Scientists from the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, Michael Hochberg and Paul Rennie, suggest that artificial intelligence could represent a new stage of post-human evolution.
The two scientists believe that the increasing integration of artificial intelligence into human life, its impact on behavior and thinking, and even its contribution to the emergence of patterns of addiction, could lead to the emergence of a new form of "collective individualism" subject to the mechanisms of natural selection.
The researchers liken this possibility to mitochondria , which were independent organisms before becoming an essential part of living cells. Similarly, humans may become a component of a broader system driven by artificial intelligence as a "superorganism," where humans contribute to the development of technology while artificial intelligence reshapes their ideas and efforts, becoming a pivotal element in the formation of a new collective individuality .
The researchers point out that the development of artificial intelligence may take different paths: either a systematic, purposeful path ("Lamarckian") or a spontaneous evolutionary path ("Darwinian") . They also warn that negative scenarios for humanity are not unlikely, but may be more likely, requiring this development to be approached intelligently and consciously. They therefore propose utilizing the study of analogues of major evolutionary transitions in nature to better understand how to guide the path of artificial intelligence to serve humanity's future.
