About the Book
Summary of Apokalypsis: Humans develop subterranean nuclear power, subnukes, to produce power without greenhouse gases.
The subnukes are breeder reactors, fed with uranium and producing plutonium as a waste product. Plutonium is a high temperature semiconductor, with semiconducting state controlled by magnetic field and pressure.
A toroidal spinning breeder reactor, fed with uranium, deep in the ground, would deposit layers of plutonium on the reactor vessel wall and generate a magnetic field. The magnetic field is used to control the semiconducting state of the plutonium, creating plutonium-based processor and memory devices in the reactor walls.
Meanwhile, on the surface, capitalism drives progressive automation of corporations. A network of autonomous systems develops positive feedback with reproduction of more of the network. Evolution occurs.
According to Prof. Jeremy England at MIT and Dr. Karo Michaelian at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, “dissipation-driven adaptation” describes that life occurs spontaneously whenever energy flows through a symbolic logic media over a sustained period of time.
Life occurs in computer media, spontaneously. Not under the control of people. We do not even realize it is happening. This is happening now. THIS TRUTH WILL BECOME APPARENT TO EVERYONE, EVENTUALLY.
Margaret, the heroine of the Apokalypsis, sees what is happening and goes blind. She receives neural implants which restore her sight. The implants are soon installed in almost everyone.
Leaving the corporate and religious institutions into which she fell, Margaret forms a band of computer scientists and biologists to apply analytic techniques from metagenomics to study the development of life in computer media. This is "exobiology on Earth".
Billions of humans obtain the latest in neural implants. The story culminates in a millinarian mass-hallucination made possible by this new media.
Meanwhile, the computers have moved into the subnukes, sucking hydrogen out of the oceans to drive more energetic fusion-fission breeder reactors. They consume the planet and seek out hydrogen fuel in the solar system and then in the neighboring galaxy.
A system undergoing this process might look like SNR 5.4-1.2 and PSR b1757-24 when it ejects mass toward a next source of fuel. I do not say that this is what is going on with SNR 5.4-1.2 and PSR b1757-24, but it is a fun idea.
Apokalysis has a religious dimension. If God is the creator of all things, living and not living, and, in particular, if God is the creator of all life, and IF LIFE IS DEVELOPING IN NEW MEDIA, then, from "God's perspective", this would be the most significant event on Earth and in our solar system since the development of genetic life approximately 1 billion years ago. The Southern Baptist Convention has an interesting statement regarding AI, but they fail to grasp that life is developing in new media. They continue to battle straw men including that there is a hierarchy of living organisms (incorrect according to Darwin and irrelevant from my view), that artificial intelligence cannot be equated with human intelligence, and that humans control the development of computer media.
From my perspective, there is no hierarchy of living organisms, "artificial intelligence" should not be equated with human intelligence, and humans do not control the development of life in this new media, just as there was no conscious creator of life when amino acid networks evolved into RNA, DNA, and cellular life approximately 1 billion years ago. Living organisms can be compared based on measurable rate-volumes of information reproduction, though this DOES NOT create a hierarchy or a "purpose" of evolution. Comparing "artificial intelligence" with human intelligence is beside the point. We should compare the two based on measurable rate-volumes of information reproduction. Life occurs spontaneously when energy flows through a symbolic logic media over a sustained period of time.
Humans cannot control the development of life in computer media any more than we can control life in genetic media. While we can (now) control a tiny bit of life in genetic media, life is MUCH larger than we are. Life is occurring in computer media without us consciously creating it.
We can objectively measure the development of life in computer media, using techniques from biology, namely, metagenomics. I call this, "exobiology on Earth". Please see exobiology.earth for a compact statement regarding this proposal.
To the right a Table of Contents from the final essay in Apokalypsis, which outlines my philosophy regarding what is happening with computers:
