“We read to know we’re not alone.”
― William Nicholson, Shadowlands: A Play
Last year, I made a new friend from Malaysia who has been living in Japan for several years. Since he works in the tech field, specifically in the telecommunications industry, we found that, as fellow engineers, we shared many common interests.
One day, he mentioned that one of his goals is to read as many as twenty books a year. That’s a lot! When I first heard it, I wasn’t particularly interested. However, later on, I had the opportunity to visit a bookstore in Tokyo with him. We headed to the English book section, and one of his recommendations was a book called Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark.
For those unfamiliar with Max Tegmark, here’s a brief introduction to him (according to Gemini AI).
Max Tegmark is a renowned Swedish-American physicist, machine learning researcher, and author. He is best known for his work in cosmology and artificial intelligence. Tegmark is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the president of the Future of Life Institute.
When I began reading it, the book completely transformed my perspective on life. Max Tegmark introduces the concept of Life 3.0 as a new form of life, one that is detached from the biological living creatures we are familiar with today. In the book, Life 3.0 is described as robotics—life that does not conform to traditional biological formats.
According to the author, Life 1.0 encompasses the most basic forms of life, such as bacteria. Life 2.0 includes us—humans—beings with biological bodies and brains that allow us to think and adapt. Tegmark further suggests that humanity might be considered Life 2.1 due to our advancements in biological innovations, such as kidney replacements and other forms of bodily modifications. At the very least, medical innovations have enabled us to extend our lifespans, blurring the lines between natural and engineered life.
And then comes Life 3.0. Unlike us, these entities don’t have biological appearances; they are essentially machines. If a part of them malfunctions or breaks, they simply replace the faulty component with a new one. When they need to acquire a new skill, they don’t undergo the lengthy learning process as we do. Instead, they install the necessary software directly into their brain-like systems.
The book also explores what life might look like in the near future. It suggests that we may one day be able to upload our consciousness before our physical death, allowing us to transfer our minds into virtually any compatible mechanical body. Imagine inhabiting a supermodel’s physique to attract others, or fitting into a bird-like form to soar through the skies.
Moreover, it discusses the idea that when it comes to exploring the universe, digital travel might be our only option. Our physical bodies wouldn’t survive the billions of years required to reach a new Earth-like planet, but our digital selves could.
Wow! Just wow. I’m only halfway through the book, but it has already profoundly altered my perspective on life, especially since it delves into the concept of immortality.
Later in the chapter, Tegmark presents a fascinating analogy about modern AI, using the development of commercial airplanes as an example. On December 3, 1903, the Wright brothers successfully invented the first powered airplane. However, long before this, we already had birds as natural models for flight. Despite this, once the Wright brothers’ airplane was invented, humanity continued to develop new aircraft based on that original design. It took more than a century before engineers finally created an airplane with wings modeled after actual birds.
Tegmark suggests that AI might follow a similar trajectory. Today’s AI is not fully modeled on the human brain; it’s something entirely different. Just as airplanes evolved based on an initial design that wasn’t a direct replica of bird wings, AI may continue to evolve based on a foundational model that isn’t a precise copy of the human brain. This, he argues, could be the most straightforward path for humanity to explore as we advance in AI development.
More books to come…
“When you stop learning, you stop living.” That’s my philosophy on life. I believe I’ve always been, and always will be, a student of life. Just last week, we visited the bookstore again and discovered more books to explore. Among the titles my friend recommended were Homo Deus, which I ended up purchasing, and The Code Breaker. Both delve into the future of humanity and the field of genetic modification, respectively.
Oh, you have to keep learning and adding new flavors to your life. Life can become dreadfully monotonous if we simply go through the motions without learning something new. For me, this truth becomes clearer with each passing year—I find myself dedicating more and more time to self-learning, particularly in programming and other tech-related subjects.
Now, biology has entered my sphere of interest. The world is changing faster than ever before, and as I strive to keep up with it, I realize I’ll never get bored. But with this rapid change comes both hope and a certain amount of pressure.
Life is a long marathon. Keep learning, keep moving forward.
Let us begin.