Humans also have what philosophers call existence bias, which influences our view of the value of life – it’s better to exist than not. Ultimately, we tend to focus on the positives. But what if our intelligence were to develop in a way that meant we lost such biases?
In fact, super-intelligent aliens may have already achieved that. With a balanced outlook no longer weighted to the short term and a clear-eyed view of suffering, such a life form could decide that life is just not worth it. “They may have come to the conclusion that it’s better to terminate their own existence,” says Metzinger.
Could that explain why we haven’t yet made contact with an alien intelligence? “Possibly,” he says.
No comments:
Post a Comment