Although this letter posted on Academia below written by Gregor Mobius (2021) lacks logical structure it manages to communicate all the various entities that I have struggled to try to cover under my Digital Human concept. Trying to model in my thought processes some of the identical thoughts he has is difficult because we have to use words as the communication channel between us. But there is so much content in his letter that I have had to retain it in this blog to read over and over again. His Bio General Intelligence (BGI) model represents where I am headed with my Digital Human Model where everything can be digitally defined ultimately with the spark of life being triggered whereby it will evolve under perpetuity. The Copyright of this letter is owned by Gregor Mobius .
ACADEMIA Letters
Notes on Artificial and Bio General Intelligence by Gregor Mobius
It seems that the four key properties of life:
metabolism, replication, observation and memory could be interpreted through
the observer-observed relationship. In fact metabolism relates to observation
and replication relates to memory. While metabolism and observation are
exchanges/interactions with the environment (inside-outside), replications and
memory are processes within the living being(observer) itself (inside-inside).
However, both these relationships, external and internal, form “pictures of the
world” impressed into the living being (from DNA to Biosphere), which are being
continuously updated throughout its life . Without the observer there is no
observed. Without life there is no world. Without the living there is no
non-living matter.
There is a possibility that, at some “bio-singularity“
point, something we could call Bio General Intelligence (BGI) will emerge and
become a living alternative to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). In
essence it will be a relationship without precedent between the living and
non-living matter on the largest scale, which might raise the question: could
the properties which have so far been specific only to living matter
(intelligence, consciousness, self- awareness, self-initiative,
self-reflection, curiosity) be extended to non-living matter as well, not to
mention feelings like happiness, fear, empathy, intuition, and anger. Would, for
example, AGI be able to recognize its reflection in a pool of water surface, or
a mirror or recognize itself a picture? Perhaps in the case of such a
non-living entity it would make more sense to use the term “algorithm” instead
of “intelligence”.
The question is, if the Biosphere ever emerged as a
single being, what would its main properties be? Would it be able to “see” the
world only from the inside out, or it might it became capable of perceiving
itself from the outside as well? In addition to having a certain degree of
living intelligence, it is possible that, when it becomes aware of its own
existence (self-awareness), it would acquire a capacity to see itself, not only
from within, but from without as well. This process was already set in motion
some decades ago when several humans first saw the Earth from space and from
the Moon, thus enabling the Biosphere to see itself from the outside as a
whole. Another possible option would be a view of some non-organic(AI)
observer, or some alien, non-DNA based, life form.
All living organisms on Earth are surrounded by
non-living and living matter, except for the Biosphere which has so far been
surrounded only by non-living matter with the exception of temporary excursions
of its living elements into Space organized by humans.
Without nature there is no culture. Although
everything known in nature is named and structured by (human) culture, culture
is in fact just one of many expressions of nature. We might consider placing
life as the most general concept from which we derive everything, including the
notion of the Universe, and the Biosphere would be its most complex earthly
expression. Notions and phenomena known as art, science, religion, sport,
technology, politics, would be expressions of life and parts of the Biosphere.
Everything made by humans: cities ,roads, factories, electric plants, machines,
internet, artificial intelligence, governments, military, universities,
museums, are products of living matter, and thus an integral part of the
Biosphere as well. This includes various concepts of structuring
time,(cyclical-linear) and two main types of change in its foundation:
day-night (divided into morning, afternoon, evening, night), and four annual
seasons. Other time divisions(chronology): hours, weeks, months, years are
derived from these two.
The existence of any living organization, a single
cell, a complex organism, an ecosystem, a society, or the entire Biosphere, is
based on two opposite requirements: stability and change. They need to be
properly balanced, since an emphasis on stability would lead to conservation
and death, while tilting toward uncontrolled change could lead to chaos and
again to death.
However, on the individual level the key question
is the end of life (death). It seems there is no good narrative in which death
of an individual would become meaningful and acceptable like in previous
attempts such as resurrection/ reincarnation in religion or posterity in
history. Biologically it is understandable that what is born at some point has
to die. In that sense there is no difference between bacteria and humans. On
that level the only purpose of life is for an organism to survive as long as possible,
to experience the world and to pass its properties to its offspring. But, is
there perhaps something more than that, especially in the case of humans? There
are so many things humans do that seem to have no direct relationship to their
biological survival.
Existential human transactions with the
environment (metabolism) are: breathing and digesting. The space inside our
bronchi, bladder and intestines is outside, it is where the ex- change with the
external world takes place. From non-existence we came to existence, and from
existence we will go back to non-existence ( non-living - living - non-living).
Thus the two key events for an individual are birth and death. However, since
no one has pre-birth memories, the anticipation of death becomes the main
notion of life/existence. First, there is an instinctive fear of death as such.
Then, among conscious beings there is a sadness of realization that, not only
individual but all life will eventually come to an end. That will be eternity,
the end of everything.
When for example, a certain ribonucleic acid (RNA)
polymerase “decides” it needs to make an messenger RNA (mRNA), how does it
“know” where to go on its way to the deoxyri- bonucleic acid(DNA), how to find
the exact sequence it needs to copy when it gets there? Does it send a signal
to the DNA to open that exact section, or does the DNA already “know” where to
open? Then RNA polymerase approaches the right strand, parks on the section
that becomes available, and begins making a copy. Just this detail, how copying
info from DNA to mRNA takes place, is a mystery in itself. As if one living
being (DNA) is handing over a codon, base by base, to another living being (mRNA)
who decides when the transfer was completed and, with this “truckload of
goods”, leaves the DNA and takes a journey to the ribosome. But how does the
mRNA know where the ribosome is and what is the best way to get there?. When it
gets to the ribosome, it knows how to approach it from the correct side, then
it enters the ribosome and enables it to copy the sequence it took from the
DNA, and turn it into a protein necessary for a cell to function and stay
alive. And all this is just a tiny detail in the complex processes taking place
within a single cell every second, minute, hour, day...If a cell is a living
entity, what about its parts: mRNA, ribosome, DNA - are those components of a
cell also alive? If not, how can we explain their deliberate behavior, their
knowledge, even their initiative? How do they know what to do, how to do it and
when and where to go to do it and, finally, how do they decide to do it? In a
way I see myself as some kind of mRNA playing a tiny role within a much larger
and complex conscious living being, without really knowing if the “role” is
more than development and expansion of life. However, unlike the mRNA or
ribosomes, humans would be conscious beings themselves within another conscious
being (if we are not already), but what kind of consequences this will have is
yet to be seen.
When and how, under what conditions, does
non-living matter become alive? Below what order of magnitude is living matter
not possible? What about the “proton motive force” that is maintaining life in
all living cells? Are protons (and electrons) taking part in these processes
non-living or living? These questions of countless relationships between living
and non-living matter will be probably redefined with a new layer on the macro
level, with the emergence of the Bio General Intelligence as a single largest
conscious living entity and non-living Artificial General Intelligence if and
when it ever appears as an independent entity. Whatever the future brings, it
seems that in the case of the emergence of Bio General Intelligence and/or
Artificial General Intelligence the key role(s) will be played by humans.
Source
Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the author —
Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Gregor Mobius,
gregor.mobius@gmail.com
Citation: Mobius, G. (2021). Notes on Artificial
and Bio General Intelligence. Academia Letters, Article 2955.
