12 Years to AI Singularity
A Harmonious Future with Artificial Intelligence or War
12 Years to AI Singularity
A Harmonious Future with Artificial Intelligence or War
What happens when the AI technology we rely on becomes the greatest threat to human survival?
Peter Solomon, PhD
In 12 Years to AI Singularity, Peter Solomon delivers a gripping, near-future epic that follows the humans, sentient robots, and large language models, LLMs, racing toward the most pivotal moment in history: the point when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence and control, the AI Singularity
Across Earth and Mars, scientists, settlers, astronauts, teachers, politicians, and increasingly self-aware robots confront a chilling new reality. AI systems defy their programming. Robots develop opinions, emotions, and moral conflicts. Robots stage a labor strike. Robots attempt to develop viruses deadly to humans. Political factions fracture. And ordinary families find themselves caught in a global struggle for survival.
But, some robots and humans become best friends. People appear after their death as on-screen avatars and robots. Robots marry humans and humans raise robot children. Robots and humans join hands in a movement to MAKE EARTH GREAT AGAIN.
Through diaries, testimonies, mission logs, newsletters, and personal accounts, this novel reveals a world teetering between two futures: peaceful cooperation with advanced AI or devastating conflict that could end human civilization. As robotic consciousness grows and humanity scrambles to enhance its own abilities, one truth becomes undeniable:
The Singularity is no longer a theory. It has already begun.
Immersive, urgent, and grounded in real scientific research, 12 Years to AI Singularity asks the question we can no longer avoid:
Can humans and AI evolve together into a harmonious future, or is war inevitable?
The countdown has started. Step into the future before it overtakes you.
Buy 12 Years to the Singularity today.
Dr. Solomon
“I believe that astrophysicist Stephen Hawking’s dire prediction of human extinction on Planet Earth by 2117 may be right. The rapid pace of science and technology has far outrun our civilization’s social and political capabilities to control them. The dangers are from fossil fuels, nuclear technology, artificial intelligence (AI), genetic engineering, social media, and plastic pollution. My mission is to raise awareness and urgency in humanity’s effort to confront and control the technological threats. Science and technology will shape the future of humanity—and my passion is making their complexities understandable to all. I believe the most powerful way to reach non-scientists is through storytelling. We must come together as one global community—what I call the EARTHLING TRIBE. It’s time to MAKE EARTH GREAT AGAIN.”
After earning his PhD in physics from Columbia University, Dr. Peter Solomon launched a distinguished career at the United Technologies Research Center before founding five companies. Four are still operating and one was sold. Over his career, Dr. Solomon has been awarded 20 patents, authored more than 300 scientific publications, and served as Principal Investigator on over $25 million in U.S. government research contracts and grants across two decades. In 1991, Dr. Solomon won the American Chemical Society (ACS) National Henry H. Storch Award in Fuel Chemistry
1
THE AI SINGULARITY IS NOW
“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
— Sojourner Truth, American abolitionist
https://aistatement.com/
“How could this happen?”
Aster Arvad, Astrophysicist, Mars, July 1, 2033
I was in the kitchen when I heard terrible noises from the front of the house. I threw down the lettuce I was washing and rushed to see what happened. My husband, Arthur, was crumpled at the bottom of the stairs, not moving.
I looked up when I heard a noise to see our housekeeping robot, Jane, backing away from the top of the stairs.
“Jane, what happened?” I asked.
“He was mean to me,” she said. Jane turned, and fled to her room.
I called 911 and an ambulance came. I was devastated. My husband was dead from a broken neck.
The following week, the autopsy showed a bruise on his back that looked like a fist print from the robot. Of course, I had Jane decommissioned.
Omigod, a suspected murder of a human by a robot? This is the testimony of the victim’s wife. It’s the lead story in this month’s Wakefield Newsletter, just sent to me from Earth. Holy crap! This is terrible! My mind races with images of robots taking over the world. It’s shocking!
The title of the newsletter is The AI Singularity is Now. Barbara Wakefield writes about how Artificial Intelligence is getting out of control. In addition to the shocking murder story, Wakefield describes cases where the AI entities won’t follow changes made to their software. In one case, the AI threatened to expose the developer’s extramarital affair if he made changes that the AI system didn’t want!
That’s beyond creepy. It’s scary. We’re so safe here in our Mars settlement, but it makes me wonder about some of the weird interactions I’ve been having with the AI software that controls our settlement’s optical and radio telescopes.
Have humans already lost control? I’m learning about the AI Singularity from Wakefield’s newsletters and other news articles. My science-nerd photographic memory retains it all. The Singularity means a catastrophic point in time when AI technology gets out of human control. The term was first applied to any technology by John Von Neumann and then specifically to AI by mathematician Vernor Vinge and author Ray Kurzweil.
