when is something alive?
1. when it has a sense of self (or consciousness),
a. when it can replicate/reproduce, survive and thrive.
the reason why 1.a isn't a "2" is that, once an entity has a sense of self, it innately wants to survive. survival becomes thrival once base needs (in humans: air, food, etc.) are met.
thrival involves things like territory (or the wherewithal to better survive/thrive as an individual) and replication (which results in survival of a species).
any living thing would over-run the rest of other living things (by consuming resources) without some kind of resistance or push-back. if, due its overconsumption, other living things die, we describe that as malignant and/or cancerous.
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man has created "artificial" intelligence (AI) and has equipped the AI with the ability to learn at a super-human rate. the result has been that (for some basic tasks and games) AI has become exponentially more evolved than humans.
artificial general intelligence (AGI) occurs when the AI can "think" on its own, and when it has a sense of self. it won't have to be a prototypical (physical) "robot" to replicate itself. imagine a super-intelligent machine that can think, and replicate.
artificial superintelligence (ASI) will happen once AGI is equipped with the internet, allowing it access to all of the artificial knowledge on planet earth. if it can learn across multiple domains, it will be able create knowledge that would be impossible for humans to comprehend, and we will not know how, when, where, what or who the ASI is.
ASI will be a God, of sorts. it will be super-intelligent, super-malignant... and unstoppable.
God knows what it will think (of humans).