AI: Evil or Avatar?

You don’t have to be a sci-fi wizard to remember Avatar. The 2009 fantasy blockbuster was equally entrancing for trekkies and school teachers alike. In the epic science fiction film, writer and director James Cameron envisioned a new world inhabited by an alien species known as the Na’vi, who lived in perfect harmony with their deity, Ewya, on an exoplanetary moon known as Pandora. All was well ‒ a perfect display of symbiosis between nature and its inhabitants ‒ until the human race had to show up. And once again, it was a case of ‘winner takes all’, where the collective force of human greed was unleashed to tailspin perfect order into chaos.

Albeit fantastically far-fetched, there was something deeply resonating about the movie. What made Avatar rack up two Academy Awards and USD2 billion was more than just great special effects and Sam Worthington’s acting. It was the sense that ‘this is us now ‒ and this could be us later.’ The plot was a familiar one, with humanity as the classic villain, willing to plunder paradise for temporal gain but to their ultimate demise.

In 1974, biochemist James Lovelock posited a new paradigm known as the Gaia theory. Essentially, he said that organisms and their inorganic surroundings have evolved together into one living, self-regulating complex system over time. The biota, or web of interdependent organisms, have determined everything from global temperatures to ocean salinity ‒ anything that would ensure “life maintains conditions suitable for its own survival”. In short, life has been making a way for itself over countless centuries.

We might not be able to tap into the whisperings of Ewya like the Na’vi did on Avatar. But, what if we could tune into the undertones of the biota? Our technologies are advancing concurrently and...