Contemporary research on comparative cognition supports the claim that the difference between human and non-human minds is one of degree and not of kind.
It must be emphasized that specific physical and social environments create selection pressures that lead to the evolution of certain cognitive adaptations and evolve independently from each other as a concrete result of specific selection pressures, and thus have appeared in distantly related species. Thus, there is not one cognition. The biocentric perspective focuses on each species in its own evolutionary history. In accordance with this biocentric approach there are several aspects of cognition, from sensor-actuator mechanisms to communication, learning and swarm intelligence, to suggest that non-human organisms have the cognitive complexity to allow sentience
In principle, there is no physical law preventing that physical systems (consisting of quarks and atoms, like our brain) can be built with a much greater computing power and intelligence than the human brain. This would imply that there is no insurmountable physical reason why machines one day cannot become much more intelligent than ourselves in all possible respects.
Human and artificial intelligence are powerful, but what about natural intelligence? 3.8 billion years of evolution, a continuous innovative and experimental process in which the better solutions are preserved and passed on. The intrinsic genius of biological non-human intelligence, the driver of continuous innovation, adaptation, resilience, regeneration and evolution. Evolution is not a random process; life’s evolution follows a pattern of diversification and subsequent integration of diversity at higher levels of complexity. Throughout evolution this integration has predominantly been achieved through new forms of cooperation and symbiosis.
It is time to reperceive life as a planetary process of cooperation in which a unified whole expressing itself on nested temporal and spatial scales of complexity evolves in intimate reciprocity as a living planet. Life is a regenerative community rooted in patters of symbiosis and cooperation that creates shared abundance and conditions to life. Nature is full of solutions that are inherently regenerative. Learning from bio-inspired innovation – covering disciplines like biomimicry, biophilia, permaculture, living systems thinking, nature-based solutions and regenerative design – and transform our current degenerative value system into a regenerative one, enhancing the world through benign innovation.
Primarily, life is a process. All living agents are constituted by elements that underlie physics and chemistry. Symbiotic relationships are an important component of life. Symbioses occur within and across all scales of life, from microbial to macro-faunal systems. In such relationships, plants or animals of different species may be dependent on one another for survival. They may share habitats or lifestyles or interact in a way in which they benefit from the presence of another organism. The main characteristic of this process is the coordinated organization of complex interactions that we see as protein-based organisms of three domains of life, their reproduction, and metabolism all mediated by complex interwoven gene regulation as a result of communication. Bacteria, plants, animals, and other forms of nonhuman life display an uncanny penchant for self-deterministic decisions, patterns, and actions. Context-dependent meaningful communication and network formation (and control) are central to all life forms. An organism must live within a complex set of relationships to survive and thrive in any environment. Some relationships will be more positive than others, but it should not surprise that mutualistic symbiosis is so often the key to success.
In the future society, the development of Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Intelligence, Digital Technology, Brain and Neuroscience will very likely enable the creation of intelligent lives that reach or even exceed the intelligence level of humans that are created by natural evolution, and the traditional human beings might no longer be at the top of the intelligence pyramid. How humanity can coexist with such various intelligent life forms and can form a sustainable regenerative symbiotic society is a critical issue concerning the existence of humanity.
How humanity coexist and co-evolve with natural life including themselves, non-human animals, plants and other types of living artificial intelligence brings fundamental challenges to human survival as well as transformative opportunities for human.