Since the end of the 19th century, enthusiasts have been searching for traces of the presence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Although some projects, such as SETI and METI, have used significant resources, there are no results. This strange state of affairs even got the name "Fermi's paradox" - after the name of the outstanding Italian physicist.
Dozens of arguments have been used to explain this “silence of the cosmos,” but none of them has become generally accepted. Recently, sad hypotheses have appeared explaining the "silence of heaven" by some kind of "genetic intelligent bombs" inherent in the development of any civilization. Then our universal loneliness becomes understandable and … absolutely inevitable.
The horror of smart dust
Exactly 20 years ago, the world shuddered from a new danger, which could well be called a "congenital genetic disease" of civilization. It was predicted to humanity by the American mathematician and science fiction writer Vernor Vinge in his cult work "The Coming Technological Singularity." According to Vinge, the essence of the model of the future is very simple: “Over the next thirty years we will have the technical ability to create superhuman intelligence. The human age will be over shortly thereafter."
Vinge only sketched the outline of the future death of earthly civilization, preferring to develop details in his science fiction novels. However, his theory was quickly overgrown with details in the research of students and imitators. For example, in 2001, University of California professor Christopher Pister introduced the paradoxical concept of “smart dust”. By this term, he designated microscopic cybernetic devices that have the rudiments of their own "mind" and are able to communicate with myriads of similar ones.
It should be noted that the prototype of "cyber dust" is first encountered in Stanislav Lem's novel "Invincible". In it, the classic of world literature brilliantly predicted the organization of wireless networks in which nodes are able to communicate with each other and "swarm", performing many tasks.
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Naturally, “cyber dust” clouds will be only an external manifestation of the death of the human mind in a technological singularity. At the first stage of this global crisis "at the helm" of civilization will be artificial superintelligence, controlling various cyberbots (mobile microdevices). It can be neurocomputers, and quantum computers, and even some "cyborg" complexes with human participation.
This is the meaning of the term “technological singularity” proposed by Vinge - these are conditions in which modern models and ideas about scientific and technological progress lose all meaning and a completely “inhuman” logic of artificial intelligence begins to work.
It is here that the solution to the notorious Fermi paradox may lie. After all, the superintelligence that guides the swarms of "cyber dust" is unlikely to strive for search and contacts with extraterrestrial intelligence. Most likely, it will resemble the closed "world of the matrix" brilliantly depicted on the movie screen.
And now the moment will come when multiple sensor networks of miniature robots will be able to self-organize. Cybernetic swarms will receive their “queens” - control centers capable of organizing uncontrolled cloning of microbots, and they will begin unlimited expansion in relation to the environment. Soon, the entire planet will be covered with a layer of "brown mold" from mineral resources processed by robots, and it will forever lose the appearance of an inhabited world with intelligent beings.
The wonders of nanotechnology
Nanotechnology makes it possible to build new objects literally at the level of atoms and molecules, achieving the highest specialization and amazing unification. It is quite possible that on the eve of the coming technological singularity, it is nanotechnology that will determine the course of the scientific and technological revolution in all areas of human activity - from agriculture and medicine to space research.
Many of the most advanced nanotechnologies in robotics are finding priority applications in the space industry. This makes it possible to fairly accurately predict one of the main points of development of the coming crisis. It should be noted that alien research is primarily associated with the collection of information about any manifestation of living matter.
Already today, great progress is being observed here, and soon smart grains of sand ** swarming in the rarefied atmosphere of Mars and the acid clouds of Venus will become commonplace. And then it will be necessary to recall the terrible predictions that in the event of a clash of interests between the machine superintelligence and the human, the latter will have very little chance of avoiding the pursuit of ruthless nanobots. After all, they will be guided by supersensitive sensors that instantly recognize the slightest signs of living.
Unlike the Hollywood Terminator, this tactic looks so effective that within a few hours after the onset of machine Armageddon, all living things on our planet, even remotely resembling humans, will be mercilessly destroyed.
War games
A certain impetus to the technological singularity was given by various projects of the military-industrial complex (MIC). You can, for example, list the relevant projects of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In them, a cloud of microbots carrying a charge envelops the enemy's armored vehicles and shelters. Then the swarm of cybers searches for priority targets, splits into clusters of the required size, penetrates into unprotected places and simultaneously explodes.
Other Pentagon developments include intelligence using sophisticated software algorithms and sophisticated surveillance and communications capabilities. Smart nanobots are expected to enter the US and NATO armies in the first quarter of this century. This is how the cyber-insect attack described by the "golden feather of Hollywood" Dan Brown in the bestseller "Point of Deception" becomes possible.
There, miniature flying robots imperceptibly move in the direction of the desired object, simultaneously choosing the optimal places for recharging in the rays of sunlight or simply near heated objects. Such multifunctional nanobots are able to conduct video and audio surveillance from a variety of angles, as well as actively interact with humans. They could inject psychotropic drugs, poisonous substances, or simply explode, flying into the depths of the auricle.
If to such apocalyptic pictures we also add the structure of the World Wide Web and chip-implants controlled by the superintelligence based on the same quantum computers, the collapse of the technological singularity seems inevitable …
One can easily imagine how millions of wireless sensors will begin to appear on the World Wide Web, located in various places. They will soon be able to self-network and operate from built-in power supplies for several years. It seems that by capturing the World Wide Web, connected to countless microchips - implants, the artificial superintelligence will be able to enslave humanity without even destroying it physically …
Doomsday technology
Some cybernetics and robotics experts believe that the risk of a technological apocalypse will increase dramatically in the coming decades. The weakest link here may be devices connected by branched sensor lines. The data exchange rate of such nanobots is low, which allows for low power consumption from autonomous sources and unprecedented flexibility of their swarm systems.
According to the same DARPA experts, as the concept of nanocyber becomes more widespread, manufacturers will equip literally every part, device and room with sensors, which will open up the possibility of monitoring and controlling a wide range of technological processes. There are also innovative ways to solve the food problem by deploying hydroponic farms with moisture and acidity sensors on literally every plant.
In general, the prospects for the rational use of sensor networks are very great: from agriculture to full-fledged environmental control systems, including global monitoring of the atmosphere and hydrosphere for radiation and toxic substances. The future is not far away, when the entire urban infrastructure will be equipped with sensors - from buildings and structures to public transport and the human body itself. And all this, one way or another, can lead to the collapse of the technological singularity …
Is it possible to effectively deal with the coming crisis? At first glance, the fight against the Internet, top-secret military-industrial complex projects, cybernetic nanotechnology and neurocomputerization seems completely hopeless.
Meanwhile, opponents of the very idea of a cybernetic apocalypse quite rightly believe that not a single real way of creating an artificial superintelligence is yet visible. Without this main component, technological collapse could be carried over to almost the end of this century or beyond. In fact, this means that the evolution of artificial intelligence will take some other path - say, cyborgenization and neurocomputerization.
Oleg Faig