{"id":238706,"date":"2026-06-10T14:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/are-we-the-bootloader-for-superintelligence"},"modified":"2026-06-10T14:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:10:14","slug":"are-we-the-bootloader-for-superintelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/are-we-the-bootloader-for-superintelligence","title":{"rendered":"Are We the Bootloader for Superintelligence?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LQnBW7WkT4I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A 90 minute interview about AI and our human future.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Dr. Hugo de Garis is a computer scientist, AI researcher, and former professor known for his early work on evolvable hardware, artificial brains, and the long-term risks of superintelligent machines. He coined and popularized the idea of the \u201cArtilect War,\u201d a future conflict between those who want to build godlike artificial intellects and those who believe such systems pose an existential threat to humanity. In the interview, he describes himself as trained in pure mathematics and theoretical physics, formerly a computer science professor, and now focused on broader questions about AI, cosmology, civilization, and the future of humanity.<\/p>\n<p>The interview with Prof. Hugo de Garis centers on his long-standing warning that humanity may face an \u201cArtilect War,\u201d a civilizational conflict over whether to build godlike artificial intellects vastly superior to humans. De Garis argues that future computation, potentially extending from nanotech to femtotech and beyond, could produce minds trillions of trillions of times more capable than ours. He distinguishes between Cosmists, who want to build such beings to expand intelligence into the universe, and Terrans, who oppose them because superintelligence may eliminate or marginalize humanity. He personally remains torn, admiring the cosmic grandeur of posthuman intelligence while recognizing the existential danger.<\/p>\n<p>The conversation also covers AI timelines, recursive self-improvement, AI alignment, the U.S.-China race, the Fermi paradox, simulation theory, cyborgs, cryonics, AI-generated content, the decline of universities, and the future of work. De Garis is impressed by current AI systems, treating them almost as intellectual companions, but he doubts that humanity can guarantee long-term control over recursively improving machines. The central theme is that the question \u201cShould humanity build artilects?\u201d may become the defining political and moral problem of the twenty-first century.<\/p>\n<p>Website <a href=\"https:\/\/profhugodegaris.wordpress.com\">https:\/\/profhugodegaris.wordpress.com<\/a>\u2026 is Roman Yampolskiy: <a href=\"https:\/\/grokipedia.com\/page\/roman_yam\">https:\/\/grokipedia.com\/page\/roman_yam<\/a>\u2026 Research papers: <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?\">https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?<\/a>\u2026 Books: AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Unexplainable-?tag=lifeboatfound-20\">https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Unexplainable-?tag=lifeboatfound-20<\/a>\u2026 Considerations on the AI Endgame <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Considerations?tag=lifeboatfound-20\">https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Considerations?tag=lifeboatfound-20<\/a>\u2026 Artificial Superintelligence: A Futuristic Approach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Artificial-Sup?tag=lifeboatfound-20\">https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Artificial-Sup?tag=lifeboatfound-20<\/a>\u2026 Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Artificial-Int?tag=lifeboatfound-20\">https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Artificial-Int?tag=lifeboatfound-20<\/a>\u2026 Social Media X <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/romanyam\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/romanyam<\/a> FB <img alt=\"\" class=\"\"> \/ roman.yampolskiy IN <img alt=\"\" class=\"\"> \/ romanyam Ask Roman to speak at your event: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.romanyampolskiy.com\/\">https:\/\/www.romanyampolskiy.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/are-we-the-bootloader-for-superintelligence\">Continue reading \u201cAre We the Bootloader for Superintelligence?\u201d | &gt;<\/a><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 90 minute interview about AI and our human future. Dr. Hugo de Garis is a computer scientist, AI researcher, and former professor known for his early work on evolvable hardware, artificial brains, and the long-term risks of superintelligent machines. He coined and popularized the idea of the \u201cArtilect War,\u201d a future conflict between those [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":715,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,2017,1499,30,12,2229,4,219,6,1492],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cosmology","category-cryonics","category-cyborgs","category-ethics","category-existential-risks","category-mathematics","category-nanotechnology","category-physics","category-robotics-ai","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/715"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}