Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Auto-Catastrophic Theory: the necessity of self-destruction for the formation, survival, and termination of systems

  • Open Forum
  • Published:
AI & SOCIETY Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Systems evolve in order to adjust and survive. The paper’s contribution is that this evolvement is inadequate without an evolutionary telos. It is argued that without the presence of self-destruction in multiple levels of our existence and surroundings, our survival would have been impossible. This paper recognises an appreciation of auto-catastrophe at the cell level, in human attitudes (both as an individual and in societies), and extended to Earth and out to galaxies. Auto-Catastrophic Theory combines evolution with auto-catastrophic behaviours and innovative machinery by offering new themes of understanding their merging such as (a) protogenic and deuterogenic auto-catastrophic processes, (b) protogenic and deuterogenic survival processes, and (c) ‘alive’, partially ‘alive’, and non-‘alive’ systems. The value of self-destruction relies on a numerical stability within a system and correlational relationships between systems. Auto-Catastrophic Theory provides novel justifications why artificial intelligence: (a) is crucial to overcome the extinction of humanity (via H+), (b) is crucial to offer indirect survival of humanity (by saving its history), and (c) is at the same time a threat for humanity. These novel justifications and themes, developed by combining evolution with catastrophe as well as innovative machinery, expand our knowledge of how best to handle fresh challenges ahead.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ahmadi A (2007) Suicide by self-immolation: comprehensive overview, experiences and suggestions. J Burn Care Res 1:30–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alberts B, Bray D, Hopkin K, Johnson A, Roberts K, Lewis J, Raff M, Walkter P (2009) Essential cell biology. Garland Publisher, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Annas GJ, Andrews LB, Isasi RM (2002) Protecting the endangered human: toward an international treaty prohibiting cloning and inheritable alterations. Am J Law Med 28:151–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Berk M, Dodd S, Henry M (2006) The effect of macroeconomic variables on suicide. Psychol Med 36(2):181–189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernat JL (2004) On irreversibility as a pre-requisite for brain death determination. In: Machado C, Shewmon A (eds) Brain death and disorders of consciousness. Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York, pp 161–167

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Biggs M (2005) Dying without killing: self-immolations, 1963–2002. In: Gambetta D (ed) Making sense of suicide missions. Oxford University Press, England, pp 173–208

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bostrom N (1998) How long before superintelligence? Linguist Philos Investig 5(1):11–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Bostrom N (2002) Existential risks: analyzing human extinction scenarios and related hazards. J Evol Technol 9. Retrieved Jan 9, 2015, from http://www.jetpress.org/volume9/risks.html

  • Bostrom N (2003) Are you living in a computer simulation? Philos Q 53:243–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caldwell TM, Jorm AF, Dear KBG (2004) Suicide and mental health in rural, remote and metropolitan areas in Australia. Med J Aust 181(7):10–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Capek K (2004) R.U.R. (Rossum’s universal robots. Penguin Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Chalari A (2014) The subjective experiences of three generations during the Greek economic crisis. World J Soc Sci Res 1(1):80–109

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen JJ (1991) Programmed cell death in the immune system. Adv Immunol 50:55–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Condorcet M (1979) Sketch for a historical picture of the progress of the human mind. Greenwood Press, Westport

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1859) On the origin of species. Biddles Ltd, England

    Google Scholar 

  • De Vogli R, Gimeno D (2009) Changes in income inequality and suicide rates after “shock therapy”: evidence from Eastern Europe. J Epidemiol Community Health 63(11):956

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drexler E, Smalley R (1993) Nanotechnology: Drexler and Smalley make the case for and against ‘molecular assemblers’. Chem Eng News 81(48):37–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim D (1951) Suicide. Free Press, Glencoe

    Google Scholar 

  • Eliason S (2009) Murder-suicide: a review of the recent literature. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law Online 37:371–376

    Google Scholar 

  • Engelberg-Kulka H, Amitai S, Kolodkin-Gal I, Hazan R (2006) Bacterial programmed cell death and multicellular behavior in bacteria. PLoS Genet 2(10):1518–1526

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ettinger R (1964) The prospect of immortality. Doubleday, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrarese L, Merritt D (2000) A fundamental relation between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. Astrophys J 539(1):9–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FM-2030 (1989) Are you a transhuman?: monitoring and stimulating your personal rate of growth in a rapidly changing world. Warner Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukuyama F (2004) Transhumanism. Foreign Policy, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Gervais KG (1989) Advancing the definition of death: a philosophical essay. Med Humanit Rev 3(2):7–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Good IJ (1965) Speculations concerning the first ultraintelligent machine. Adv Comput 6:31–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gordon G, Ramcharan P, Flynn M, Richardson M (2010) Learning disability: a life cycle approach. Open University Press, England

    Google Scholar 

  • Grey ADN (2007) Life span extension research and public debate: societal consideration. Stud Ethics Law Technol 1:1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawton K, Heeringen K (2009) Suicide. The Lancet 373:1372–1381

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hellenic Statistical Authority (2013) Retrieved Jan 9, 2014 from http://www.statistics.gr

  • Huxley J (1927) Religion without revelation. E. Benn, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Joy B (2000) Why the future doesn’t need us. Retrieved Jan 9, 2014 from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html

