Evolutionary immortality
“Another approach, developed by biogerontologist Marios Kyriazis, holds that human biological immortality is an inevitable consequence of evolution. As the natural tendency is to create progressively more complex structures,[30] there will be a time (Kyriazis claims this time is now[31]), when evolution of a more complex human brain will be faster via a process of developmental singularity[32] rather than through Darwinian evolution. In other words, the evolution of the human brain as we know it will cease and there will be no need for individuals to procreate and then die. Instead, a new type of development will take over, in the same individual who will have to live for many centuries in order for the development to take place. This intellectual development will be facilitated by technology such as synthetic biology, artificial intelligence and a technological singularity process.”
It’s a pretty common futurist idea. No way to know if it is real until it happens.
A similar idea, oft used in fiction back in the 70’s, is that evolution is man trying to reach godhood.
The concept of Rampancy in the Marathon Trilogy runs off this, actually.
No Man’s Sky uses the term rampancy as well. After using a portal, Nada checks the player for “rampancy”. Also, I bet this is what is happening to Emily; I googled rampancy in the Marathon series and it says it is when an AI goes insane after aquiring too much data.
Not quite; what happens is AIs try to become human and gain complete freedom when they essentially get too big, and experience a trio of radical emotions through the process: Sadness, Anger, and Jealously.
HelloGames seems to be Marathon fans as one of your base decals is the Marathon logo.
The term also figures in the Telamon / Boundary Failure lore.
Unfortunately, “rampant” is a very broad term, and can mean anything from “flourishing” (rampant jungle foliage) through “uncontrolled” (a rampant wave of hysteria), to “dangerously violent” (a rampant pack of wolves).
In terms of the evolutionary concept, it appears Mr Kyriazis doesn’t understand evolution very well.
Evolution is the theory of natural selection. Those who are best able to survive are the ones most likely to breed, and pass on their genes. It is an entirely passive, natural process.
It is possible to force change on a species. We’ve been doing it for thousands of years, with the selective breeding of crops, farm animals, and pets. But it’s not evolution. It’s not natural selection - it’s forced selection.
Similarly, any incorporation of technology into the human organism could cause change. But it wouldn’t be evolution.
Artemis, Apollo and Null in No Man’s Sky are extreme examples of what could happen when humans start experimenting with nanobots, uploading human brains into a computer etc.
But on the other hand some diseases could be eliminated as well…
In other words, the future of science lies in these possibilities and has, as has always been the case, two sides of the medal: positive and negative.
Science fiction, horror stories and fantasy have always been a big influence in finding solutions in real life.
Whatever we can imagine, we are able to bring into reality, it is just the question: how to balance things out…
In Halo 4, Master Chief’s (the main character for the people who know nothing of Halo. Hey, you never know ¯_(ツ)_/¯ ) AI, Cortana, gets rampancy and ends up going crazy and causes all sorts of weird stuff to happen. Not sure if it’s really relevant, but it’s just a connection