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My mother once told me that the thing she most wanted out of life was to know the answer to what was out there. Her own mother and grandmother died of Alzheimer’s, having lost their memories. My own mother still might, though for now she fortunately shows no real symptoms.
But I find it hard to get the idea out of my head. How much time our ancestors spent wondering about the stars, the moon, the cosmos, about fire and physics, about life and death. So many of those questions have now been answered; the few that remain will mostly be answered soon.
My ancestors - the smart ones at least - spent lifetimes wondering about questions I now know the answer to. There is magic in that, or at least a feeling of gratitude, of privilege, that outweighs the fact that we will be outcompeted by AI in our own lifetimes. I will die knowing things.
I may not be a player in the game. But I know, or may know, at least, how the story ends. Countless humans lived and died without knowing. I am luckier than most.
I just don't see this as providing any real answers. I agree with the poster below that O-3 likely doesn't have qualia.
In the end, humanity may go extinct and its replacement will use its god-like powers not to explore the universe or uncover the fundamental secrets of nature, but to play video games or do something else completely inscrutable to humans.
And it's even possible the secrete of the universe may be fundamentally unknowable. It's possible that no amount of energy or intelligence can help us escape the bounds of the universe, or the simulation, or whatever it is we are in.
But yes, it does seem we have figured out what intelligence is to some extent. It's cool I suppose, but it doesn't give me emotional comfort.
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