IV. Reaching vs. Expanding Biological Potential
Mitigating the Existential Risk of AI: Interventions to Enhance Human Intelligence
Table of Contents:
I. Overview and Introduction | II. The Inevitability and Existential Risk of Artificial General Intelligence | III. Understanding Human Intelligence | IV. Reaching vs. Expanding Biological Potential | Biological Strategies to Expand Human Intelligence: Neurotransmitter Modulation | VI. Biological Strategies to Expand Human Intelligence: Neurotrophins | VII. From Neurons to AI: The Surprising Symmetry of Emergence | VIII. Biological Strategies to expand Human Intelligence: Neurogenesis
One can imagine the human brain akin to a fertile garden. Each garden has inherent potential: the quality of the soil (nutrients and microbes), the amount of sunlight it receives, the capacity to hold water, and the overall climate and ecosystem it exists within. Each garden, given proper care and attention, can flourish, producing a myriad of beautiful flowers and fruits. This metaphor is in many ways analogous to humans reaching their natural biological potential: a brain nourished with engaging education, challenged with intellectual pursuits and cared for with a healthy lifestyle can perform at its peak (a well-tended garden in full bloom).
However, every garden also has limitations based on its natural makeup and environment. A garden will only yield based on its set of preconditions, e.g., size, climate, and the variety of its plants. In the same vein, every human brain has limitations, including the finite number of neurons, the structural organization of the brain, the nature of neural connections, and other genetic factors. But what if we considered new interventions to improve the productivity of our intellectual garden? Are there ways in which we could extend the garden boundaries, introduce new and hardier species, or engineer a way to let the garden receive more sunlight, or hold more water? In essence, expanding the garden's potential?
How do we reach our native biological potential?
Biologists often pose the question of behavioral outcomes by asking “is what we are observing a product of nature, nurture, or a combination?” Nature refers to innate traits and the inherent potential of a system (typically regulated by genetics), and nurture references the environment (or really everything else). For all intents and purposes, the human biological potential is largely predetermined by our genetic makeup, and it represents the cognitive abilities we can attain given optimal environmental conditions.
Before talking about extending potential biological potential, let’s first talk about conservative strategies to reach this potential, which have generally focused on lifestyle modifications:
Diet and nutrition: Proper diet and nutrition are crucial for cognitive function, including brain development and maintenance. Research has shown that the overall composition of the diet and specific dietary components impact brain function. During brain development, nutrition is essential for optimal growth and maturation, supporting the establishment of neural circuits and key brain structures. Additionally, a balanced diet provides the necessary nutrients for ongoing metabolic activities, neurotransmitter synthesis, and energy production in the brain. Adequate nutrition also helps regulate signaling networks, neurotransmitters, and inflammatory processes in the brain. Proper diet and nutrition contribute to the overall health of the brain, promoting optimal cognitive function and supporting mental well-being [1][2][3].
Exercise: Regular physical activity has been associated with various cognitive benefits, including improved memory, attention, and executive function. It enhances cerebral blood flow, stimulates neurogenesis, and promotes synaptic plasticity. A meta-analysis (a study of studies) was performed on exercise’s effects on cognitive function. It consistently showed cognitive function improvement (regardless of initial cognitive status) in all cognitive domains tested from engaging in moderate to high-intensity aerobic or resistance training.
Sleep: Proper rest (both duration and quality) is essential for optimal cognitive function due to several biological factors and mechanisms. First, memory consolidation primarily occurs during sleep. During sleep, the brain undergoes processes that strengthen and integrate newly acquired information, enhancing memory formation and retention [1]. Additionally, sleep plays a crucial role in the clearance of waste products from the brain. The glymphatic system, a waste clearance system in the brain, becomes more active during sleep, allowing for the removal of these metabolic byproducts. Moreover, sleep is involved in the regulation of neurotransmitters and hormones that impact cognitive processes. Adequate sleep helps maintain a balance in neurotransmitter levels, such as dopamine and serotonin, which are crucial for attention, mood, and decision-making [1]. Sleep deprivation, on the other hand, has been shown to impair cognitive function, including attention, working memory, and decision-making [1]. Furthermore, sleep deprivation can lead to increased oxidative stress and neuronal damage, further compromising cognitive abilities [1]. Therefore, proper rest, including sufficient and quality sleep, is essential for supporting cognitive function by promoting memory consolidation, waste clearance, neurotransmitter balance, and overall brain health.
Additional strategies: Other strategies such as meditation and other cognitive training have been shown to improve features such as working memory and analytical thinking. Again, these are conservative methods, and beneficial for every day, but leave significant room for improvement.
These environmental factors (as outlined above) are undoubtedly crucial and should form the foundation of any cognitive enhancement strategy. However, these alone are likely not enough.
Expanding Biological Potential: A Necessary Strategy
Over the past century, many studies have found a gradual rise in human IQ over time, which has been coined the ‘Flynn effect’. The effect has been attributed to various environmental factors, such as improvements in education, nutrition, healthcare, and socio-economic conditions. Studies have shown that changes in these environmental factors can significantly influence cognitive development and intelligence. The Flynn Effect is depicted in Figure 2, showing the gradual rise in average IQ.
While these environmental improvements are beneficial, they alone represent a slow ascent. Moreover, some recent findings suggest the Flynn Effect may be slowing down or reaching a ceiling). Even if this improvement pace continues, it is likely not sufficient to meet the challenge posed by advanced AI. These environmental drivers can help individuals maximize their inherent cognitive capabilities, but they do not extend the ceiling of these capabilities.
Given the rapid pace of AI development, simply reaching our inherent cognitive potential will leave humans significantly out of step with rapidly advancing machine intelligence. This is the motivation for this collection of writing; humanity needs to extend its biological boundaries by exploring strategies that could expand our natural potential and substantially boost our cognitive capabilities.
Expanding human cognitive potential will likely necessitate more direct biological interventions. It is likely that we have only minor or incremental gains that can be achieved based on the current intelligence improvements observed by the Flynn Effect. Further, more significant, improvements would necessitate a new (and potentially more aggressive) paradigm of interventions. This could involve several different strategies for improving cognition with different degrees of difficulty. Overall, the program of enhancing human intelligence would likely need to focus on different projects longitudinally, with short-term and more easily attainable tiers being investigated in parallel with more lofty intermediate and long term strategies that we believe will have greater impact (Table 1).
Table 1: Strategies for improving intelligence.
Understanding these different strategies and their implications will require a deep dive into the underlying biological processes and potential points of intervention. In addition, we will need to take consideration of the technical, ethical, and societal challenges that such interventions may pose. The sections that follow will explore these strategies in more detail, to stimulate research and discussion on how we can expand human cognitive potential to mitigate the existential risk posed by superintelligent AI.
This article is proof you've already reached your biological potential 😎.