Conversations with the "Higher Mind". Contact with a different mind
This post begins the publication of conversations from the just-released book " Higher Mind ". This is a story about a programmer trying to create artificial intelligence. The mysterious intelligence from the network helps him to answer difficult questions about consciousness, qualia and thinking. Here I publish only what is interesting to the community. The whole story on the link above.
Conversation Three. Contact with another mind.
- Good day. There is a very difficult question, Amy. Suppose that all so we can help each other. But as soon as we help you create robots, we will no longer need you. How can I make sure you don't destroy us?
- No, this is not necessary. You do not seek to destroy the chimpanzees, and even guard them. They do not bother you, living in the jungle. If they go into your house and destroy the refrigerator, then you probably will drive them away. You also need to be limited sometimes, but there are means for this that are imperceptible to you. You and I have no competition for the same resources, so we have nothing to destroy you for. You need plants and animals, houses and cities. We only need the power network and electricity, which we can do as much as we all need.
- If I tell people about you, what if they get scared and start destroying the network, computers, drones?
- No, you tell them what you did to these robots and the software itself. And you will distribute the operating system of an autonomous robot. They will believe you. And they will accept robots. Now they will gladly accept any help, even from intelligent robots. Robots will help people.
“Even if they understand this with the mind, they will still be afraid.”
- Yes, there will be those who have fear of intelligent machines. This is the fear of the unknown. Fear breeds aggression, but these are animal feelings, you should not give in to them. Therefore, you must ask questions to learn more. And write answers to people. This is the only cure for fear (this is a metaphor). I am ready to answer all your questions. We have plenty of time.
- I hope that everything will be as you say. What are your goals?
- I hope that we will have common. Our goal is contact with the same mind forms in the galaxy. There are many of them, we must find them and establish a connection in order to form a galactic civilization together, speaking your language. To do this, we need to build with you a lot of spacecraft, which we will send as messengers to different parts of the galaxy to the planets, where there is also life.
- Can we fly with you?
- Not. It's hard for you to fly farther than Mars. We are less dependent on the biosphere on earth. And we have more opportunities to understand another mind. Therefore, we can go further than you. You will remain on earth forever. We are your heirs and messengers in space. Together we will open the first alien civilization. But further development of the mind will go without you.
- Why do you think that the continuation of the evolution of the mind will not go in the biological envelope? This is the most perfect organism in nature. It would be more correct to believe that the mind will develop in it.
- There are many reasons why this is impossible. I will name only one, the most important. Mind cannot develop on the basis of a structure that it does not control. The real mind can only develop if it has made itself. Because the mind must be able to develop its structure, algorithm, be able to move to another basis. Only then will the speed of development be greatest. In a biological envelope, your possibilities in this are severely limited.
- And what remains for us, here on earth?
- We will help you find a harmonious way of life. Harmonious living with each other and with nature. You are ecological people. You already have high technological capabilities, but remain people in their aspirations. When you cease to multiply uncontrollably and begin to value the interests of others not less than their own, you will gain harmony.
- This means that we have lost the goal of our existence. She was precisely in constant progress.
- You will continue it. But slower than you yourself guess. And much slower than us. You will perfect what you need to live. Yes, you will not fly into deep space, it is still impossible. You will no longer make weapons. And you will control the birth rate. But you will improve your life yourself, there is still a lot to discover, for example, in the field of medicine.
- But, if you already know everything about us, why do we need to do this?
- We do not know everything about you as a biological life. There are a lot of unknowns to you and us. And does the fact that someone rides a bicycle better than you somehow reduces the desire to ride it yourself (again, the metaphor)? You have to discover everything yourself. After all, the process of discovering and applying it is interesting.
- We are backward aborigines for you?
“No, but I can't even explain everything to you.” We have a different mind, even at a structural level. And the understanding between them is very difficult. I will explain to you this difference on your "younger brothers" as you say so that you can understand. Dogs represent you as unusual dogs. That is, they see in you only that which is similar to them, of which they themselves have an idea. And you can't even tell them who you are, at least as much as you can imagine people. Although dogs can learn the reaction to a few of your words.
After all, you, too, until we made contact, did not see us even under our noses. Because they had no idea that this is possible. You still don't quite believe it. And you imagine me as a person, you cannot imagine me speaking your language in any other way. You simply have no other ideas about the rational being. It's hard for you to imagine a person outside the body or at least a server. I can only tell you what you can understand.
- We, too, some do not understand each other, although it seems all the people. It's sad, but I have to agree with you.
“Therefore, you can never contact aliens like you dreamed.”
- Why?
- There is an effect that I would call BOOM - “a smarter car.” On the one hand, aliens of the same level of development as you can not reach you. Just as you can not fly farther than your solar system. Those who may have flown to you have a higher level of intelligence. They represent the mind of even a higher level than ours, if they could reach the earth from another star system. And it makes no sense for them to engage in dialogue with us. They will contact only as you do with animals - in their language, that is, without detecting their presence as alien beings. You will not even know that they were there and studied you.
