TEDxKC speaker Louis Rosenberg: Hive mind key to battling alien threat

Editor’s note: Startland News is exploring a few of the most impactful quotes from speakers at Friday’s TEDxKC event at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

“Here we are: the most intelligent species on the Earth. Congratulations. Unfortunately, things are about to change.”
— Louis Rosenberg

An alien intelligence is headed toward humanity at breakneck speeds, Louis Rosenberg told the TEDxKC crowds, and it will challenge humans’ position as the intellectual top dog on the planet. Experts say the threat could be decades away, he said, but that doesn’t lessen the danger.

“Let’s just be straight: We have no reason to believe it will be friendly. It will have its own values, its own morals, its own self interests,” Rosenberg said. “And if it behaves anything like we do, it will put its own self interests first — to the detriment of all other creatures it encounters.”

No. The looming invasion won’t come at the hands of aliens, he argued. Rather it will be a creature of humanity’s own creation: A sentient artificial intelligence that will emerge from research labs at Google, Facebook or a leading university, Rosenberg, CEO of Unanimous A.I., said.

His solution: Form a bee-like hive mind or “brain of brains” through which swarm intelligence will help humans get smarter together.

By aggregating diverse perspectives on values, morals and sensibilities, Rosenberg said, the species can become more wise — quick-witted enough to fend off not only artificial intelligence, but also to solve such problems as poverty, inequality and sustainability.

“If honeybees could observe how we humans make big group decisions — like electing our leaders, resolving our conflicts or planning for our future — they might think we’re the primitive ones,” he said. “But not for long.”