Evolution managed to spit out some impressively complex technology at both the cellular level (e.g. mitochondria), chemical level (e.g. venom, hormones), and macro level (e.g. birds) via random iterative mutations of DNA.
Human designers have managed to come up with completely different kinds of complex machinery (internal combustion engines, airplanes, integrated circuits) and chemicals which aren’t found anywhere in nature, using intelligent top-down design and industrial processes.
I read “diamondoid bacteria” as synecdoche for the obvious possible synergy between these two design spaces, e.g. modifying natural DNA sequences or writing new ones from scratch using an intelligent design process, resulting in “biological” organisms at points in the design space that evolution could never reach. For example, cells that can make use of chemicals that can (currently) only be synthesized at scale in human-built industrial factories, e.g. diamond or carbon nanotubes.
I think such synergy is pretty likely to allow humans to climb far higher in the tech tree than our current level, with or without the help of AI. And if humans can climb this tech tree at all, then (by definition) human-level AGIs can also climb it, perhaps much more rapidly so.
I’m open to better terminology though, if anyone has suggestions or if there’s already something more standard. I think “diamondoid mechanosynthesis” is overly-specific and not really what the term is referring to.
Evolution managed to spit out some impressively complex technology at both the cellular level (e.g. mitochondria), chemical level (e.g. venom, hormones), and macro level (e.g. birds) via random iterative mutations of DNA.
Human designers have managed to come up with completely different kinds of complex machinery (internal combustion engines, airplanes, integrated circuits) and chemicals which aren’t found anywhere in nature, using intelligent top-down design and industrial processes.
I read “diamondoid bacteria” as synecdoche for the obvious possible synergy between these two design spaces, e.g. modifying natural DNA sequences or writing new ones from scratch using an intelligent design process, resulting in “biological” organisms at points in the design space that evolution could never reach. For example, cells that can make use of chemicals that can (currently) only be synthesized at scale in human-built industrial factories, e.g. diamond or carbon nanotubes.
I think such synergy is pretty likely to allow humans to climb far higher in the tech tree than our current level, with or without the help of AI. And if humans can climb this tech tree at all, then (by definition) human-level AGIs can also climb it, perhaps much more rapidly so.
I’m open to better terminology though, if anyone has suggestions or if there’s already something more standard. I think “diamondoid mechanosynthesis” is overly-specific and not really what the term is referring to.