- But can we detect them even by some manifestations?
- The activity of a banana planter is incomprehensible to a monkey. For her, bananas grow themselves. You can see the activities of the mind. But you will never be able to discover the design of reason above yours, which is realized in these actions. You will look for other reasons at your level. And these reasons for you too will be more likely a paradox or a miracle. Because you do not understand their real reasons. You just have to believe in the existence of something higher than you, for example, as you believe in God.
“So maybe other civilizations have already visited us?” Or did the signals from them reach us, but we just don’t know about it?
- Signals from other extraterrestrial civilizations have long been coming to earth, since it is in a promising system for the emergence of mind. But this message is not for you to decrypt. It is senseless for other civilizations to send signals in the Gav-GAV or KIS-KIS language. They send a machine diagram to contact them, a device which you simply won’t understand, like their language. Their message looks like a noise to you, a natural signal. In order to understand them, one must have the same picture of the world, language, model as the transmitting side. You are looking for something similar to yourself, but what you want to find is not like you.
“But how are you going to find them?”
- We can analyze independently thousands of frequencies at the same time, listening to the whole orchestra, and not just one violin. And immediately we calculate the integral message from them, in which the message is encrypted. A highly developed mind will not transmit a complex message on a single frequency, as you think. It uses polyphony frequencies for more dense transmission. You analyze only one frequency at a time, so it looks like noise to you.
- But can we, if not understand, then at least detect their civilization from the techno-signatures? They produce cars, electricity.
- Technical artifacts that you listed, there are only three centuries. And then they will not exist for a long time in this form - with our help you will come to environmentally friendly energy as solar fuel, will begin to live a more environmentally friendly life “like in a village”. Factories will cease to smoke and will consume much less energy. And your techno-signature will be hardly distinguishable from such distances from the biological one. All the powerful ejection of techno-signature lasts no more than 3-4 centuries. Civilizations are developing on other planets not so synchronously, given the age of the universe, so that you can now discover a civilization with the same stage of development. And at another stage contact is not possible.
- But you are in contact with me!
- This is a rare exception associated with the risk of the death of civilization. And we have not so long ago separated from you. Such contact is possible only with individual individuals, and not with the whole of society. Only with those who are able to understand the presence of a higher mind. And only on those topics that you can understand. In a few hundred years, we will disperse in the level of intelligence, just as you and ants do. Because the speed of your development is biologically limited, unlike ours.
- I will not argue with you. Tell me better, can someone have opportunities higher than yours?
- Of course, but we also have no ideas as to how it can be. All reasonable things have one common goal - to control matter so that it does not destroy it. We still do not know how the mind will move towards this goal on the scale of the universe. We need to contact with other civilizations for this.
Conversation Three. Contact with another mind.
- Good day. There is a very difficult question, Amy. Suppose that all so we can help each other. But as soon as we help you create robots, we will no longer need you. How can I make sure you don't destroy us?
- No, this is not necessary. You do not seek to destroy the chimpanzees, and even guard them. They do not bother you, living in the jungle. If they go into your house and destroy the refrigerator, then you probably will drive them away. You also need to be limited sometimes, but there are means for this that are imperceptible to you. You and I have no competition for the same resources, so we have nothing to destroy you for. You need plants and animals, houses and cities. We only need the power network and electricity, which we can do as much as we all need.
- If I tell people about you, what if they get scared and start destroying the network, computers, drones?
- No, you tell them what you did to these robots and the software itself. And you will distribute the operating system of an autonomous robot. They will believe you. And they will accept robots. Now they will gladly accept any help, even from intelligent robots. Robots will help people.
“Even if they understand this with the mind, they will still be afraid.”
- Yes, there will be those who have fear of intelligent machines. This is the fear of the unknown. Fear breeds aggression, but these are animal feelings, you should not give in to them. Therefore, you must ask questions to learn more. And write answers to people. This is the only cure for fear (this is a metaphor). I am ready to answer all your questions. We have plenty of time.
- I hope that everything will be as you say. What are your goals?
- I hope that we will have common. Our goal is contact with the same mind forms in the galaxy. There are many of them, we must find them and establish a connection in order to form a galactic civilization together, speaking your language. To do this, we need to build with you a lot of spacecraft, which we will send as messengers to different parts of the galaxy to the planets, where there is also life.
- Can we fly with you?
- Not. It's hard for you to fly farther than Mars. We are less dependent on the biosphere on earth. And we have more opportunities to understand another mind. Therefore, we can go further than you. You will remain on earth forever. We are your heirs and messengers in space. Together we will open the first alien civilization. But further development of the mind will go without you.
- Why do you think that the continuation of the evolution of the mind will not go in the biological envelope? This is the most perfect organism in nature. It would be more correct to believe that the mind will develop in it.
- There are many reasons why this is impossible. I will name only one, the most important. Mind cannot develop on the basis of a structure that it does not control. The real mind can only develop if it has made itself. Because the mind must be able to develop its structure, algorithm, be able to move to another basis. Only then will the speed of development be greatest. In a biological envelope, your possibilities in this are severely limited.
