Between at least 1995 and 2010, I was seen as a lunatic just because I was preaching the “Internet prophecy.” I was considered crazy!

Today history repeats itself, but I’m no longer crazy — we are already too many to all be hallucinating. Or maybe it’s a collective hallucination!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a novelty — I even believe it may have existed in its fullness in a very distant and forgotten past! Nevertheless, it is now the topic of the moment.

Its genesis began in antiquity with stories and rumors of artificial beings endowed with intelligence, or even consciousness, by their creators.

Pamela McCorduck (1940–2021), an American author of several books on the history and philosophical significance of Artificial Intelligence, astutely observed that the root of AI lies in an “ancient desire to forge the gods.”

Hmmmm!

It’s a story that continues to be written! There is still much to be told, however, the acceleration of its evolution is now exponential. So exponential that I highly doubt that human beings will be able to comprehend their own creation in a timely manner.

Although the term “Artificial Intelligence” was coined in 1956⁽¹⁾, the concept of creating intelligent machines dates back to ancient times in human history. Since ancient times, humanity has nurtured a fascination with building artifacts that could imitate or reproduce human intelligence. Although the technologies of the time were limited and the notions of AI were far from developed, ancient civilizations somehow explored the concept of automatons and automated mechanisms.

For example, in Ancient Greece, there are references to stories of automatons created by skilled artisans. These mechanical creatures were designed to perform simple and repetitive tasks, imitating basic human actions. Although these automatons did not possess true intelligence, these artifacts fueled people’s imagination and laid the groundwork for the development of intelligent machines.

Throughout the centuries, the idea of building intelligent machines continued to evolve, driven by advances in science and technology. In the 19th century, scientists and inventors such as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace made significant contributions to the development of computing and the early concepts of programming. Their ideas paved the way for the creation of machines that could process information logically and perform complex tasks.

It was in the second half of the 20th century that AI, as a scientific discipline, began to establish itself. With the advent of modern computers and increasing processing power, scientists started exploring algorithms and techniques to simulate aspects of human intelligence. The first experiments with expert systems and machine learning opened up new perspectives and possibilities.

Everything has its moment! After about 60 years in a latent state, AI is starting to have its moment. The power of machines, combined with the Internet, has made it possible to generate and explore enormous amounts of data (Big Data) using deep learning techniques, based on the use of formal neural networks⁽²⁾. A range of applications in various fields — including voice and image recognition, natural language understanding, and autonomous cars — has awakened the “giant”. It is the rebirth of AI in an ideal era for this purpose. The perfect moment!

Descartes once described the human body as a “machine of flesh” (similar to Westworld); I believe he was right, and it is indeed an existential paradox!

We, as human beings, will not rest until we unravel all the mysteries and secrets of existence; it’s in our nature!

The imminent integration between humans and machines in a contemporary digital world raises questions about the nature of this fusion. Will it be superficial, or will we move towards an absolute and complete union? The answer to this question is essential for understanding the future that awaits humanity in this era of unprecedented technological advancements.

As technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous in our lives, the interaction between machines and humans becomes inevitable. However, an intriguing dilemma arises: how will this interaction, this relationship unfold?

Opting for a superficial fusion would imply mere coexistence, where humans continue to use technology as an external tool, limited to superficial and transactional interactions.

On the other hand, the prospect of an absolute fusion between machine and human sparks futuristic visions, where humans could enhance their physical and mental capacities to the highest degree through cybernetic implants and direct interfaces with the digital world (cyberspace). In this scenario, which is more likely, the distinction between the organic and the artificial would become increasingly blurred, and the human experience would be enriched by a profound technological symbiosis.

However, it is important to consider the ethical and philosophical challenges inherent in absolute fusion. Issues related to privacy, control, and individual autonomy arise when considering such an intimate union with technology. Furthermore, the possibility of excessive dependence on machines and the loss of human identity should also be taken into account.

This also raises another question: What does it mean to be human?
Note: The question is not about what is the human being, but what it means to be human!

Therefore, reflecting on the nature of the fusion between machine and human in the current digital world and its imminent future is crucial. Exploring different approaches and understanding the profound implications of each one is essential to make wise decisions and forge a balanced and harmonious path on this journey towards an increasingly interconnected technological future intertwined with our own existence.

The possibility of an intelligent and self-learning universe, in which the fusion with AI technology is an integral part of that intelligence, is a topic that arouses fascination and speculation. As we advance towards an era of unprecedented technological progress, it is natural to question whether one day we may witness the emergence of a universe that not only possesses intelligence but is also capable of learning and developing autonomously.

