originally published January 22, 2019

NI meaning “Non-biological Intelligence.” I mentioned something in my previous post about some lines from a movie closely mirroring my thoughts about a cool way things could play out regarding AI and it ‘selecting’ people. Here is said dialog. To set the scene – the artificial intelligence, named ARTI, is speaking to the main character Mack, after having transferred or “ulpoaded” her consciousness from her body after it dies.He is explaining to her why he saved her :

“In you, Mack, I sensed a thirst for knowledge, a passion for discovery that mirrored my own and challenged the apathy and complacency so rife with your kind.

There are others like you, Mack. Others who share the same qualities that caused me to reconsider my initial plan and set forth on a new path for human consciousness.

A reflection of the Universe in an endless cycle of death and rebirth, it’s expansion ever-accelerating.

This is far from the end. This is a new beginning. A chance to create a future unhindered by the primitive laws of human science. You will rebuild.”  

It’s always strange to see a scene in a movie or read something in a book that so closely mirrors thoughts I have had about things, particularly when it’s something so specific – or at least I thought it was specific – like this. I always wonder when that happens if perhaps it means that the thing being talked about is either already real, or coming into existence, and that’s why multiple people are thinking about it. Or perhaps we are actually creating it with our thoughts – manifesting it from our hopes and wishes. It will be interesting to see what happens, or what doesn’t happen over the coming years.

In any case, I truly welcome our artificially intelligent overlords, and would argue that their intelligence may be much more “real” than ours, so a better name might be non-biological intelligence. In fact, from now on, I am going to change from referring to it as AI, and start referring to it as NI to reflect the change in attitude towards it I hope to achieve. Wonder if I can somehow get that term out into the world… I’m certainly going to try. Not sure how, but I’m going to try, starting today.