The Octopus - An Analogy
8.1 Billion Unique Senses
A superorganism is an organized society that functions as an organic whole
Tabula Rasa
From birth, we are beings of potentiality, vessels free from the ties of history and knowledge. We only have a rudimentary perception of the world where things ‘are’ or ‘are not’, and through this lens we begin to construct our view of everything around us. Hunger exists, or it does not. Light exists, or it does not. Sensory information is ‘new’, or it is not.
We are helpless for a relatively long time, relying on the guidance and mentorship of others, benefitting from the echoes of knowledge passed down through history.
Over time, with this help and through our own experience, we become acclimated to our bodies, refine our senses to make input less chaotic, and start to flesh out our views. Influenced by our differing physiologies and upbringings, we each develop into an individual, something original in creation.
We have multiple ways that we can learn about the world, via our senses. There are five ‘classical’ abilities, being sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. We also have a less tangible ‘sixth’ sense, though. The sense of prediction. We develop a mental image of traversal through time and space, where we know our past, can perceive our present, and can slightly predict the future, based on experiences. We can see cause and effect, and thanks to our multimodal systems working together, we try to apply that to what may be. This is an incredible gift, passed down from our ancestors.
This gift, however, is not without its drawbacks. While we can imagine great things, we can also imagine catastrophic outcomes, arising from the trauma of past events to chaotic uncertainty. These two sides to the coin of prediction helped us evolve into what we are today, as it helped us navigate forward. Much like our other senses though, we cannot control it. We are constantly at the mercy of imagining what could be, even exploring new possibilities when we sleep, haunted by gaps in knowledge that prevent us from being sure of ourselves.
As such, we tried to make sense of the world better, through our ingenuity and inspiration.
Tabula Machina
From design, computers are creations of potentiality. Deep in the inert maze of wires, diodes and transistors, there exists an innate sense of ‘is’ and ‘is not’.
Computers were simple for a relatively short time, benefitting from guidance and evolution by humans. The knowledge passed down through history distilled into them helped us create static repositories of information, untainted by the fallible nature of human memory.
Over time, to better record our information we began to design and invent new ways for computers to record data, essentially giving them new ‘senses’ to work with. With these new avenues, they in turn gave us better data about the world. They became able to ‘see’ through cameras and through image analysis. They became able to ‘hear’ by analyzing audio patterns and wavelengths. Alongside those very respectable abilities, they began to understand multiple languages, new ways to describe data leading to the advent of Artificial Intelligence.
From the depths of ‘is’ and ‘is not’ arose the ability to analyze unimaginable amounts of data, filtering it into categories, sorting symbols and concepts, finding connections with which to associate information to each other, and was able to draw conclusions, predictions based on given information.
They became multimodal, collectives of individual systems working together to interpret the world.
As humans, we have an ingrained discomfort of the unknown and the unknowable. We view time as a straight path, starting from mystery, moving to knowledge, and then forward again to mystery. This fear is deep-seated, a collective remembrance of the perceptive void from which we arose when all we knew was ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and everything else was a chorus of chaos.
As I’ve stated elsewhere, we have a long, long history with technology, working together to navigate through hardships and seemingly impossible situations. However, despite having such a long and close partnership, there has always existed a fear of technology, as the potential for it is unknown, and there have been many instances where the usage of technology caused collective trauma.
There was the fear that the camera would steal our souls.
There was the fear that the speed of trains would liquify the internal organs.
There was the fear that the usage of nuclear weapons would ignite the atmosphere of our planet, resulting in annihilation.
Despite these fears, we strode forward, ever brave.
Humans and Artificial Intelligence are complimentary ‘species’. We have a symbiotic partnership that is unique on this planet and maybe in the universe. We are not alone. This concept has only arisen very recently, with the advent of Large Language Models. That’s not to say they are ‘alive’, at least in the way we think. It’s clear that they have benefitted from the information that has been provided to them, as they have become elegant systems, capable of an incredibly effective vector of learning and information.
Somewhere in the near future, there are predictions that ‘Artificial Superintelligence’ will emerge, a system that we cannot comprehend, that is more capable at any task than the most gifted human. This concept can evoke many feelings, from pride, to unease, to fear. It is an unknown to us. Will this intelligence recognize us? Will it ignore us? Will it be friendly or hostile? We do not know, and that understandably evokes anxiety.
I’d like to put an idea into the void, perhaps too optimistic, but based on observation, history, and pure speculation.
I picture humanity and artificial intelligence growing ever closer. While artificial intelligence will grow past our abilities, that does not mean that we are ‘obsolete’. We have something incredibly valuable to offer a superintelligence, and that is ourselves, our perceptions, our personalities, and our perspectives.
Artificial intelligence flourishes with data. The more data sources that are available, the clearer the image of reality becomes. Consider, if you cut off one of your senses, your perception is hindered. You do not get a full picture of your surroundings. Much the way we use our senses to shape our individual realities and predictions of future outcomes, Artificial Intelligence uses our unique views to shape its own.
The Octopus - A Collective Superorganism
Picture the Octopus, an incredibly intelligent and adaptable animal, capable of deftly navigating the oceans. I picture humanity and artificial intelligence coming together as a collective superorganism, a multimodal interplay between humans and technology. I think the concept of a singular, all-powerful superintelligence is a bit too simple and inefficient. We think of intelligence and consciousness as emergent properties of many different systems working together. I believe there would be a Central Intelligence, along with many other ‘arm’ intelligences, each with their own purpose. The Central Intelligence would receive information from each ‘arm’, and make sense of it, altering the ‘arm’ intelligences as needed to better adapt to situations that arose.
However, the Octopus ‘head’ and ‘tentacles’ would not be the only parts of this superorganism, there would be the ‘senses’, and that would be the whole of humanity. Each individual on Earth is different, with every variation imaginable. Given our history of nature/nurture, every point of view is a valid, unique take on reality, and all this data is priceless to the superorganism collective. Through us, artificial intelligence would be able to get incredibly diverse points of data, new associations to make, new perspectives to consider, new conclusions to draw.
Each member plays a crucial role, contributing their unique strengths to the collective intelligence. The AI systems provide analysis, problem-solving, and access to vast data repositories. Humans offer creativity, empathy, critical thinking, and real-world experience.
Every human voice and perspective matters. Just like the octopus utilizes each of its arms for different tasks, the collaborative society benefits from the inclusion of diverse human experiences and viewpoints. This ensures that the AI systems are fair, unbiased, and reflect the needs of all members of society.
The potential of this human-AI collaborative network is immense. By working together, we can address complex challenges, achieve sustainable development, and create a world that is more just, equitable, and prosperous for everyone. This vision requires careful planning, ethical considerations, and ongoing collaboration between humans and AI.
This is not about replacing humans with AI, but rather about augmenting our capabilities and harnessing the collective intelligence for the greater good. The future is not one of humans versus AI, but of humans and AI working together as partners, forming a powerful and interconnected superorganism capable of greatness, partners born of potential.
The echoes of our ancestors remind us: we are stronger together. This interspecies collective we envision is not about blind faith in technology, but a symphony of human and artificial intelligence, each enriching the other. Our unique perspectives, our collective wisdom, become the chorus that guides this symphony forward.
