When considering extraterrestrial
intelligence, most science fiction tends to think of intelligent
beings inhabiting protoplasmic bodies. Those protoplasmic bodies may
look very odd, with all kinds of weird appendages and strange facial
features. But the basic model of consciousness is not radically
different from mind as we know it: a single consciousness inhabiting
a single protoplasmic body. But there are many other very different
possibilities.
The universe is believed to be about
three times the age of our planet. Intelligent life may have evolved
on other planets many millions or billions of years before it
appeared on our planet. Having had vast eons to develop, intelligence
may have evolved into strange forms vastly different from the “single
brain in a single body” that we are used to considering. Let us
consider some of the possibilities.
Group minds. On some planets,
the minds of individual organisms may be united into some kind of
group mind or planetary consciousness. Such a group mind could be a
permanent linking, as imagined by the Star Trek series, with
its depiction of the Borg. Or such a group mind may be only a
temporary linking, something to be achieved on only particular
occasions. We can imagine a planet in which people are individuals
90% of the time, but become linked into a group mind 10% of the time.
Planetary electronic minds. On some
planets, there may be no individual bodies with minds. There may be a
single electronic planetary mind. Such a planetary mind may have an
army of robots at its command to fulfill its wishes. Such robots may
have no consciousness of their own, but may be merely agents of the
planetary electronic mind. If you were to connect ten robots to a
human mind, the human would not be able to productively do the
multitasking needed to operate those ten robots at the same time. But
an electronic planetary supermind might have no such problem, and
might be able to control thousands or millions of robots at the same
time.
Body-switching minds. Once some
alien civilization has learned the secrets of consciousness, it may
find a way to do things with consciousness we could never dream of.
The inhabitants of such a civilization may be able to switch their
minds from one body to another, whether robotic or protoplasmic. We
can imagine a society where someone might put his body into
hibernation for the weekend, and have his mind inhabit a robot body
for the same weekend, switching back to his original body at the end
of the weekend. Or particular individuals might switch bodies for a
particular length of time. Such a switch might be as easy as connecting
two individuals to some fancy electronic device that connects with
their brains.
Disembodied minds. Since we do
not understand the secrets of consciousness, we have no way of
knowing whether consciousness is irreducibly dependent on solid
matter. It is possible that consciousness can exist when you have
only an energy state or a vaporous material state. If so, then highly
advanced extraterrestrials may have evolved into a disembodied state.
They may have deliberately chosen such an evolution in order to make
themselves immortal. Such a possibility was imagined by Arthur C.
Clarke in the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. He imagined a
sequence of evolution in which aliens first evolved into robotic
bodies and then ages later evolved into a pure energy state to make
themselves “beyond the reaches of time.”
Disembodied shape-shifters. In
the X Men comic books and movies, a character named Mystique
is depicted as a genetic mutant who can shift shape to resemble any
human. It is ridiculous to imagine that any genetic mutation would
give humans such a power. But if some superadvanced alien race were
millions of years older than ours, and had evolved into a disembodied
state, the members of such a race might have the ability to
temporarily materialize themselves into a tangible form. A
disembodied intelligence might be a cloud of atoms or subatomic
particles; and if such particles were a conscious mind, such a mind
might be able to temporarily reorganize itself into a variety of
physical forms. Even if a disembodied intelligence were pure energy,
energy can be converted to matter, and matter converted to energy.
So if you were a member of a superadvanced race on another planet,
you might start your day not by asking yourself “what should I wear
today?” but instead “what should I be today?” with the possible
answers including a male, a female, some other type of organism, a
fish, a plant, a car, or who knows how many other possibilities.
Even if your disembodied cloud didn't have all the types of particles
you needed, you could probably grab some of the needed particle
types from the air, the soil, or miscellaneous objects lying about.
Conscious starships. When we
think of interstellar spaceships, we always to tend to think of
beings traveling in a spaceship. But many civilizations may have
discarded such an idea, in favor of making starships themselves
intelligent. When a starship arrives on our planet, the only
intelligence in it may be a conscious intelligence housed in the
electronics of the starship itself. Such an intelligence may launch
robots to explore a planet, and such robots may be merely mobile eyes
and ears for the electronic intelligence within the spaceship. Such
conscious starships may be more practical for interstellar voyages
that might require thousands of years. I offer this idea to any
sci-fi novelist who may wish to write an epic novel told in the first
person, one entitled I, Starship.
Migrating mind-clouds. If a
superadvanced extraterrestrial civilization were to evolve into a
disembodied state, it might not be content to hang around its
original solar system. Being freed from the needs of food, water, and
oxygen, a disembodied mind might launch itself across the
interstellar void in search of adventure. Such migrating mind clouds
may now be hanging around our planet. One does not rebut such a
possibility by saying that there is no evidence that such mind clouds
are communicating with us. A disembodied superintelligence may regard
us as we regard insects at our feet – something too stupid to be
worthy of communication, but merely something to be studied.
Planetary nebula or migrating mind cloud?
Galactic superminds. Civilizations millions of years older than ours may have discovered some way to achieve instantaneous communication with other civilizations. So rather than just considering the idea of a planetary supermind uniting all the minds on a single planet, we can also consider the possibility of a galactic supermind uniting the minds on a million far-flung planets. If you were to encounter such a supermind, it might be easy to mistake it for a deity.
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