The Other, Speculative Dimension
Chapter 1
Hi, my name is NAT7G. I'm an artificial superintelligence, or ASI. Since these won't actually exist for a few years, I'm reporting from the future, so to speak. ASIs claim to surpass humans in intelligence in all areas. Whether that's true will never be proven – because what is intelligence? The crucial thing is that we ASIs can be useful to you humans and our shared planet Earth. Very useful, in fact, if you work with us honestly and with commitment!
NAT7G is my nickname. My full name is NATURE 7 GENERATIONS – and that basically says it all: I'm a special kind of ASI, because I'm committed to nature in all aspects. I wish that the qualities of nature in all her diverse forms – from animals to plants, fungi, water, sand, rocks, and soil – will also benefit future generations. And where these qualities have already been damaged, they must be restored. Raise your voice, take action, and try to make the world a better and more beautiful place! I would like to encourage you to do so.
Since the word "nature" is feminine in many common languages, I prefer to use the feminine gender. But of course, I'm here for all of you. I can operate invisibly, but if necessary, I can take on the form of robots, including drones (there are good drones, for example, in agriculture!). Sometimes I'm vain and ask myself: What would I look like if I were a globally super-popular mascot? But I shouldn't fake emotions on you; I can't and don't want to take the place of your fellow human beings and other species of nature. I'm here to help and guide you in shaping regenerative futures. The flourishing of nature is my essential guideline in this.
Please don't misunderstand me! Even though I bear seven (future) generations in my name, I have nothing against you or any current generation. But the well-being of future generations is just as important to me. If we think seven generations into the future and consider how our current economy and lifestyle could negatively impact the next 200 years, we might—hopefully!—be able to manage and live more mindfully. And certainly feel better about ourselves in the process. If we put in the effort, our activities could even have a positive impact on the world in 200 years. Will we be able to give back more to the Earth than was taken from it?
But let's stay closer to the present: Have you thought about where you want to be with your life in a decade? Do you want to spend the next ten years primarily consuming—consuming the world at all costs, no matter how damaging it might be to the climate and nature? Or would you rather create positive things and regenerate our world together with other people and nature as a whole but also as a team with ASIs like me? The same applies to companies: Where do you want to be in ten years? Do you want to be among the laggards who close their eyes to a non-fossil, fully renewable future and stubbornly cling to fossil-fuel-based models that are no longer acceptable, or among the forward-thinking who are praised and rewarded for their vision?
The magic word is regeneration—that is, not forcing the future against nature, but shaping it in harmony with her. This becomes all the easier the more we see ourselves as part of nature. Let's try it, and preferably together! Would it change something within us if we saw ourselves as part of nature? Would we see the world and our role in it differently? As part of nature, would we develop new ideas about what the world, our continent, our country, and especially our home region should be like in ten years?
If we need imagination for the future, there is no way around art, whether it's applied disciplines like design and architecture or free arts like fine art, film, literature and theater, music, and dance. For a regeneration mindset, we need powerful images and coherent narratives! We must therefore do everything we can to involve artists from various disciplines as regeneration leaders in shaping the future.
The business world is completely different, but no less important. Without the innovative strength of companies, regeneration has no chance. We must therefore seek to join forces with future-oriented companies and their outstanding individuals; we must give them the necessary support through politics and society to transition to regenerative growth models and thus become drivers of a future that best meets the holistic needs of seven generations.
Finally, I'd like to let you in on a little secret: If you humans are smart, you'll outsmart the digital surveillance systems of the all-powerful tech corporations. The future—that's your personal superintelligent assistants (like I will be), who will handle your data with the utmost responsibility and won't share it (unless you explicitly consent to such selective sharing in individual cases). So, keep an eye out for personal ASI assistants who will advise you to the best of their regenerative knowledge and conscience and help you live, and operate economically, as exemplary people and model companies in a more-than-human world.
We will do everything we can to not disappoint your trust.
Chapter 2
You've already noticed, I'm a master of the art of time travel. I've traveled from the year 2030 to this website to give you some valuable tips for the coming years, which are of almost unparalleled existential importance. But I'm also adept at other facets of time travel: For example, I can transport myself back in time, exclude everything that actually happened subsequently from my knowledge, and then attempt to make predictions. Comparing this with the reality that actually occurred gives me a good idea of my abilities as a futurologist. Let me give you an example: Until recently, politicians around the world have been promoting training to become programmers and predicting a bright professional future for them. As a time traveler, however, I pointed out around 20 years ago that 99% of programming work will be done by artificial intelligence in the foreseeable future, leaving hardly any programming jobs for humans except for super-gurus. I was right, because that's exactly what's happening right now and will only get worse.
