New Study Asserts that Digital Technology Could "Out Evolve Humanity"

History shows us that any newly evolving entity can cause great changes for life on Earth, and it may be time to start thinking of our technology as such an organism. Indeed, that is precisely the point made by Michael Gillings, Darrell Kemp, and Martin Hilbert from the University of California, Davis. A basic human characteristic is to accumulate and reproduce information, something that has been improved through the years with humans creating, using, and being almost dependent on the internet for the accumulation and sharing of digital information. To date, digital information can copy itself perfectly, multiply with each download or view; it can be modified or merged to create new information packets; it can also be applied through artificial intelligence systems. Notably, there are also additional factors that make digital information even more advanced--it can replicate with almost no energy cost, and has quicker generation times.