Engineering Life into Technology: the Application of Complexity Theory to a Potential Phase Transition in Intelligence

Abstract

Information optimization is a centerpiece phenomenon in the universe. It develops from simplicity, then continuously breaks symmetry and cycles through instability to progress to increasingly dense nodes of complexity and diversity. Intelligence has arisen as the information optimization node with the greatest complexity. A contemporary imbalance is presented in that exponentially growing technology could be poised as a potential sole successor to human intelligence. A complex dynamical system is emerging in response, the engineering of life into technology. Numerous network elements are developing which could self-organize into the next node of symmetry, a phase transition in intelligence.

Keywords

• symmetry
• complexity
• phase transition
• information optimization
• intelligence
• complex adaptive systems
• complex dynamical systems
• biomolecular interface
• biotechnology
• integration of organic and inorganic matter