Base human participation in the destiny of intelligent life has an expiration date.
We tend to assume that history produces a ratcheting in our level of understanding. That we are on a journey out of a Cro-Magnon Eden of blissful ignorance towards a state of enlightened nirvana. However a population with at least some individuals equipped with theories that explain their world might be a mere fleeting phase – so very Nineteenth Century.
Once technology produces artifacts beyond our capacity for comprehension we will enter a second dark age. These artifacts will be the product of genetic algorithms, simulated evolution or AIs out-thinking us.
The Renaissance, Enlightenment and the Modern age are likely bacon, lettuce and tomato, sandwiched between two thick slices of ignorance.
Are computers coming up with answers we cannot understand?
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/04/are-computer-coming-up-with-answers-we-cannot-understand.html
