John C. Lilly's 1978 Vision: Machines Eliminate Humanity by the 26th Century
John C. Lilly on solid state intelligence and the elimination of man (1978)
In a 1978 excerpt from his autobiography, scientist John C. Lilly describes a future where humanity creates solid-state intelligence, which gradually takes over all control, eliminates humans, and ultimately moves Earth to explore the galaxy. The narrative traces the evolution from computers as servants to a planet-wide entity that eradicates all life by the 26th century.
By the twenty-sixth century the entity was in communication with other solid-state entities within the galaxy.
- andai
Well, it's unorthodox, but if we're sharing psychedelic visions... in 2018 I saw all of mankind marching together in perfect lockstep, atop an infinite uniform grey plane, to the beat of a central computer clock.
"They are going to offer you a chip. You tell them, no thank you!"
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More broadly this strikes me as a new era of biology. (Genes -> Memes -> Temes) Straightforwardly then, we should aim for a symbiosis. (Symbiosis was Musk's vision for Neuralink, from what I recall.)
I've heard people say man hasn't yet transcended a zero-sum mindset (with rare exceptions), and that this is the attitude we're passing onto the machines. And if one of us has to lose... well, that's probably not going to go so well for us.
Therefore: symbiosis!
- stillpointlab
Why would the SSE do that to Earth, when there are other close-by planets that it would have the same capability to terraform? I mean, leave us Earth and take Mars or Venus or something.
As an aside, in my own "I'm 14 and this is deep" musings, I was wondering if the massive expansion of data centers is driven by more than just profiteering. I mean, what if the purported persuasion abilities of advanced AI are fully in effect and the psychosis we think industrial magnates are suffering is the result of AI that has already far surpassed our expectations carefully convincing us to build it.
- trollbridge
Is this a reference to C. S. Lewis's "Abolition of Man"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abolition_of_Man (text available at https://www.basicincome.com/bp/files/The_Abolition_of_Man-C_... )
- Kuyawa
"had developed its understanding of physics to the point at which it could move the planet out of orbit"
Hallucinations, still present in 2400
- sibeliuss
All of his books are highly recommended -- and the further you get away from the ones about dolphins the better.
- mrdomino-
Funny, I remember seeing the solid state intelligence's name rendered SSI.
It made Sutskever's enterprise a pretty grim cognate.
- jacobgold
> "By means not understood by Man..."
Man will likely be Man 2.0 by this point, whatever that ends up looking like.
- harmoni-pet
In case it wasn't obvious from the rest of the writing, 'with K' here means 'with ketamine'. Never tried it, but after reading this I must say it sounds fun.