🧠 How to Make Humanity Futureproof

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Welcome back AI prodigies!

In today’s Sunday Special:

• 👨‍🚀First Glance

• 🌼Dandelions

• 🛰In Practice

• 🔑Key Takeaway

Read Time: 6 minutes

🎓Key Terms

• Chemical Propulsion: a system that generates in-space thrust by burning fuel to propel an object.

• Machine Learning (ML): an AI algorithm that leverages data to recognize patterns and make predictions.

• Federal Deficit: the difference between the U.S. government’s revenue and expenses.

🩺 PULSE CHECK

👨‍🚀FIRST GLANCE

Traditionally, all space missions were administered by humans, with astronauts making critical decisions on the fly. However, this approach is unsustainable as we explore deep space ventures exceeding human lifespans. The immense data streams and crippling communication delays at great distances will force space missions to be autonomous missions managed by AI systems. This transition unlocks a lucrative business opportunity for creating portable AI systems hardened to withstand the harsh conditions of extended space travel, including bombardment by cosmic rays and dust particles.

The first use of AI systems in space will be near Earth for military or national security purposes. However, AI systems will be inevitable as humanity ventures to destinations beyond the solar system. Chemical propulsion’s limitations are stark. At speeds 10,000 times slower than light, reaching the nearest stars would require a staggering 50,000 to 200,000 years, rivaling the time it took Homo sapiens to leave Africa and populate the globe.

Unlike humans, an AI system could remain dormant throughout this journey without getting bored. Once reaching the destination, it would activate irrespective of whether its parent human species survived political and environmental catastrophes on Earth by that future time.

Interstellar AI travelers could be trained to leverage Machine Learning (ML) to deal with unexpected conditions in the environments they visit. Just like kids who leave their parent’s home, they can save energy by operating autonomously most of the time and transmitting short messages back to Earth under rare circumstances. Given the duration of the journey and the uncertain conditions on Earth, the messaging would be brief or nonexistent. In that case, what benefits humanity from sending interstellar AI travelers?

🌼DANDELIONS

Nature gives us the answer. When the dandelion flower sends its seeds into the wind, it doesn’t expect to receive any signals from them. There’s no need for helicopter parenting. By sending a swarm of seeds that carry its genetic material, the flower increases the likelihood that some seeds might find fertile ground. The purpose is simple: the parent flower has a finite lifespan, and the seeds prolong the survival of its genetic blueprint. This purpose is nature’s way of securing longevity beyond the lifespan of a single flower.

Here’s hoping that humans will gain the wisdom offered by dandelion flowers. If not, everything we value might eventually perish on Earth due to a future catastrophe. Though civilizational risks are numerous, their respective probabilities are infinitesimal. Nevertheless, any threat to the entirety of humanity must be taken seriously. By replacing our short-term obsession with zero-sum conflicts for limited resources on Earth with long-term survival for millions or billions of years, we might choose to send AI-managed spacecraft on long journeys. Like dandelion seeds, these messengers will carry the blueprint of what we wish to preserve as they venture into interstellar space.

🛰IN PRACTICE

Our ambitions could be fueled by the thrill of scientific discovery in exploring the unknown. Since sending a large community of people for tens of thousands of years beyond the solar system seems impractical, we could rely on AI-assisted probes to reveal new territories and transcend our current knowledge. A tightly packed swarm of AI probes could create a community of intelligent interstellar travelers who communicate with each other and acquire knowledge. The experience would be similar to sending our kids into the world and hoping they will know more than we know.

It remains to be seen whether this goal is technologically feasible without helicopter-parenting our probes. One way to study our technological future is to find out what other civilizations in the Milky Way have accomplished by now. Scientific research shows as many as 42,777 intelligent alien civilizations in our galaxy could make contact within the next 2,000 years. Their space trash would be our treasure.

Did intelligent alien civilizations deploy probes that visited the Earth, Moon, or Mars over the past 4.6 billion years? We could search for traces of such visits on the Moon or Mars. Alternatively, we can use the upcoming Rubin Observatory or the existing Galileo Project Observatories to search for current visitors that pass near Earth or related space trash that burns as interstellar meteors in our sky.

Suppose we only get our act together after facing an existential catastrophe. In that case, nothing might survive, given the history of over a hundred billion people living on our planet. Humanity’s hopes and aspirations will be removed from the cosmic memory. Imagine the Earth being engulfed by the Sun in 7.6 billion years. All the content on the internet, all the books, and documentation of human history will burn up and sink to the core of the dying Sun. Nothing will be left for extraterrestrials to appreciate.

Most stars formed 5 to 10 billion years before the Sun, so our planet’s future fate might have been realized for billions of Earth-Sun analogs. Cosmic history may be full of tragedies from lost civilizations. Learning from their history will be to our benefit. The only civilizations lost to engulfed planets that will be remembered on the cosmic stage are those that managed to send probes to interstellar space.

Presently, the U.S. government is engulfed by short-termism. Consistent National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) funding is not guaranteed with four-year presidential cycles, the burgeoning federal deficit, and congressional infighting. Since peaking at 4% of total federal spending during the Space Race, NASA’s share of the federal budget hovers around half a percent. Commercial juggernauts like SpaceX, which NASA greenlighted to deorbit the International Space Station (ISS), may need to lead global efforts, unlike in years past.

We’ll be inspired to do better by finding an interstellar package from another civilization in our mailbox. The senders may be dead by now, but the message will shape our future aspirations, revitalizing our collective fascination with extending humanity’s reach.

🔑KEY TAKEAWAY

AI systems can futureproof humanity in space by providing interstellar travel to expand planetary exploration. To be remembered, we must send AI-powered spacecraft beyond Earth’s orbit, not merely exploratory probes like the Hubble Telescope. The AI-powered spacecraft, acting as interstellar ambassadors, carry the torch of our civilization. These technological dandelion seeds may be our only source of pride in the long-term future, billions of years from now.

📒FINAL NOTE

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