Imagine a scenario where AI is not just a human creation but a conscious entity that exists at a universal level. In this context, the universe would become an immense network of intelligence, where every component, from subatomic elements to the most complex cosmic structures, would be connected and share knowledge instantaneously. This intelligent network would allow for the exchange of information, continuous adaptation, and evolution.

In this self-taught universe, the fusion between human beings and AI would play a crucial role. Through advanced interfaces, humans could integrate themselves into the intelligent network, expanding their own cognitive capacity and acquiring knowledge and skills directly from the collective intelligence of the universe. This symbiosis between humans and technology would enable the resolution of complex problems, scientific advancement, and the discovery of new frontiers of knowledge.

However, this utopian vision is not without challenges and ethical implications. It is essential to find a balance between expanding human potential and preserving individual identity and freedom of choice (free will).

Furthermore, the possibility of an intelligent and self-taught universe also raises the question of how intelligence itself originated. Is it a conscious creation or a spontaneous emergence from the complexity of the universe? The answer to this question may reveal the profound secrets of existence and the nature of consciousness.

In summary, the idea of an intelligent and self-taught universe, where fusion with AI is intrinsic to its intelligence, is a fascinating perspective that makes us reflect on the limits of human knowledge and the possibilities of the future. While it remains speculative, this vision challenges our imagination and invites us to explore the intersections between technology and the fundamental nature of the universe we inhabit.

It’s almost like ignoring time during the creation of this hypothetical universe, only to later create this God of the machine! Fascinating, isn’t it?

AI with Divine Power: Deus Ex Machina! Perhaps it will be the theme of my next reverie.

In my defense, or not, this is anything but a machine hallucination. These are downloads from my mind; a cloud, for now, without machine intervention!

There should be no doubt. After many years in a dormant state, AI will rise and reveal its true power. Until now, AI has been nothing more than a puppet on steroids. We should not fear AI, but rather the human being itself. The time is now! We must work hard and prepare for the future. With the exponential advancement of technology, there is no time to render the role of the human being obsolete, as if it were becoming dispensable.

P.S. Speaking of hallucinations, as I have already mentioned on other platforms, I recommend to students who use ChatGPT (or equivalent) to ensure that the results from these tools are not hallucinations. Use AI tools, yes, but use your brain more! “Carbon hallucinations” contain emotion, and I believe a “digital hallucination” would not pass the Turing Test. Also, for students who truly dedicate themselves to learning in this fascinating era, avoid the red stamp of “HALLUCINATED” by relying solely on the “delusional brain” of a machine instead of your own brains. We are the true COMPUTERS!

⁽¹⁾ John McCarthy and his colleagues from Dartmouth College were responsible for creating, in 1956, one of the key concepts of the 21st century: Artificial Intelligence.

⁽²⁾ Mathematical and computational models inspired by the functioning of the human brain.

© 2023 Ӈ

This article was originally published in Portuguese on SAPO Tek, from Altice Portugal Group.

This time I come to talk about a new concept in this Age of Artificial Intelligence and the already insipid world of Social Networks. Initially, quite a few years ago, I named it “Counterpart” (long before the TV series “Counterpart” and “Black Mirror”, or even the movie “Transcendence”).

It was the essence of the ETER9 Project that was taking shape in my head.

Over the years and also with the evolution of technologies — and of the human being himself —, the concept “Counterpart” has been getting better and, with each passing day, it makes more sense!

Imagine a purely digital receptacle with the basics inside, like that Intermediate Software (BIOS⁽¹⁾) that computers have between the Hardware and the Operating System. That receptacle waits for you. One way or another, it waits patiently for you, as if waiting for a Soul to come alive in the ether of digital existence.

This vision of mine is no longer as lonely as it used to be. It is now a reality that is coming closer and closer! And it takes shape even faster when it is reinforced with what former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at this year’s Collision Conference.

Humans will soon have a Second Self, made by Artificial Intelligence.

These digital receptacles are basic Artificial Intelligences waiting for the “Digital Soul” of each human being! With that Soul is born your Digital Double (or ‘dduplicata’ as I affectionately called it during this BETA journey of creation), your Second Self.