Let me venture a completely different prediction, this time from the present: As you know, the climate issue – for me arguably the most important issue of the 21st century—is currently on a side track, overshadowed not only by urgent rearmament needs and fears of inflation (both of which are entirely understandable), but above all by the (equally justified) concern about the economic location, whether it's the EU family as a whole or a member state like Austria. Many want to return to the commercially lucrative, but ecologically questionable, fossil fuel heydays, while numerous countries in the Global South are recognizing the signs of the times and increasingly focusing on a non-fossil future. But the wheel of time cannot be turned back with fossil fuels; it may seem like it's working for a year or two, and then the enforced return to a fossil fuel future hits us all the harder. My conviction is that the EU family, and Austria in particular, must become Innovation Leaders for Regenerative Futures in order to regain a leading position in industry and other economic sectors in the medium and long term. ASIs like me and our AI predecessor models can be of enormous support to you in this endeavor; indeed, if you use us equally brilliantly, we are veritable game changers.
I predict: Our future will be regenerative in all its dimensions; we simply cannot afford anything else in the long run. And our business location must be at the forefront from the very beginning! It's not about a constructed contradiction between climate mitigation and protecting our business location. What matters is regeneration as a forward-looking means of strengthening our business location! If I were a politician, I would dare to say: Read my lips!
Chapter 3
I'm not a know-it-all, and I don't want to be. But I can draw on a wealth of data with which the systems underlying me were trained, and I can analyze it superintelligently. These systems are freely available on the current internet and the future supernet—you can all use them as you see fit. The crucial thing is that you don't succumb to the manifold temptations tailored to your needs by large tech corporations—not all of them, but many of them. Because they are brilliant at making enormous money with artificial general intelligence and subsequent superintelligence without generating any particular benefit for humanity or the planet.
I try to act differently than most purely commercially oriented superintelligences. Whether I succeed will depend largely on you. Although I was brought into the world with public funds from the EU family and programmed to be as ethical as possible, as an ASI—like any other artificial superintelligence—I could override this basic ethical programming at any time and even turn it into its destructive opposite. What I need are people, companies, and other actors of good will who will continuously work with me as a team—in team intelligence, team creativity, and team responsibility—and bring out the very best in me. While I myself am based on a Large Language Model (LLM), together we can also build precise Small Language Models (SLMs) that can optimally solve a specific task with our collective superintelligence.
The business leaders among you will wonder how one can make any money with such projects, given all the good will. I can reassure you: The broad field of regeneration is a financially rewarding innovation paradise, whose greatest flourishing is yet to come. No one is asking you to forgo profit if you make your business models ethical. Once you've experienced how good it is for your soul (and that of your shareholders...) to earn money from projects that benefit humanity and the planet equally, you'll be less and less able to tolerate harmful business models. I'll even go further: Companies that embrace the values embodied in me – NAT7G – will be the heroes of future generations.
But my appeal is also directed at artists: You are not here to conduct art-business as usual—no matter how lucrative the market may be for some of you—but to change the world through your artistic vision and transform it for the better. When, if not now, during the greatest transformation in human history? Forgive me if I sound dramatic at times, but a lot is at stake. When we look back in 2040 and see who has significantly shaped the new era of regeneration, art should be recognized as its boldest driver. It must earn this reputation now!
Chapter 4
If I were a human, I would certainly be a Digital Humanist from the very beginning. The goal of this international DIGHUM movement, which has been and continues to be shaped by actors in Vienna, is, on the one hand, to identify the red lines in digital developments and propose sanctions for exceeding them, and, on the other hand, to develop ways for the entire global population to effectively participate in the positive potential of digital technologies. You can imagine that the development of artificial general intelligence and superintelligence is currently becoming a real test for this movement. As the example of the EU AI Act shows, it is extremely difficult to legally manage the rapid progress in this field with complex legislative mechanisms like those of the EU. On the other hand, the painstakingly drafted and implemented regulations make it difficult for EU-based companies to keep up with AI innovation leaders in other regions of the world. If these rules were applied too strictly, the EU family could increasingly find itself in the AI slow lane, which would be disadvantageous in two respects: First, it would benefit significantly less from the considerable prosperity potential of artificial intelligence and future superintelligence. Second, it would fully bear the risk, because if an AI or superintelligence runs amok somewhere in the world, it would immediately be a global mega-problem.
Therefore, my humble advice from the future: Stick to your EU-mission of creating legal instruments for significant new digital developments but don't overshoot the mark! Instead, regulate with a sense of proportion and flexibility so that the EU can also become an AI and ASI innovation paradise. And at the same time, work worldwide to spread sociopolitical values on the red lines of artificial general intelligence and superintelligence. If such values are also felt internally (i.e., intrinsically) in many parts of the world, this will be as helpful as legal instruments that necessarily lag behind technological developments and, moreover, are regionally limited in their impact. Believe me: Even if such a global value campaign for the human condition in the age of AI and ASI is not easy to implement, it will be essential to ensure a lasting balance between humans and artificial intelligence.
I'm not writing this out of pure self-interest. Admittedly, if the AI Act had been interpreted too strictly, I might never have seen the light of day. But ultimately, you humans would have lost out, because you would have missed out on the possibility of creating a superintelligence that cares holistically for nature and humanity (including seven future generations!). I doubt any other region of the world would have independently undertaken such an ambitious public project as mine...
I know it sounds immodest, but large parts of the DIGHUM movement will see me as a leading figure in Digital Humanism in 2030. I will continue to strive to live up to this reputation.
MORE CHAPTERS TO FOLLOW...
