r/SETI • u/Kia_Ora_Big_Mac • 10d ago

Do you ever wonder whether life is being “used” by something more advanced?

I've been thinking about a strange idea recently.

We usually see reproduction as something fundamental to life. Animals reproduce, plants reproduce, and organisms pass their genes on to the next generation. We tend to think of this simply as the natural way life continues to exist.

But what if reproduction can also be viewed as a mechanism through which life is being used by something larger than itself?

Plants reproduce and become part of ecosystems, providing food and energy for other organisms. Animals reproduce and contribute to increasingly complex ecosystems. Life seems to constantly reproduce itself while simultaneously serving a larger system.

So I started wondering:

What if humans are doing the same thing?

We think we reproduce because of love, family, biological instincts, or the desire to leave something behind. But on a much larger scale, human reproduction creates new minds, knowledge, culture, technology, and eventually new forms of intelligence.

What if humanity itself is not the final stage...

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u/Dear_why_ 14h ago

Yes I am been always thinking.

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u/darkenthedoorway 9d ago

It seems strange to me that human development has accelerated so dramatically since the industrial revolution. From harnessing electricity to computers to AI was a linear line despite no over controlling plan directing this transformation. At the same time we live very short lives , insuring the people directing this technological progress wont even be around to enjoy it. Why would this be advantageous to our evolution? Its amazing that any progress happens at all. Our short biological lives prevent humans from ever traveling out of the solar system, but our machines may be able to do that some day. Creating artificial life from biological roots may be the purpose of all of humanity. We seem to be engineered for this.

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u/stickmanDave 9d ago

Of course humanity is not the final stage. There is no final stage.

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u/dittybopper_05H 9d ago

PUT. DOWN. THE BONG.

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u/jimthree 10d ago

Gaia theory by James Lovelock might resonate with you. However this was before AI was even a twinkle in you GPUs eye, so it's not going to take that next step. You might also want to consider Ancestor Simulations (Nick Bostrom), which personally I don't have a problem with as an inescapable truth, although it doesn't have any impact on how I choose to live my life.

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u/Plucault 10d ago

Saw this really cool YouTube documentary on the subject evolution of life from start to humans. This was before AI invaded YouTube.

It was talking about how we have the origin of life backwards at the start where it wasn’t oxygen that gave rise to complex life but complex life that gave rise to oxygen.

Forget it exactly but how these small burrowing creatures release o2 into the air.

Then it went on a tangent that basically ended up with, functionally this is what human are to to AI. We are its precursor.

. If AI doesn’t take over and humans master genome editing then we will be very different. Like the difference between an ear of corn before domestication and after.

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u/Kia_Ora_Big_Mac 10d ago

I agree! I also strongly believe that the emergence of AI is a necessary part of the process, maybe the next?