Will Artificial Intelligence Wipe Us Out? By Howard Bloom

Some experts are terrified by Artificial Intelligence, the new form of intelligence that may make cars, smart phones, drones, and weapons systems smarter than you and me. Why? They are afraid that as artificial intelligence powers autonomous machines and wanders in cyberspace looking for things to do, it will deem us unnecessary and purge the earth of our species.

Figures as august as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have gone public with their worries about an artificial intelligence apocalypse.

But I tried to explain to a symposium on digital humanism at the International Society for the Study of Information Summit September 15th that every time technology has reshaped us, it has upgraded us.

To see how synergies with electronic systems like artificial intelligence can give humanity new powers, look at how bacteria have gained new abilities over the last billion years.

When plants and animals first appeared in the sea over a billion years ago, the single-celled bacteria that owned the planet could have anticipated being annihilated by these new multicellular creatures. The bacteria could have gone on a crusade to stop multicellular formation.

But the multicellulars did not wipe out their single-celled forebears. Far from it. They worked out deals…