Humans will need to enhance their bodies and minds to match future superintelligence, the author behind archerships suggests
Humans will need to enhance their bodies and minds to match future superintelligence, the author behind archerships suggests
In a September 12 post, the author behind archerships proposes a strategy for coexistence with AI that surpasses humans at intellectual tasks. It rests on two ideas: humans and AI could inhabit different environments, and technology could give humans comparable intelligence and the ability to modify their bodies.
The author opens with an analogy: humans displaced animals, so superintelligence will displace humans. He challenges this reasoning: as human capabilities grew, animal protection expanded, and in his scenario, future AI could operate in environments where biological humans struggle to survive.
“If chimpanzees tried to make humans act in chimpanzees’ interests, the attempt would be futile from the outset.”
The author uses this analogy to explain his doubts about political control over superintelligence. He imagines a world government attempting to align superintelligence with human interests and argues that such an authority could turn against humans. He therefore proposes narrowing the capability gap itself.
The second element of his scenario is a separation of environments. He suggests that AI could operate on the ocean floor, in space, in deserts and in the Arctic, where heat is easier to dissipate. Today’s AI needs data centres, power plants and chip factories. He reasons that this dependence creates an incentive for AI to expand into other environments while coexisting with humans.
In a March essay on the future of transhumanism, human enhancement provided the backdrop for hopes of superhuman AI. The author presents enhancement as a way to narrow the gap between humans and future AI.
He connects this approach to neural interfaces that link the brain to a device, memory implants, scanning nerve cells with atomic precision, and prosthetics. In his scenario, further development of these technologies could blur the boundary between humans and AI, giving humans comparable intelligence and the freedom to modify their bodies.