
population growth, misuse of technology and increasing connectivity as problems
that make humans more vulnerable now than ever.
“If we look into the
future, then it’s quite likely that within a few centuries, machines will have
taken over – and they will then have billions of years ahead of them.
“In other words, the
period of time occupied by organic intelligence is just a thin sliver between
early life and the long era of the machines.”
According to Lord Rees,
these entities would be far more suited to space exploration than humans,
despite improving technologies.
While humans are mortal
and depend on an atmosphere and a planet, these machines would essentially be
limitless, perfectly comfortable floating around space in zero-g.
“We are likely to be fixed
to this world,” Lord Rees continued. “We will be able to look deeper and deeper
into space, but travelling to worlds beyond our solar system will be a
post-human enterprise.
“The journey times are just
too great for mortal minds and bodies. If you’re immortal, however, these
distances become far less daunting. That journey will be made by robots, notus.”