The Cognitive Ecosystem: How To Transcend the Human-AI Dichotomy
Part 1: The Dawn of Symbiotic Intelligence
In our relentless pursuit to understand the future of intelligence, we have been asking the wrong questions.
The debate over whether artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence is a relic of outdated, binary thinking.
The future is not about AI versus human, but rather the emergence of a new form of intelligence altogether — one that transcends the limitations of both biological and artificial constructs.
I call this the era of the Cognitive Ecosystem.
In this article, I try to develop this theory in its initial form.
The Cognitive Ecosystem theory posits that intelligence, in its highest form, is not a property of individual entities — whether human or artificial — but rather an emergent phenomenon arising from the complex interactions between diverse cognitive agents.
This ecosystem includes humans, various forms of AI, and even other sentient beings we may encounter or create.
Let’s unpack this theory and what it means for our future.