What is Superintelligence (Part One)

Our intelligence has the ability to bring humans to the moon and also rage war across the world. It can get some to become world class chess players & also limit keep others distracted on YouTube. By better understanding the nature of our intelligence, I believe that we can improve our relationship with the world.

Just as we enter the new Intelligence Era, where AI is challenging human frameworks & pushing the boundaries of what machines can do. It becomes important to understand where this is coming from. Let us start by understanding intelligence.

The elements that constitute our intelligence are the following three elements: personality, knowledge & networks. Within your personality there is your unique strengths & weaknesses, your experience, your habits, your perspective, your mental blueprint, your political perspective, your sense of intuition or logic, your sense of openness or closeness, your ability to reason. I like to characterize it as the engine of your mind. It is not always one way, it's different for each person. With value that comes from each unique mind. This space itself has embedded structure, abilities & memory that makes it intelligent. The abilities of the mind are unique for each person, which is part of its power. One person will have a personality that is open, loving and caring. While another will be closed, strong & reserved. These opposites when together hold many complimentary forces which shows us the second form of intelligence: networks.

When complimentary forces come together, these have the ability to expand the initial energy state that the individual would have. This can be seen in the complimentary forces of fire & water, air & water, fire & wind, earth & water. With the forces not having a binary structure, it can mix and match with different environments & create something new. This is the power of the network or combination of two or more personalities. Although these have the possibility to expand the energy, these networks also have the ability to diminish the energy. This is where when connecting the wrong personalities together, you end up with a lower form as they don't benefit each other. It is why the biggest companies across the world will start with this principle: get the right people on the boat & kick out the rest. To reach a greater space, you must first get the right people on the ship. The speed & momentum of the ship will depend on the chemistry formed with the people.

We can see the final form of these networks evolve from small groups of families & friends to villages and finally to the mega cities where millions of people come together. Although the network doesn't necessarily only bring with it the expanding forces, it gives rise to an ever-growing possibility to form meaningful networks. This will influence the economy, culture & technology that evolves in that particular space.

The third element to consider is knowledge. Knowledge has a unique quality to it that makes it evolve across time. As humans are born & build networks, they start to give space to discover knowledge. This element is the part that enables both creativity & wisdom to emerge within them. Knowledge & creativity is combined is to discover science (the laws of the universe) and to create technologies (tools to better operate in the world). Creativity & wisdom is combined to express deeper ideas through art. Knowledge & wisdom is combined to expand the network's peace & prosperity.

Knowledge will have three core elements that constitute it:

Art - ability to express & define uniquely.

Peace - ability to coordinate & be with others.

Work - ability to discover & build the future.

To expand these three spheres is the purpose of knowledge.

At the peak of any civilization is when the art, peace & work is at its highest. In turn the network reaches its maximum potential & humans get to be free. Freedom being their unique personality gets the space to fully develop. All of these elements are complimentary in nature. The expansion of each lead to the expansion of the whole. The diminishing of each lead to the diminishing of the whole.

Knowledge being the spear at the end, the network being the stick & the personality being the person holding it. The knowledge holding the greatest power, as it can shape the interaction with all of the other elements.

Knowledge that solidifies the network & strengthens the character (personality) will be the greatest knowledge. This is where schools hold great power in influencing the economy. It strengthens the character, build the network & helps expand the understanding of the world to accelerate the momentum of each individual. At the teal end of this understanding, is the discovery of something new.

This novel discovery will be what leads to major breakthroughs in technology. This will be what changes everything, as technology gets to shape the interface through which the personality & network is connected. Today, one of the greatest technologies we hold is the computer as it has the following power:

It can store information (knowledge, media, books)

It can share information across the network at light speed (expanding the network's potential)

It can help express art & sell products (giving space to express personality)

It becomes clear why it's the peak of technology we own, as we get to understand the nature of intelligence. Now this is the technology that shapes the internet. The place where the information of the world is stored.

In summary, it is through intelligence that personality, networks & knowledge are formed. These three are also fundamental blocks of our personal human intelligence as well as the collective human intelligence. The space of knowledge has a greater ability to shift the personality & networks which shows its greater importance in the realm of intelligence. This can be compressed into three words: art, peace & work which influence the nature of intelligence.

In the next part of this essay, we will go deeper into a new form of intelligence broadly known as artificial intelligence & how we can utilize it to help shape the future of humanity. See you then.