From: emarsh@hernes-sun.Eng.Sun.COM (Eric Marsh)
Newsgroups: alt.consciousness,talk.origins,talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Next?
Date: 21 Dec 92 17:42:32 GMT
Organization: Sun
NNTP-Posting-Host: hernes-sun

In article <1992Dec19.193454.25593@eskimo.com> alpinist@eskimo.com (David Butler) writes:
>In article <lj1i99INNflp@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> emarsh@hernes-sun.Eng.Sun.COM (Eric Marsh) writes:
>>In article <1992Dec17.133858.6071@linus.mitre.org> m23364@mwunix (James Meritt) writes:
>>>talk.origins:  On the evolutionary side, homo sapiens is seen as merely the most recent
>>>step in a series of rungs in a ladder.  What do you see as the "next rung"? 

>>Machine intelligence would be one possibility. 

>>A form of intelligence that spans more than one physical brain. Possibly 
>>machine moderated group intelligence. Another possibility is that 
>>homo sapient (or another species) will evolve an ability to directly
>>interact with the environment on a purely mental level; should this
>>be a possibility then it indicates that "mind" is not simply a phenomen
>>of the workings of the brain, which would in turn open the possibility
>>of consciousness that is not rooted in physical existance.

>Here you are making the assumption that because human beings appear to be
>the most intelligent of species that greater intelligence is being selected
>for.  But the problem with that assumption is that as a species we are not
>breeding for greater intelligence.  The top ten percentile in intelligence
>breed quite a bit less than the average population.  As a whole we are breeding
>for average intelligence and are weeding out the highest intellects from the
>population.

I agree that in many ways our evolution is not being driven by concerns
of physical health/strength. I also agree that we are not deliberatly
breeding for intelligence. However since many weaker people are surviving
who might not otherwise be, and since more intelligent people often
are somewhat less heathy/physical than others, it is possible that
inadvertantly we are breeding for intelligence; however this is speculation
and should probably not be debated much further.

Even if we are not breeding for intelligence, that does not mean that
we will not continue to develop superior intelligences. I can give you
a couple of possible reasons for this, and both of them are based on the
premis of self-modification. 

1> We develop direct neural/machine interfaces, thus artifically 
boosting intelligence by making vast amounts of information availible
transparently, as well as making the computational power of those machines
available to us. If such a technology should become mature, it would also
open the possibility of "group intelligence" where a number of people
plug in to a single shared awareness.

2> We map out the DNA sufficiently that we are able to manipulate
the DNA in a growing embryo for enhanced capabilities, such as intelligence.

Another thing you should consider is that intelligence is only one
aspect of evolution. As I mentioned earlier, it is possible that mind
is not simply a working of the brain, but an attribute of the universe
itself. Should this be the case, it is possible that we could evolve
towards greater mental powers without necessairly becoming more intelligent.
 
>Because of the destruction of the environment and greater proliferation of
>pollutants it seems likely that we will see an increase in obsessive
>compulsive behavior types.  People who was their hands a lot, are very nit
>picky about getting any dirt on them, who carefully wash and prepare the food
>they eat - will have an evolutionary advantage.

Not unless they have lots of kids. 

>Your speculation on machine intelligence is interesting though.  If parallel
>processing takes off then machines may actually be able to develop thinking
>abilities beyond that of human capacity.  It blew me away to read an Omni
>article a few months back on a guy who got a group of people together, they
>sat down and designed a parallel computer and with a new technology not even
>developed their resulting product is now competing head to head with the most
>powerful Crays.  And they are just using regular speed processors.  The
>potentials of parallel processing are incredible.  Computers have just jumped
>from the insect stage straight to the mammal stage.

Yes, we often think of ourselves as being at the top of the chain. It
is possible that we are simply another evolutionary step to something
radically different, such as machine intelligence.

>-- 
>Dave                                              alpinist@eskimo.com
>When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers - Oscar Wilde

Eric