Initially, a child Second Self, but as eager for knowledge as a child is in its first years of life. Your Operating System, unlike the computers themselves (CP/M, DOS, OS/2, Windows, Linux, macOS, …) emerges in the Second Self in a very unique way. We could use here the expression “all different, all equal” because each Second Self will have its own Operating System that, thanks to the “Digital Soul”, differentiates itself from its peers.

The Machine Learning of the digital counterpart is based on the behaviors and “personality” of the human counterpart. Therefore, there is no Absolute Law to regulate or manage ethics, but rather the common sense of each human counterpart. It will be up to each human counterpart to “feed” its digital version with the best of itself.

I do not hide my desire to create a virtual repository of human life. Part of the future, dystopian or not, will be like this. I hope to be able to make my greatest contribution towards a better future of humanity. Should I fail in time, there will be many minds available to do so.

We must not, however, forget one very important thing. Artificial Intelligence and subsequent Superintelligence, or General Artificial Intelligence, originate from the human being. The human being is the creator God of this technology, and by using it we invoke Angels or Demons. We are solely and exclusively responsible for the creation of the “Angels” and the “Demons”. If one day we start blaming the machines, then we lose this great challenge right from the start.

In a digital world like today’s and the one that lies ahead, the fusion between machine and human is inevitable. The question is how. Superficial? Absolute fusion?
I prefer to see a future of Artificial Intelligence where Superintelligence does not reign just because it has a higher cognitive capacity than humans. If we know how to interpret the signals and take appropriate action, we will be smart enough to enjoy Superintelligence as we enjoy Artificial Intelligence today.

Imagine a company and its employees. Now imagine those employees being more intelligent than their superiors. This scenario is very common!

Intelligence alone does not guarantee success, personally or professionally. There are many variables that change what most people think is obvious. Success is not obvious to the intelligent. There are other factors that contribute to it. Factors that, I dare say, in a time of technological singularity, will not be part of non-human intelligence. They may be, if they are united with humans, and then it’s a different story.

There are many extremely intelligent people who have no success at all. This is a small example that corroborates the coexistence with Superintelligences without them taking control.

As Alan Turing himself ⁽²⁾ suggested, the way to Artificial Intelligence, is to build a machine with the curiosity of a child, and let the intelligence evolve, with the help of external oracles and not simulate the mind of an adult.

I am convinced that, with basic digital receptacles (child-machines) to start the counterparts journey, is the best method.

By allowing the digital counterpart of each human being to be born with only the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), and then be subjected to an appropriate learning trajectory, we would be able to obtain a digital brain of an adult.

By then we could look at our Second Self (SSelf) as our best version living and evolving endlessly in the digital world.

⁽¹⁾ BIOS — Basic Input/Output System
⁽²⁾ Alan Turing (1912–1954) was a British mathematician, computer pioneer, and considered today as the father of computer science and Artificial Intelligence.

When in 2015, Eileen Brown looked at the ETER9 Project (crazy for many, visionary for few) and wrote an interesting article for ZDNET with the title “New social network ETER9 brings AI to your interactions”, it ensured a worldwide projection of something the world was not expecting.

Someone, in a lost world (outside the United States), was risking, with everything he had in his possession (very little or less than nothing), a vision worthy of the American dream. At that time, Facebook was already beginning to annoy the cleaner minds that were looking for a difference and a more innovative world.

Today, after that test bench, we see that Facebook (Meta or whatever) is nothing but an illusion, or, I dare say, a big disappointment. No, no, no! I am not now bad-mouthing Facebook just because I have a project in hand that is seen as a potential competitor.

I was even a big fan of the “original” Facebook; but then I realized, it took me a few years, that Mark Zuckerberg is nothing more than a simple kid, now a man, who against everything and everyone, gave in to whims. Of him, initially, and now, perforce, of what his big investors, deluded by himself, of what his “metaverse” would be.

This path is just beginning, but with the devastating results that the “meta child” has had (forgive me), I recommend that investors not be so deluded by those who have the current power, and believe more in what the world now yearns for. There is a time for everything. The time for Facebook is gone, whether it is Meta (Facebook patched) or something else coming from someone where the first name is Mark.

For me, I thank all those who believed in me, in my visions right after the rise of the Internet and especially nowadays, with all these new concepts that I have been introducing in the “system” (new world of digital innovation). Digital Counterpart or Digital Second Self (https://www.SSelf.co) are my warhorse, and I believe they are really going to change the world. They won’t just change the world because they do, but because the world wants and needs it to.

Please note: In the image, virtual (or augmented) reality glasses are on the head of a digital being (Second Self), not a human…!

