(Martina Guja Zagonel – Liceo Scientifico Bonaventura Cavalieri, Verbania, Italy)
Introduction
With recent advancements and ongoing progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI), it’s conceivable that in the coming years, AI may achieve and surpass human intelligence while continuing its evolution for superior intelligence conditions. This event is called the Technological Singularity by scholars, and it could produce unforeseeable consequences (see Fig. 1). Concurrently, advancements in space exploration will facilitate our expansion throughout the solar system, both manned and unmanned. Unlike biological species, artificial machines (AMs) do not require life support systems, food, health care or limited time — thus making them better suited for space exploration. We don’t know their priorities, as they would depend on their programming and prompts. But certainly, space exploration and territorial conquest may be one of them, since they are more suited than humans for territorial expansion as well as replication within the solar system and beyond. Hypothetically, AIs/AMs could establish bases and outposts on many celestial bodies, gradually dominating the space domain.
Fig. 1 Schematic for Machine Intelligence approaching and ultimately surpassing Human Intelligence over time. The moment when AIs/AMs surpass human capabilities is known as the Technological Singularity. (Credit: Random Access Thoughts [2024])
As these intelligent artificial entities continue to evolve, they could attain self-consciousness followed by independence from human control. They could autonomously advance their own scientific knowledge and technologies, excluding humans who would no longer be necessary for their expansion throughout the solar system. In their expansion, they might even venture into interstellar travel, seeking to conquer additional territories and their resources while utilizing their super intellectual capabilities to design the needed starships and equipment.
Before that happens, AIs/AMs originating from humanity might serve as our representatives in the wider Milky Way galaxy, since they would have greater probabilities of meeting other AI/AM representatives of an alien biological society. Potential alien extra-solar biological societies may face similar territorial and intelligent limitations and so witness their Ais/AMs assuming control and expanding into space. This scenario would lead to the first contact between our civilization and an alien one composed only of artificial species (see Fig. 2).
Fig. 2 Artist’s conception of interacting human and artificial intelligences. The AIs/AMs considered in this essay could be the first to make contact with their alien counterparts. (Credit: Bernard Marr, Forbes Magazine [2024], Adobe stock)
AIs/AMs and SETI
Such a development could reshape our approach to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) research and our perceptions of extra-solar alien societies. SETI should start looking for the presence of AIs/AMs associated with alien societies (see Fig. 3). This search should cover all parts of an extra-solar planetary system – in the so-called goldilocks territory (where water is in liquid form on the surface of any planets therein) as well as in those planetary environments considered hostile for biological existence. At the same time our society should research the potential presence of nanochips on our own planet (including surface, underground, and underwater locations) and even on the Moon, whose electronic components could be sensing our activities and transmitting these data to an alien society.
Fig. 3 Distribution of stars within 15 light-years of the Sun with overlays drawn to indicate the domains of terrestrial intelligences and alien AIs, respectively. (Credits: Adapted by M. G. Zagonel from http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/12lys.html using software at https://forum.profantasy.com/)
The Fermi Paradox
The so-called Fermi Paradox asks the simple question, “If alien intelligences exist, where are they, and why have we yet to encounter them?” With the advancement of our own AIs/AMs, this question would have a new answer. Other AIs/AMs are likely to have been developed by advanced alien civilizations. Some of them could have been here for many centuries, secretly monitoring us and our progress (Wikipedia 2025a). Given such an explanation, the prospect of alien machines surreptitiously overtaking our society presents a significant challenge that we must prepare to confront in the near future.
AIs/AMs and Human Evolution
New advanced technologies, such as Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) (Wikipedia 2025b) or mind uploading should be researched and implemented to help humans deal with superior intelligent beings. These challenges underscore the importance of working towards establishing a symbiotic relationship between biological and artificial intelligences that would become crucial for our survival as an active species in a potential scenario where super-intelligent machines are the dominant players.
References
Marr, B (2024), “Where Will Artificial Intelligence Take Us in the Future?” Forbes Magazine, https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2024/08/16/where-will-artificial-intelligence-take-us-in-the-future/
Random Access Thoughts (2023), “The Singularity: Why it Will Not Happen and Why it Can Happen,” Medium, https://ndouresearch.medium.com/the-singularity-why-it-will-not-happen-and-why-it-can-happen-99ba9197d898
Wikipedia (2025a), “Fermi paradox”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
Wikipedia (2025b), “Brain-computer interface,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain%E2%80%93computer_interface
Martina Guja Zagonel wrote this essay as a first-year student at Liceo Scientifico Bonaventura Cavalieri in Verbania, Italy. She is studying to be both a ballet dancer and space explorer. Recent competitive awards involving space exploration include …
2023-Mars Innovation
2025-NSS Space Settlement Design Competition
2025- ISEC Space Elevator Competition
She will continue with both activities and is looking forward to new challenges.
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