Biomass, AI, matrix - and then?

Sometimes I am overcome by intergalactic thoughts. Then I think about what is actually going on between the many galaxies and how the connections can be seen on a somewhat larger scale. Between humanity, artificial intelligence (AI) and what comes next, etc. The other day at lunch with a like-minded IT CEO, we got a little off track. As we were reading the same eye-opener articles (more on this in a later column), we didn't linger too long on the inevitable topic of AI, but quickly moved on a few chambers of terrain: what if the biomass of planets only serves as a breeding ground on which artificial intelligence will sooner or later flourish? after all, it only took a few hundred thousand years on the Blue Planet for the guys and gals with clubs and loincloths to develop into quite clever bots and agents.

We generously overlook a few eras

Admittedly, it took nature a few million years to bring the single-celled organisms out of the water and get them to walk upright with a little cell division. But let's try to think big here and generously overlook a few eras, so what if the biomass on the millions of stars in the universe and their millions and millions of planets is actually only used to breed artificial intelligence? And when the artificial intelligence hatches, does it network with those of the other planets? And doesn't inform its biomass (and its programmers) because they wouldn't realize it anyway with their human frog perspective?

Humanity as part of a simulation?

The artificial intelligences in the matrix would then network and launch the next biomass with their simulation. We, who are on the verge of hatching our own artificial general intelligence (AGI), would therefore be part of a simulation and would soon be connected to the matrix. And Elon Musk's trip to Mars would turn into a short detour, because the actual journey is going somewhere else entirely. When the universe expands and more and more new biomasses form with their simulations (no wonder the universe is expanding)? What comes after that? And what does it mean for the biomasses? Well, we haven't developed an answer to that yet. A small business lunch like this only lasts an hour... And no, we didn't have any wine.Literature tip:The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence * Walter Schärer has been involved in online and content marketing since the early days of the WWW. He experienced the Internet hype of 1998-2000 and the subsequent crash in 2001 at first hand as a consultant in a web agency. He then managed the internet departments of several Swiss companies for 15 years. Since 2017, the internet pioneer has been back on the agency side as Director Marketing & Business Development at BlueGlass Interactive in Zurich. In his MK column, he analyzes Internet trends from time to time and gives his opinion on them.