Stephen Wolfram

And so they're a different branch.

I mean, it's similar to when you talk about life, for instance.

I mean, you kind of said life form, I think, almost synonymously with intelligence, which I don't think is, you know, the AIs would be upset to hear you equate those two things.

Yes.

I mean, the thing that I think I've kind of come to realize is, you know, at some level, it's a little depressing to realize that there's so little that's special.

Or liberating.

our planet's at the center of the universe.

No, that's not true.

Well, then we were convinced there's something very special about the chemistry that we have as biological organisms.

No, that's not really true.

And then we're still holding out that hope.

Oh, this intelligence thing we have, that's really special.

I don't think it is.

However, in a sense, as you say, it's kind of liberating for the following reason, that you realize that what's special is the details of us, not...

some abstract attribute that we could wonder, oh, is something else going to come along and also have that abstract attribute?

Well, yes, every abstract attribute we have, something else has it.

But the full details of our history of our civilization and so on, nothing else has that.

That's our story, so to speak, and that's almost by definition special.

So I view it as not being such a, I mean, initially I was like, this is bad.

This is kind of, you know, how can we have self-respect about the things that we do?