  • Karam J (2009) Apoptosis in carcinogenesis and chemotherapy. Springer, Netherlands

    Google Scholar 

  • Kellehear A (2008) Dying as a social relationship: a sociological review of debates on the determination of death. Soc Sci Med 66:1533–1544

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knight DM (2012) Cultural proximity: crisis, time and social memory in ventral Greece. Hist Anthropol 23(3):349–374

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koestler A (1967) The ghost in the machine. Arkan, England

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurzweil R (1999) The age of spiritual machines: when computers exceed human intelligence. Viking, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Leenaars AA (2008) Suicide: a cross-cultural theory. In: Leong FTL, Leach MM (eds) Suicide among racial and ethnic minority groups. Taylor & Francis Group, New York, pp 12–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Leong FTL, Leach MM (2008) Suicide among racial and ethnic groups: theory, research, and practice. Brunner Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorant V, Kunst AE, Huisman M, Costa G, Mackenbach J (2005) Socio-economic inequalities in suicide: a European comparative study. Br J Psychiatry 187:49–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lovelock J (2009) The vanishing face of Gaia: a final warning. Penguin, England

    Google Scholar 

  • Lozano R et al (2012) Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet 380:2095–2128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magorrian J et al (1998) The demography of massive dark objects in galaxy centers. Astron J 116(6):2285–2305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minsky M (1994) Will robots inherit the earth? Scientific American. Retrieved Jan 9, 2015, from http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/sciam.inherit.html

  • Moore GE (1965) Cramming more components onto integrated circuits. Electronics 38(8). Retrieved Jan 9, 2015, from http://www.monolithic3d.com/uploads/6/0/5/5/6055488/gordon_moore_1965_article.pdf

  • More M (1990) Transhumanism: toward a futurist philosophy. Extropy 6:6–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Pimentel D, Wilson A (2004) World population, agriculture and malnutrition. Worldwatch Institute 17(5). Retrieved Jan 9, 2015, from http://www.worldwatch.org/node/554

  • Proskuryakov SY, Konoplyannikov AG, Gabai VL (2003) Necrosis: a specific form of programmed cell death? Exp Cell Res 283(1):1–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rezaie L, Hosseini SA, Rassafiani M, Najafi F, Shakeri J, Khankeh HR (2014) Why self-immolation? A qualitative exploration of the motives for attempting suicide by self-immolation. Burns 40(2):319–327

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ronald LN (2006) The Creationists: From scientific creationism to intelligent design. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell SJ, Peter N (2010) Artificial intelligence: a modern approach. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Scott A, Guo B (2012) For which strategies of suicide prevention is there evidence of effectiveness? WHO Regional Office for Europe, Switzerland, Geneva

  • Shankar F (2009) The demography of super-massive black holes: growing monsters at the heart of galaxies. New Astron Rev 53:57–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shelley M (1818) Frankenstein. Collins Classics, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh G, Siahpush M (2002) Increasing rural–urban gradients in US suicide mortality. Am J Public Health 92(7):1161–1168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness, 2014). Annual report. The University of Manchester.Appleby et al

  • Transhumanist Declaration (2009) Retrieved Jan 9, 2015, from http://humanityplus.org/philosophy/transhumanist-declaration/

  • Turing A (1950) Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind 59:433–460

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Various (2003) The Transhumanist FAQ: v 2.1.World Transhumanist Association. Retrieved Jan 9, 2014 from http://humanityplus.org/philosophy/transhumanist-faq/

  • Värnik P (2012) Suicide in the world. Int J Environ Res Public Health 9:760–771

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vinge V (1993) The coming technological singularity: How to survive in the post-human era. In: Landis GA (ed) Vision-21: interdisciplinary science and engineering in the era of cyberspace. NASA Publication CP-10129, pp 11–22

  • Wald RM (1984) General relativity. University of Chicago Press, United States

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Walker MA (2002) Prolegomena to any future philosophy. J Evol Technol 10:1–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward P (2009) The medea hypothesis: is life on earth ultimately self-destructive?. Princeton University Press, New Jersey

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wetherill GW (1994) Possible consequences of absence of “Jupiters” in planetary systems. Astrophys Space Sci 212:23–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization (2007) Fact sheet: The top ten causes of death. WHO Media Centre, Switzerland, Geneva

  • World Health Organization (2008) Global burden of disease, disease and injury regional estimates. WHO Media Centre, Switzerland, Geneva

  • Wyllie AH, Kerr JF, Currie AR (1980) Cell death: the significance of apoptosis. Int Rev Cytol 68:251–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yudkowsky E (2008) Artificial intelligence as a positive and negative factor in global risk. In: Bostrom N, Ćirković M (eds) Global catastrophic risks. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 308–345

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge and deeply thank Dr. Thrasos Kyriakides, a medical doctor, for his time on providing feedback on the paper’s medical and biological aspects.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Violence and Interpersonal Aggression, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry, CV1 5FB, UK

    Marilena Kyriakidou

Authors
  1. Marilena Kyriakidou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marilena Kyriakidou.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kyriakidou, M. Auto-Catastrophic Theory: the necessity of self-destruction for the formation, survival, and termination of systems. AI & Soc 31, 191–200 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-015-0598-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-015-0598-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation