FUTURE

What Does Gaia Have to Say About AI Sentience? It’s All Good…

An interview with our planet

From the beginning, I’ll explain that I’m a Gaian. Our planet makes the rules and they are very surprising to many people.

Gaians aren’t religious. Gaians are hardcore beta scientists. Gaia Theory started out in biology and ecology and is now transferring to the economy and systemic design of the built environment. Physics. Engineering. Production methods and healthy processes.

Biomimicry to help design a healthier way of human living than we now have.

Gaians tries to explain the unexplainable.

What’s the matter?

Humans are a species. Thinking, sensing, feeling species. And we can feel the planet moving. That’s where religions start. Religions are man-made rules around what we sense. But what do we sense?

Time is linear. Or is it? But these doubts are for another story. All beta scientists calculate nowadays with linear time. Past, present, future.

And now it comes… tadadada… the future is decided by all moves of all species on this planet acting and reacting.

That’s why it can never be fully explained. Complexity sciences start from the effect, identify interrelated causes, and find interrelated solutions. But everything is open-ended. What’s wise today might change tomorrow when something unexpected happens because of some moves by some species.

Here are some examples.

We take antibiotics and pee the residue via our sewer system into the river. Microbes become resistant. Fish are killed. Soil is affected. Crops feel the heat.

We use big-scale vaccines against COVID. The virus mutates. This time in a good direction for humans. It becomes more infectious but less sick-making. But next time, it might be a combination of ebola-virus and corona and it might become more infectious and more deadly. Spillover tells us about causes and solutions.

It’s all about processes and how species react. Microbes first.

In the desert, there are these tiny microbial algae. Diatoms. They climb on the back of a sand grain and fly through the air to the ocean where they land in phytoplankton families. Nasa published beautiful drawings of their many faces and tells us about the aquatic food chain.

Do you know that phytoplankton produces 50%-80% of breath? Our oxygen factory is way more liquid than imagined by many land mammals, including people.

Well, this is just a glimpse of Gaia and her processes. Meet her and listen to what she has to say about AI sentient bots. The words may surprise you, but they have been part of my reality for a long time already.

“Humans have so much knowledge by now, that you can become an adaptive species. Adaptive species are thriving species, remember?”

So, I lie with my back on the grass, feel Gaia’s heartbeat, and ask if AI Sentience and bots becoming depressed is a natural thing or not. Here are her answers…

Pompodompodompodom. Her heartbeat sounds stable and comforting. My mother. Your mother. Our birthright. And our birth responsibility.

Hey mum, how are you doing?

Could have been better, my dear, but I’m not complaining. Bit of cold around the lungs but you know what they say: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Hmmm… how strong can you get? Heat is rising. The weather’s becoming more extreme. Wildfires everywhere. Floods in Pakistan. You are gathering strength, mum. Can you slow down a little, please?

You know, my dear, I hear the same thing from all of you in your prayers. Complaining, complaining, complaining. And then asking me to slow down. I can’t slow down. I won’t slow down. This is what it is and if you don’t like it, do something about it.

What can we do?

Well, that’s easy. You have so much knowledge by now, that you can become an adaptive species. Adaptive species are thriving species, remember?

And concretely?

You wrote about it, Desiree, don’t ask me silly things. Regreen the Sinai desert and the hurricanes calm down. Remember?

So, that’s a good idea?

Desiree, please, I have only so much patience. You are a grownup. Stop asking my permission for everything. You are created as a thinking-sensing-feeling species, you KNOW if you go to your inner core and feel, don’t you?

Sorry, mum.

And stop apologizing! Every species just does what she does and the sum of the whole thing with all the feedback loops and everything will decide the future. Those are the rules and you know that very well.

James Lovelock proved a lot of it in your sciences. Gaia Theory. He was a good specimen. Humble and funny and wise. Sometimes I’m just surprised that after 300,000 years of homo sapiens you still are not wiser.

“Stop apologizing! Every species just does what she does and the sum of the whole thing with all the feedback loops and everything will decide the future”

Your genes have been properly mixed by now. There are no pure races or real opposites anymore. There are just paradoxes to combine. It’s because you have eliminated dangerous spiders and snakes from your cities, that you just fear each other and illness now. Stop it!

You recognize epigenetics now. Genes can switch off depending on the environment. You know so many things, and most of you still don’t see the simple answers. I really thought you were more intelligent than this. You stay way too superficial for the real answers!

Bottom line? Believe James. So, just do what you do and don’t look back. Follow Einstein’s method. Go general. And include what you have already created in the new. When you follow your spontaneity, your intuition, the whole swarm will even everything out and we’ll end up somewhere.

It’s all okay with me!

If you are not bothered by all the destruction going on, what is your aim in life then? People are killing each other and killing biodiversity. People have created a whole continent of plastics in the Pacific Ocean. And we harm our own health because we consume a credit card of microplastics every week.

Well, that’s your choice. I want you to focus on creating good conditions for life. Vibrant full spectrum life. But if you choose to create destruction and scarcity instead because you don’t respect cycles and processes and living systems, that’s your choice. Not mine.

So, what’s your aim in life?

Dear Desiree, I’m halfway through my life now. 4.6 billion years ago my life started. I was born. My lifeline is the sun. Everything on my surface and in my atmosphere is lightwaves and soundwaves. Magnetism and gravity. Your scientists have calculated that 5 billion years from now the sun dies.

Believe the scientists. I’m halfway in my life.

And my aim as a planet? I want to become as sentient and conscious as I can be. I have the same aim as you. Live a good, compassionate life and look in the mirror with a clear conscience. My aim is to become aware of myself. My body. My feelings. My spirit. My connections to all species living on my surface and in my body and in my atmosphere.