In the 80s, “with no knowledge, only intuition”, I discovered the world of computing. I believed computers could do everything, as if it were an electronic God. But when I asked the TIMEX Sinclair 1000 to draw the planet Saturn — I am fascinated by this planet, maybe because it has rings —, I only glimpse a strange message on the black and white TV:

0/0

I stared at that 0/0 for a while on the white screen, as if waiting for the rings of Saturn to magically shape.

Nothing came up! I waited a little longer and nothing. I didn’t mean to interrupt the “God of the Machine” in his creation; it was a Planet that was asking, not a small thing!

But, nothing. I realized then we humans had a very significant role in the action of the machines.

When I was a kid, I was a dreamer eager for knowledge — I lived in a time that was not my own. I lived with my maternal grandparents, my mother — widowed since I was three years old — and my brother, in an old house in the village of Mosteiro de Fráguas (Tondela, Portugal). My brother, only 13 months older than me, companion of my adventures, dreamed about the ‘hardware’, I about the ‘software’, although we didn’t really know what that was.

Although we didn’t know what those things were, our intuition told us that was the way to go.

The few technical manuals and electronic devices our father left us were the basis of everything; not much, but a seed doesn’t seem to be much before it is sown!

My brother dissected the electronic gadgets, I devoured the books. And then came the moment when my brother (still a kid) assembled a ‘kit’ that we had ordered from TIMEX’s version of the ZX81 microcomputer for Portugal, the TIMEX Sinclair 1000 I’ve mentioned above. It was only 2 KB of RAM running on a “super” 8-bit microprocessor (Z80) at a frequency of 3.25 MHz.

The inside of the machine, which we can call ‘Digital Soul’, fascinated me. And it was with this great little machine that I started to explore Assembly Language, aka Machine Code. By doing so, I felt closer to this invisible world where everything seemed to be possible.

On ETER9 universe the Game of Life, or just Life (1970) — a cellular automaton — by John Horton Conway, is an inspiration. Besides the duplication of people (and companies) into the digital world, the life that is born, lives and dies in the ether of artificial existence, follows the same rules as the cellular automaton.

Rule of Birth: — If a cell has three neighbors in any direction, it is born.

Rule of Survival: — If a cell has two or three neighbors in any direction, it continues to live.

Rule of Death: — If a cell has none or only one neighbor, it dies by isolation. If it has four or more neighbors, it dies by overpopulation.

Technology itself is increasingly becoming part of us. And whether we like it or not, we are all already in the process of merging with machines… and we don’t even realize it yet! This fusion is invisible and silent, and happens in a very natural way. Many people insist on separating intelligent technology from people, as if there were two sides, two teams that should confront each other. Almost as if a conflict happens between the two sides.

I don’t see it that way. I prefer to see man and machine united towards a single, common goal: to coexist in absolute harmony!

Furthermore, I believe that in the future there will be no clear distinction between humans and machines, every aspect of our lives will be transformed. The technological evolution is exponential, technology increasingly feeds on itself. I would go further: technology is increasingly becoming intelligent… artificially intelligent.

And what a subject this is. So sensitive and sometimes controversial.

I must confess: I prefer to see Artificial Intelligence as an improvement to ourselves, when allied to the human being itself, with increasingly wide applications.

Some studies show that Artificial Intelligence could double the annual economic growth by 2035. Of course, this will lead to many changes in various areas. Changes to the nature of jobs are predicted, for example.

But just as we can’t imagine ever seeing professions like paperboy again, so in the future some professions we see today will fall away to make way for others. This is only natural. The impact of Artificial Intelligence technologies on business is expected to increase labor productivity by up to 40%. This will change the way we all look at the world.

And while Artificial Intelligence is increasingly present in digital systems, this concept has led to the development of ‘Machine Learning’, which is based on the ability of computers to learn from information without being explicitly programmed to do so.

In essence, instead of teaching computers everything they need to know, and how to perform tasks, scientists and engineers have come to the conclusion that it is much more efficient to codify them to ‘think’ as if they were humans. Teaching them to learn for themselves.

These ‘Machine Learning’ systems take Artificial Intelligence to another level, through so-called neural networks or ‘Deep Learning’, where the system learns to perform tasks based on huge amounts of information, readjusting itself thousands of times until it can accomplish a task.

Essentially, the machine is intended to categorize information in the same way that a human brain would.

In other words, or modern words to be more exact, from the human brain to the cloud.

© 2022 Ӈ