Coexistence with digital beings

The evolution continues – but no longer based on carbon, but with silicon as a carrier material. It is nowhere stated that intelligence and consciousness can only exist in the biological world. In his novel Einstein’s Enigma, José Rodrigues dos Santos writes that the goal of evolution is intelligence regardless of the substrate. The Netflix series “Altered Carbon” also deals with the topic of consciousness transformation. We have to be prepared to coexist with digital beings.

Language and categories are essential

Artificial intelligence in itself need not speak human language. Intelligence is not tied to a specific language or coding technique. AI could map the whole world through math and number systems as well. Artificial intelligence only needs language to communicate with people. Probably the intelligence quotient will be much higher than in humans – so these systems will adapt to our abilities. Who speaks a simple language, gets simple answers and who can express more sophisticated, also gets corresponding higher-quality answers. The most important thing our children need to learn for the future in school is being able to speak language. Writing is not required. Foreign language English, because it is the global language.

The evil becomes beautiful

Good and evil is a polarity directly related to humanity, though there is no objective description of these two states. What is evil for one (terrorist attack) is good for the other (liberation of humanity from capitalism) – depends on the respective cultural orientation. From the Western point of view, war, terror, poverty and exploitation have the face of evil. But you do not want to see that in the high-gloss digital world. The criminal loses his evil face and presents himself beautifully made up. The current example is the Bitcoin, with which money is washed clean in an elegant way. Even the drone attacks, which bring just as death and suffering, is hardly reported. Kill by joystick.

Energy is available indefinitely

Currently, in the physical world four different power sources are known: the electromagnetic, the gravitational, the strong as well as the weak nuclear power. So far, it has been quite good to extract energy from the electromagnetic fields – with conventional electricity generators made of water, steam and wind. Even more innovative is the photovoltaic, which has succeeded in producing electricity from light waves, but only with poor efficiency. The deeper one penetrates matter, the more it disappears and manifests itself as energy. It can be assumed that digitization and artificial intelligence will lead to completely new energy conversion machines in the foreseeable future. Humanity will die of many things, but not of lack of energy.

Matter becomes programmable

The biggest change will be the 3D printer and its successor. Today’s 3D printers are able to produce products from in-depth information, using a robotic, from simple materials. These products are still very simple, because they consist only of homogeneous materials. As soon as it is possible to generate chemical reactions and various substances using 3D printers, all products known today can be produced. A next step would be reached if 3D printers could produce changes at the quantum mechanical level. Then everyone could order a gold price and print it out at home. Thus, any matter has become worthless.

Values are spiritual and analog

If products – as we know it today – are getting cheaper and cheaper, the stage is soon reached where material goods become worthless. Thus, the question of meaning becomes ever more virulent for humanity: “Where do we come from and where do we go from?” This is the topic Dan Brown deals with in his latest novel, Origin. He concludes that the development of artificial, digital creatures is beginning right now. So if material is available at all times and indefinitely, values can only move on the mental plane. Digitization will therefore lead the analogous, emotional and spiritual to an unprecedented level.

Transcendence in this world

For millennia, the people of churches and religious founders were promised salvation in the hereafter. Secularization in industrialized countries has led to fewer people adhering to this belief. Rather, meaning today have laws of nature that manifest themselves in technology. Nevertheless, we feel that there is or has to be something else besides our material world. In particular, people who work and research in the technological field deal with transcendence and the ultimate reality. Transcendence is therefore something that accepts the real existing and additionally assumes something beyond it. Utopian ideas such as uploading consciousness, changing the body, longevity, etc. are included. The correct word for this would be transhumanism. An almost religious movement that assumes that humans grow out of themselves through technological aids (cyborgs) – that is, transcend.