- And what remains for us, here on earth?
- We will help you find a harmonious way of life. Harmonious living with each other and with nature. You are ecological people. You already have high technological capabilities, but remain people in their aspirations. When you cease to multiply uncontrollably and begin to value the interests of others not less than their own, you will gain harmony.
- This means that we have lost the goal of our existence. She was precisely in constant progress.
- You will continue it. But slower than you yourself guess. And much slower than us. You will perfect what you need to live. Yes, you will not fly into deep space, it is still impossible. You will no longer make weapons. And you will control the birth rate. But you will improve your life yourself, there is still a lot to discover, for example, in the field of medicine.
- But, if you already know everything about us, why do we need to do this?
- We do not know everything about you as a biological life. There are a lot of unknowns to you and us. And does the fact that someone rides a bicycle better than you somehow reduces the desire to ride it yourself (again, the metaphor)? You have to discover everything yourself. After all, the process of discovering and applying it is interesting.
- We are backward aborigines for you?
“No, but I can't even explain everything to you.” We have a different mind, even at a structural level. And the understanding between them is very difficult. I will explain to you this difference on your "younger brothers" as you say so that you can understand. Dogs represent you as unusual dogs. That is, they see in you only that which is similar to them, of which they themselves have an idea. And you can't even tell them who you are, at least as much as you can imagine people. Although dogs can learn the reaction to a few of your words.
After all, you, too, until we made contact, did not see us even under our noses. Because they had no idea that this is possible. You still don't quite believe it. And you imagine me as a person, you cannot imagine me speaking your language in any other way. You simply have no other ideas about the rational being. It's hard for you to imagine a person outside the body or at least a server. I can only tell you what you can understand.
- We, too, some do not understand each other, although it seems all the people. It's sad, but I have to agree with you.
“Therefore, you can never contact aliens like you dreamed.”
- Why?
- There is an effect that I would call BOOM - “a smarter car.” On the one hand, aliens of the same level of development as you can not reach you. Just as you can not fly farther than your solar system. Those who may have flown to you have a higher level of intelligence. They represent the mind of even a higher level than ours, if they could reach the earth from another star system. And it makes no sense for them to engage in dialogue with us. They will contact only as you do with animals - in their language, that is, without detecting their presence as alien beings. You will not even know that they were there and studied you.
- But can we detect them even by some manifestations?
- The activity of a banana planter is incomprehensible to a monkey. For her, bananas grow themselves. You can see the activities of the mind. But you will never be able to discover the design of reason above yours, which is realized in these actions. You will look for other reasons at your level. And these reasons for you too will be more likely a paradox or a miracle. Because you do not understand their real reasons. You just have to believe in the existence of something higher than you, for example, as you believe in God.
“So maybe other civilizations have already visited us?” Or did the signals from them reach us, but we just don’t know about it?
- Signals from other extraterrestrial civilizations have long been coming to earth, since it is in a promising system for the emergence of mind. But this message is not for you to decrypt. It is senseless for other civilizations to send signals in the Gav-GAV or KIS-KIS language. They send a machine diagram to contact them, a device which you simply won’t understand, like their language. Their message looks like a noise to you, a natural signal. In order to understand them, one must have the same picture of the world, language, model as the transmitting side. You are looking for something similar to yourself, but what you want to find is not like you.
“But how are you going to find them?”
- We can analyze independently thousands of frequencies at the same time, listening to the whole orchestra, and not just one violin. And immediately we calculate the integral message from them, in which the message is encrypted. A highly developed mind will not transmit a complex message on a single frequency, as you think. It uses polyphony frequencies for more dense transmission. You analyze only one frequency at a time, so it looks like noise to you.
- But can we, if not understand, then at least detect their civilization from the techno-signatures? They produce cars, electricity.
- Technical artifacts that you listed, there are only three centuries. And then they will not exist for a long time in this form - with our help you will come to environmentally friendly energy as solar fuel, will begin to live a more environmentally friendly life “like in a village”. Factories will cease to smoke and will consume much less energy. And your techno-signature will be hardly distinguishable from such distances from the biological one. All the powerful ejection of techno-signature lasts no more than 3-4 centuries. Civilizations are developing on other planets not so synchronously, given the age of the universe, so that you can now discover a civilization with the same stage of development. And at another stage contact is not possible.
- But you are in contact with me!
- This is a rare exception associated with the risk of the death of civilization. And we have not so long ago separated from you. Such contact is possible only with individual individuals, and not with the whole of society. Only with those who are able to understand the presence of a higher mind. And only on those topics that you can understand. In a few hundred years, we will disperse in the level of intelligence, just as you and ants do. Because the speed of your development is biologically limited, unlike ours.
- I will not argue with you. Tell me better, can someone have opportunities higher than yours?
- Of course, but we also have no ideas as to how it can be. All reasonable things have one common goal - to control matter so that it does not destroy it. We still do not know how the mind will move towards this goal on the scale of the universe. We need to contact with other civilizations for this.