Brainwave, Poul Willian Anderson

This journal entry continues from my last entry, covering the partial story called "The Escape." At the end of that ebook is written, "To Be Continued." I had to do some digging to find that it is a part of the complete work called Brainwave. I considered reposting the previous journal entry here, but decided not to at last. So, continuing from where I left off:

I do like this novel, thus far. I am roughly 1/2 way through it at this point. However, I find the consequences to everyone having great intelligence faulty. In "The Great Escape," there was some room for debate, I thought. However, at this point I find myself in thorough opposition to the points that Anderson is making.

Concerning art, the author's protaganist says,

Art, throughout history, has had a terrible tendency to decay, or to petrify into sheer imitation of the past.

Art does not suffer from this. Not every artist is a great pioneer like Picasso. But that doesn't mean that it is less artistic. Great scientists are equally rare, but the work of common scientists and engineers is still vitally important.

Scientists work hard to try to revert humankind back to its less intelligent level. Men have become lazier. They don't want to work. They would rather sit around philosophizing than working to build things. Intelligence has created a "...world of rootless intellect (which) has lost all its old dreams and loves. We want to restore humanness)."

Some people put together a ship that will return the earth to its pre-superhuman intelligence. However, their efforts are thwarted. The Hindu man who was a part of the plot says in his defense, "Are all the glories man has won in the past to go for nothing? Before he has even found God, will you turn God into a nursery tale? What have you given him in return for the splendors of his art, the creation in his hands, and the warm little pleasures when his day's work is done? You have turned him into a calculating machine, and the body and the soul can wither amidst his new equations." This suggests the idea that atheism is a product of superior intellect. I am an atheist and feel that intellect must eventually bury religion. However, I always have to keep in mind that Sir Isaac Newton, the greatest scientific and mathematical genius of the second millennium, was a Christian of a sort. I am in no way equal to him.

I have finished the novel at this point:

The story ends with Sheila joining Archie Brock and his group of animals and other intellectually challenged people to find her new life. Archie Brock is still very intelligent. But he doesn't reach beyond the necessity of survival.

The rest of humankind is ready to leave the planet and travel amongst the stars. Perhaps that is not a bad end. The great intelligence manages to overcome violence. Perhaps it manages to find a place for the advanced intelligence of humans.

I think the story is a very interesting one. It is his effort to explore the idea which is written at the end, saying, "What would happen If." What would happen if, somehow, everyone became super intelligent?

Another interesting question might be: are we doing that now? Did Anderson at least in part predict what would happen if we suddenly became more intelligent as a species? Are we doing that now?

For instance: machines are evolving to have artificially intelligent brains and vastly evolved robotics that so many jobs are being done by them. More are coming. Automated cars and transport trucks are on the horizon. Pizza delivery is already being done by drone. Inaugural farms are being run exclusively using AI and machinery. The consequence is that our current economic model means that many people are without jobs. The jobs themselves being lost are not the problem, but rather that money is printed on the basis of production, and with fewer people being involved in the production, that means there are fewer economic avenues available to workers. If we are able to evolve a monetary system based on the intrinsic value of a human life rather than, say, a barrel of oil (and print money based on the human value rather than the barrel of oil), then those people would be able to take care of themselves and enjoy the evolution: a kind of emancipation. Alas, so few people understand that economic models are based on theory and capable of being altered by governments. A majority have not yet realized the benefit of such a transition.

So, we are intellectually evolving. The machines are taking over. And these years are the pains we must endure before the benefit affects everyone.