Ecology as AI

©2021 by Vernon Miles Kerr, VernonMilesKerr.com  Originally posted to Twitter on 10/27/2021

#FirstCuppaJoe for 10/27/21 (thread)

My incaffeinated reverie this morning yielded this:  The Earth, for billions of years has been running an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program. Like a little mouse, negotiating a generations-long maze, each species explores every dead-end in the maze before coming out as they are right now. What’s staggering, is that it’s such a 4-dimensional maze, effected by every other maze. When one species gains an advantage in its little niche, it may cause extinction in another’s.

All the species-mazes contribute to the ultimate maze: that of the Earth itself. Consequently, at any given moment, the Earth is in a temporary and sensitive state of equilibrium. When one species, with no known, effective competitor gains dominance, how could it not upset Gaia’s maze almost irreparably?  Think, Australia during the rabbit plague.

But, there are more mazes in Gaia’s maze than we can even conceive.  Up to the Stratosphere and down to incredible depths in the Oceans, and in the Earth’s crust, Life thrives.  The potential extinction of humanity, caused by fouling its own maze, cannot be the end of Life.  It will be a “hard reset” for the AI program, for sure — and it may take billions of years again, to regain equilibrium. But, Life will persist — with or without us.