Day 66: Caterpillars Create Cocoons & Humans Create Artificial Intelligence

Spent most of today driving through the rest of Utah towards California. I was uninspired. Probably lonely. I listened to the Joe Rogan podcast as I drove. Joe Rogan was talking to one of his guests about technology. He proposed a theory that I have never heard before. The theory is that human beings are the biological catalyst to create Artificial Intelligence (AI). Basically, human beings are the caterpillar building a cocoon for a a butterfly which is AI.  The caterpillar probably has no idea why it’s making the cocoon, it’s just in its instinct to build it. It seems it is human instinct to evolve and change. We are constantly coming out with new gadgets to enhance our reality. The human as a cocoon builder for AI is a theory that I have never heard before, but it resonates with me. This would answer my questions as to why we are allowing ourselves to live like we do in this modern world of technology. Our technology is advancing so fast we can’t even keep up. As soon as my computer is in a stable place with all my software doing what I need it to do Macintosh forces an update on my operating system and all my software becomes obsolete. I have to relearn how to use my computer because now the interface has changed. As soon as I am happy with my iPhone it becomes obsolete because it’s not capable of running the current iOS. It’s super frustrating. It’s actually what makes organisms of any kind go insane; when their environment is constantly changing quicker than they can adapt and thrive. However, now we are closer to achieving artificial intelligence than we ever have been before.

Artificial Intelligence won’t need the same sensitive climate and environment that we biological beings need because AI runs off of electricity and nothing else. As long as the AI machines can charge up their batteries they are all good. AI machines would probably run on solar power. Perhaps a combination of solar power and any other energy source that is left after all other biological life has ceased to be able to exist. AI machines may even be able to live off of all the rotting biomass that may be left over.  Perhaps they will even live off of radioactive waste that we created?

This theory is probably not new to everyone. I’m sure avid sci-fi people have heard of all of this for a long time. However, to me I have never thought of this until today, a day when I was already feeling a bit down and out. It can be a dark thought BUT it can also be beautiful. I think all these AI machines will take all of humanity into their intelligence. Einstein’s theories will be there, the music of Muddy Water will be there somewhere, etc. because these machines were ultimately created by humanity and humanity is a culmination of  every human being that ever existed. And what it procreation anyways? Why do we desire to have children? It’s the hope that we will spread ourselves into the future long after our biological body dies. Perhaps these AI machines will absorb my life’s work of music and writings into their software and a small part of me will live on in this world after I am gone?

As if the AI takeover weren’t enough to think about on my long drive through the hot desert landscape. Joe Rogan then interviewed a man named Steve Aoki. Steve Aoki is an electronic musician who about the same age as me. He started his music career about the same time as I did in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s. He’s now a multimillionaire who lives in a huge house in Las Vegas. This guy has worked very hard for everything he has. He still performs about 250 shows a year. I can’t help but compare myself to him though and think “I’ve worked hard for my music. I have sacrificed so much to even make a living at being a musician. Why am I living out of a Toyota Prius just barely paying my bills every month?”.  I agree with Mark Twain “comparison is the death of joy”, but sometimes I let this stuff get me down. I am happy for Steve Aoki. I just sometimes wish I didn’t have to live on the edge of financial ruin so much. I know I chose to go the non-electronic route with music. I have always preferred non-electronic music. However, electronic everything is the way the world is heading, whether I prefer it or not.

At the end of the day I am grateful to even make a living off of my music, even if I do mostly play background music at farmers’ markets, bars, restaurants and hotels. It’s better than sitting in a cubicle somewhere working for some corporate monster, doing things I do not believe in at all.