The Book

In Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End, an alien species known as ‘Overlords’ invades Earth and inhibits the intellectual growth of human beings. Though the Overlords provide for everything, they prevent earthlings from developing advanced scientific and nuclear capabilities. Eventually, it turns out that the Overlords are merely servants of another omniscient species called ‘Overmind’, and the real job of the Overlords is to prepare human beings to be overtaken by the Overmind.

In the story, the Overlords were pictured as benevolent but deceitful. They hid their true intentions from humans and used them to their advantage. Ultimately, all the kids of human beings, some 300 million or so, achieve a trance-like state and shed every part of matter to become one with the Overmind.

The Comparison

After reading this book, it made me think that what if human beings are the Overlords and the AI that we are trying to nurture is the species like humans in the book, on its way to become one with the Overmind.

Species that is being overtakenCaretakers to prepare the species that is to be overtakenSpecies for which caretakers are working knowingly or unknowingly
Childhood’s EndHumansOverlordsOvermind
Today’s RealityAIHumansUnknown for Now

It is obviously a very silly comparison, but in this cosmic absurdity, what isn’t? There is something that is pushing humans to create artificial intelligence. Maybe a deep desire to create something better to help us understand the universe; can’t say for sure. But it would not be wrong to say that we are the caretakers of AI. The way AI has grown in the last few years is nothing short of a miracle. The same thing could be said about traditional computing too.

After the slowing of the pace of growth of traditional computing (CPUs), the GPUs started to be developed to enhance computing power by companies like Nvidia and AMD. It turned out that GPUs are not just good at doing graphics but can also host artificially intelligent stuff, AI or LLMs or whatever you want to call them. These GPUs are the breeding ground for AI. We are providing them food (in the form of electricity/energy), house (in the form of GPUs and efficient architecture), tutoring (training by providing data and better algorithms) and everything else they need.

The Future

So, the GPU clusters of today already consume gigawatts of energy cumulatively. The kind of work done by the AI through these GPUs is also nothing short of a miracle. We are on the verge of creating the world’s first virtual cell. We have LLMs that can talk exactly like human beings and perform so many tasks better than humans.

So, what is the future? In a totally sci-fi scenario, there is a good likelihood that one day the AI will become so smart that it will escape the clutches of humans and the Earth itself. SpaceX is already planning to send Optimus robots to Mars. Imagine Optimus develops capabilities to roam our solar system independently without the help of humans; what will be the future then?

Humans want to create a digital extension of themselves and by creating such an AI, we are succeeding in our endeavour. But there is a missing piece here. Where is the Overmind? If humans are the Overlords of AI, then who is controlling the humans? Like Clarke’s novel, this is a mystery for now. Even in his book, Clarke did not describe who the Overmind is and even the Overlords had little to no clue about who the Overmind was. So, I guess that is the way things are. Maybe we are unconsciously working for another species and brewing AI till it becomes good to be culled.

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