James Lovelock

James Lovelock, creator of the Gaia hypothesis and the greatest environmental thinker of our time, has produced an astounding new theory about future of life on Earth. He argues that the anthropocene - the age in which humans acquired planetary-scale technologies - is, after 300 years, coming to an end. A new age - the novacene - has already begun. New beings will emerge from existing artificial intelligence systems. They will think 10,000 times faster than we do and they will regard us as we now regard plants - as desperately slow acting and thinking creatures. But this will not be the cruel, violent machine takeover of the planet imagined by sci-fi writers and film-makers. These hyper-intelligent beings will be as dependent on the health of the planet as we are. They will need the planetary cooling system of Gaia to defend them from the increasing heat of the sun as much as we do. And Gaia depends on organic life. We will be partners in this project. It is crucial, Lovelock argues, that the intelligence of Earth survives and prospers. He does not think there are intelligent aliens, so we are the only beings capable of understanding the cosmos. Maybe, he speculates, the novacene could even be the beginning of a process that will finally lead to intelligence suffusing the entire cosmos. At the age 100, James Lovelock has produced the most important and compelling work of his life.

The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence

Novacene

Bryan Alexander

This is a fascinating and very accessible little book. Novacene's argument is quite clear: humanity is developing a successor species in the form of artificial intelligence, and that's probably a good thing.

So on the one hand this is a work of futurism, exploring the well known if burgeoning field of posthumanism. It reminds me of Robin Hanson's Age of Em, which similarly argues for a new, digital lifeform about to appear on Earth. Novacene sees these posthuman entities growing gradually, then very quickly (like Hemingway's line about bankruptcy), ultimately supplanting humanity by the end of the 21st century (102), as the Anthropocene gives way to the titular Novacene.

On the other hand, what makes Novacene unusual is one of its authors. James Lovelock is the British scientist best known for offering the Gaia hypothesis, which holds the world to be a kind of vast, single mega-organism. Lovelock foregrounds Gaia throughout Novacene, arguing that digital entities are the next part of Gaia, and seeing AIs* as carrying out Gaia's self-protection mission.

This offers an unusual take on posthumanity. For example, Lovelock and his co-author think that the Earth's biggest danger is overheating - not just from anthropogenic climate change in the short term, but rising solar output in the seriously long term (115). Therefor Gaia wants to keep the planet cool, even preferring frequent ice ages (55). Posthuman silicon-based entities will logically strive to chill out the planet. Gaia's desires are central to the book; humanity's are marginal. That Gaia, so often beloved by low- or anti-technology folk, would choose to create a world-spanning digital order is a fun thought.

Lovelock's presence in the book as a character adds to Novacene's charm and accessibility. There are autobiographical episodes which might interest readers in the history of science. There's a striking passage which begins with Lovelock describing a bizarre experiment in human pain tolerance, and ends with his holding an infant Stephen Hawking in his arms (62-3). Throughout Lovelock enjoys his own strange mind and career, quietly celebrating himself as a British eccentric. I found that delightful. And he wrote this at 99 years of age.

This book offers a bracing vision of the future. It's also a very big-picture one, focusing on time frames of millions of years. That scale and the book's brevity (barely over 100 pages) mean so much is left out. There isn't much room for discussion of culture, for example. Scientific issues loom largest.

Recommended for anyone thinking of the future.

*Lovelock actually uses the term "cyborg" instead of AI, which is odd. He seems to mean entities which are either software-only or intelligent robots (29ff). It's not the usual sense of the word, which describes hybrid entities combining humanity and technology.

Novacene The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence

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