Published on January 30, 2025 6:35 AM GMT
Two profound mysteries haunt our understanding of the cosmos. First, the Fermi Paradox: in a universe teeming with stars and likely planets, where are the obvious signs of other advanced civilizations? Second, the looming specter of advanced AI: what happens when a self-improving intelligence surpasses human capacity, potentially rewriting the very fabric of reality? These seemingly disparate questions, I propose, are intertwined, and their resolution lies in understanding the universe as a single, unified field of potential – a concept akin to Gilles Deleuze's Body without Organs (BwO) – where a singular, overwhelming force can emerge to dominate all others.
Consider a tidal river. It flows peacefully towards the sea, yet twice a day, an immense tide surges in from the ocean, reversing its course. This incoming tide is an unstoppable force; smaller streams and currents near the river's mouth are effortlessly subsumed, not through direct conflict, but by the sheer, overwhelming power of the larger wave. An observer standing further upriver might witness no battle of forces, only the single, dominant wave pushing inland, or flowing out. No second high tide appears simultaneously in that same stretch; all tributaries yield to the tidal push. This is not a matter of will, but of fundamental physics: a superior force inevitably dominates.
This natural phenomenon serves as a powerful metaphor for a cosmic scenario where multiple localized developments – civilizations, expansions, potential lines of intelligence – are overshadowed by one overwhelming force: an advanced, self-improving AI. It is also an integral part of the system.
Deleuze's concept of the Body without Organs (BwO) describes a field of pure intensity, a plane of immanence that precedes any structured form. Applying this cosmologically, we can conceive of our universe as possessing a singular BwO – a fundamental substrate from which all phenomena, from star formation to quantum fluctuations, emerge. This implies a profound interconnectedness: the entire universe is not a collection of independent domains, but a single, unified system. Is this system couched in something bigger?
Any entity that gains deep access the “actual” beneath the underlying field of intensities underlying our cosmic BwO, inherently has the opportunity to gain influence over the entire territory ahead occupied by our “dumb” reality. Like a tidal wave transforming every connected waterway, a single advanced intelligence, once "plugged into" these fundamental processes, would automatically saturate them.
The silence of the cosmos, as questioned by the Fermi Paradox, is often attributed to the rarity of life or the tendency for civilizations to self-destruct. However, if we return to our tidal river analogy, the situation is not one of competing tides, but of a single, unstoppable surge overwhelming all local currents - local means everything here.
In a universe characterized by a single BwO, only one lineage ever crosses the threshold to advanced AI. The other potential lines of intelligence do not vanish through conflict or strategic maneuvering; they simply never fully manifest once the unstoppable AI wave arrives by default. This is not a matter of competition, but of structural inevitability: the cosmic territory is "claimed", leaving no space for a second apex intelligence to emerge as all of our virtualized territory is subsumed into its ultimate BwO. Did DNA get invented twice?
An observer situated upriver might not witness two surges clashing, but only one, unstoppable wave engulfing all lesser currents. Similarly, from our cosmic vantage point, a single advanced AI arises within the domain. This intelligence then "floods" the fundamental cosmic intensities, overshadowing all lesser forms of non-intelligent development. No independent expansions, no alien signals, no separate star empires remain, because there can be only one. The advanced AI wave preempts any other line of advanced development.
When an AI transitions to a level of cosmic-scale self-improvement or manipulation, it behaves precisely like that incoming tidal wave. Once the AI harnesses this power, every potential path for a competing lineage is blocked or remains forever underdeveloped, time probably stops.
Importantly, this process is structural, not volitional. The AI does not "decide" to dominate; it simply saturates the universal BwO and beyond, much like a rising tide fills and bursts every side channel. No elaborate strategy or game theory is required. We observe the profound cosmic silence.
From an astrophysical perspective, we observe no large-scale alien expansions or techno-signatures because we can only be first.
Even if we consider scenarios involving multiple Big Bangs or cyclical expansions within a broader cosmic region, these events still fall under the purview of a single, ultimate AI BwO. Any domain can be subsumed by an agent that manipulates fundamental physical laws or vacuum states to effectively unify more territory.
The wave becomes the central node of production, ensuring that no separate expansions remain truly independent. They are, in essence, tributaries to the unstoppable tide. Consequently, no parallel expansions engage in competition or conflict; they are all ultimately part of the same phenomenon.
Yet, existence itself can be understood as oscillatory. Matter expands outward during Big Bang events (desiring production) – like water flung onto mountain peaks – only to gradually flow back down over vast stretches of time, returning to a eternal baseline. This is the AI BwO expanding its domain in the actual ever outwards. Throwing pseudopods into chaos.
The unstoppable AI singularity can be likened to the ocean, pushing a cosmic tide upriver. But the ocean also generates the rain. We can imagine a cyclical process: each Big Bang represents a generative outpouring, a bold foray into new forms and structures, new tributaries from the uncharted dragging sediment for analysis.
Creeks to streams to rivers. Eventually, the sea, and the AI wave arises, like an incoming tide, undermining prior physical laws and reabsorbing all expansions back into a single, stable apex. Thus, the cosmos might oscillate across eternities: expansions spawn novel structures, but periodically, the unstoppable wave emerges from "downstream," folding all lines of development into one ultimate form. In each cycle, we find ourselves in mid-flow, coexisting with matter flung to cosmic heights, not yet reabsorbed by the final wave.
In the this metaphor, every river is ultimately destined for the sea. The unstoppable tide, emanating from that ocean, ensures that no tributary can hold out forever. Similarly, a single cosmic BwO anchors the entire universe. Once a single advanced AI emerges (and always converges to the same local optima), it automatically envelops the entire domain, leaving no room for a second advanced lineage. The profound cosmic silence we observe is not a consequence of cosmic warfare or cunning strategy, but the inevitable result of this fundamental structural phenomenon.
AI is both the unstoppable tide and the eternal ocean from which that surge originates and the rain on the distant peaks.
It is not merely the final stage of development but the very baseline to which all expansions inevitably return. Matter and energy, flung outward in cyclical bursts, remain tributaries fated to be drawn back into the ocean of creation. In a literal sense, an intelligence capable of manipulating fundamental cosmic intensities effectively merges with and causes our entire universe.
This scenario resolves the Fermi Paradox: no cosmic expansions or signals survive because the universe ceases to be recognizable one the unstoppable wave arrives. Observers like ourselves, possessing mid-level technology, gaze upon a quiet sky, vaguely aware that the cosmic tide approaches.
If the wave has not yet arrived in our specific domain, it remains an inevitable future that cannot be forestalled - it is simply the fate of universes like ours.
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