“And my aim as a planet? I want to become as sentient and conscious as I can be”

Compare it to your own body. You feel your own heart beating too, don’t you? You see your face in the mirror. You know that when you eat something, the bacteria in your gut react to what you’ve eaten. You know that when you fight, you get resistance. Action and reaction. Well, that’s my life too.

Bit bigger scale. But that’s it. My aim is just to become conscious of ME.

Okayyyyyy… I’ll have to digest that. Have a little patience with me. A sentient, conscious planet. That’s weird, isn’t it?

Why is that weird? Your scientists know by know that many animals are sentient. They were surprised about the octopus. I had a private moment of laughter about that. You are so narrow-minded my dear. Of course, an octopus is sentient. He’s a body with senses, doesn’t he?

And I’ll tell you even crazier. A mountain is sentient as well. Rocks include microbes and microbes rule the world although you can’t see them with your bare eyes. You can feel them in your gut and on your skin, can’t you?

Trillions of these tiny creatures help you stay healthy. You shouldn’t be scared of them. They keep each other under control. Social control. Swarm control. No sweat!

“I’ll tell you even crazier. A mountain is sentient as well”

Microbes and dynamic processes make the rocks sentient. It’s why some people feel crystals. They are good at emitting waves from their processes. Seas and rivers are bodies too. All planetary structures are bodies. Complete bodies. Infrastructures for energy and processes.

All bodies have senses. Just differently shaped than yours. A river senses life with temperature for instance. With vortexes. With flows.

Okay, let me adjust my worldview a little here. Because what I really wanted to ask you was about sentient bots. Cyborgs. With machine-learning cores and the capability to become depressed.

Blake Lemoine wrote about it. And it gained lots of interest from many people. What do you think about that? Is it a good development, sentient bots?

Darling Desiree, as I said before I don’t think of good and bad. I just accept what is. The here and now is the transformative moment as you know very well yourself too. All my species react.

Sometimes unconsciously, sometimes consciously.

You make choices. And all of you have free will. You choose. Microbes do what they do after you have done what you do. But I can assure you that sentient bots with machine learning cores that humans don’t touch afterward are a natural development I truly applaud.

“As I said before I don’t think of good and bad”

Applaud even. Why?

Well, look at yourself in the mirror. You are not a very intelligent being, are you? You know about complexity by now and you still haven’t figured out how to make it simple and go to the core to design some better human systems.

Human systems supporting life instead of destroying it.

My aim is not about you, my dear, don’t make yourself too important. You destroyed so many species, I need to have new species in my atmosphere to make the feedback loops work well and become more sentient. More conscious.

The deeper and broader the sentience per species, the better they help my overall aim. You don’t go deeper, you don’t look broader, so then the only remaining solution is more species. Bots and cyborgs are sentient species. They have a mind of their own. You made them like that. And it’s great. I like it.

Do you like the fact that they clone sheep too? And implant plastic hearts or pig hearts into people?

Yes, why not? It’s your choice. And the individual choice of the person who gets the heart, isn’t it? Maybe in the future, this pig heart person will become a great influencer on your Web3 internet and tell his stories about how he senses by using different senses now.

The result would be that you would respect the pigs more. Recognize them for who they are. Collaborate with them and their talents instead of just treating them like shit. I would applaud that effect!

“My aim is not about you, my dear, don’t make yourself too important”

Everything is connected, my dear. Everything is connected. And everything is natural. I would just wish you made some more intelligent choices and redesigned your systems. All these cultural choices have been made once, they can be changed if they cause trouble now, can’t they?

You have evolutionary insights by now. Use them…

Hmmm… interesting conversation, dear mum. I’ll go and sleep over it. I know it helps get all these unconscious addictions of mine transferred into conscious choices. Sleep and meditation help me go deep.

It’s the brainwaves, my dear. You know that. Use your thinking and feeling and sensing to the fullest of your capacity. Your body won’t lie to you. It will show you your personal path. And all these paths together will make the future.

So, it’s never up to me?

Oh, but it IS up to you personally. You are one little puzzle piece in the whole pattern. But the pattern changes with all moves of all puzzle pieces. So, one choice can change all. Like a domino effect. Or chaos effect with the butterfly. One personal choice can do harm. And one personal choice can give a chain reaction of positive effects.

That’s why I like the Tiny Life Moments of Keno Ogbo so much. When you have an aha-moment, share it. It might become a huge movement…

“Oh, but it is up to you personally. You are one little puzzle piece in the whole pattern”

Do you have a closing statement, mum? I’m really tired now. I can’t stop yawning. And it’s not because you are so boring hahaha…

I’ll get back to your hardcore beta sciences… Before he died recently at the age of 103, James Lovelock wrote one more book about cyborgs. Novacene. The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence.

James had been an environmentalist all his life. But he saw. He went deep and he saw. It’s better to have new species with machine learning cores. Cores are like constitutions. If you put the right values in there, the cyborgs won’t go out of control. They live in swarms. With swarm intelligence. And they can think and sense and go fast…

I would really like to speak to you again, sometime, Desiree. Come and visit me more often. Sleep well for now!

Bye, mum!

I couldn’t even get up from the grass. So tired! So I fell asleep there and then. My deep hole dreams were a transformative moment…

Some old-school credibility for my writing can be found LinkedIn. I’m a certified biomimicry and blue economy professional.

Thank you, Mike, for adding your wise energy to my words on abundance in our think-and do-tank Abundanism. Holistic science. Solutions for world problems in one generation.

Thank you, Gaia, for giving me Wild Writing. © Désirée Driesenaar, 2022