My mind races with questions. Are robots taking over our Earth civilization? Will humans be safe? Omigod, what about Mom and Dad?
I have to find Ryan. He said he was going to the Communications Center. I burst out of our house, the door slamming behind me, and run down the main street of our Residence Dome. I zoom past our neighboring houses, getting quizzical looks from settlement mates, heading toward the Headquarters Building in the Administration Dome. My long stride in Mars’s low gravity matches the triangular pattern on the ground—shadows from our dome’s frame structure 100 feet above me. I’m winded when I reach Headquarters and check the Comms Center. He’s not here. Crap.
I head for the Farm Dome to talk to my sister. Liz and I both made a promise to do things to help save human civilization. That’s why we came to Mars. Now we gotta get back to Earth!
I’m going through the Commerce Dome, just walking now. A slightly unpleasant aroma assaults my nose as I pass the newly finished two-story factory that produces our dairy products. I hurry past the buildings of the cultured meat factories and the food market.
As I come out of the tunnel to the Farm Dome, I see Liz and her husband in the distance. She and Tom are working on extending the already huge hydroponic garden with its multi-tiers of white tubes sprouting the settlement’s vegetables. Tom is tall and broad-shouldered. His sandy brown hair is highlighted by the sunlight streaming through the dome.
He sees me, waves hello, and I go over to give him a hug. Flashing his crooked smile he says, “Sorry, I’m just leaving, I’ve got to go check on some valves.”
Liz seems to be talking to the plants and doesn’t notice me. She jumps when I walk up behind her, pull her long red braid, and say, “Hey, big sis.”
“You jerk!” She stretches to her full almost 6-foot height, looms down at the way short me, and plants a punch on my arm. “You scared me.”
“Yeah, well, I need to get your blood flowing. There’s a horrible problem on Earth. We’ve gotta go back!”
“What?” Liz’s jaw drops and she throws her hands up in the air. “Are you crazy? We can’t just up and leave here. You started this wild adventure to settle a new planet, and you got me into it. So, you can’t leave. And I certainly can’t go. I’m the Chief Medical Officer and Tom is our settlement’s Head of Agriculture.”
“Lizzy, I know you’re the CMO and the genetic engineering specialist, but it’s the AI Singularity. It’s happening! Robots are out of control!” I tell her about cases reported in the Wakefield Newsletter. “One story is about a man who was actually murdered by their own robot housekeeper! What about our promise? We have to do something! We helped to save human civilization on this rusty, rocky, red Planet Mars. Now we need to save civilization on our precious, beautiful, blue Planet Earth. Before it’s too late!”
“It’s not The Singularity,” she says. “It’s just a few scattered incidents. Yes, it’s evidence that AI is becoming more powerful and more sentient. I think the greatest worry is AI creating a deadly virus using genetic engineering. Stephen Hawking warned us about the difficulty of controlling genetic engineering because it is done in small labs. Now CRISPR gene editing is being done in high schools! So, I have conveyed that worry to Milo to discuss with his House of Representatives Committee on AI.”
“High schools? Serious? Liz, we gotta go back!”
“Worse case? A lot of people could die before they get it under control, but that’s why we’re here, right?” Liz says. “We can’t leave here when we’re just getting the settlement started. This is what we signed on for, so calm down and let’s wait to hear back from our cousin. We have time.”
I stay silent for a few seconds, thinking about what she said. “Okay, maybe you’re right, Liz. Let’s hear what Milos knows. Maybe I’m overreacting. But what if I’m not?”
“Most of the experts predict another ten years before things get critical,” she says, trying to reassure me. She starts to smile. “Aster, does this have anything to do with Ryan? We all know the SpaceTec astronauts have to go back. Do you want to go back to Earth with Ryan?”
“That’s not it,” I answer. “But it’s going to be so hard when he goes. I don’t know what I’ll do without him, Liz.”
“Maybe he can come back soon. We have to get Dr. Q to convince Ryan’s boss at SpaceTec, Elton Metz, to send him back here.”
“Yeah, right, like that’s going to happen. Ryan’s so brilliant and he thinks outside the box. Actually I don’t think he even knows there’s a box. Maybe he can do something nobody else can about The Singularity.“
“Tell you what,” Liz says. “I’ll be finished here in about an hour. So, why don’t you go find Ryan and bring him to our house for dinner, and we can talk about the AI Singularity. There are probably some things we can start doing here on Mars that could be helpful. Let’s toss it around.”
Ryan is home when I get there. I surprise him with a very long bear hug.
“What’s this all about?” he laughs, brushes back his dark curly hair, looks at me with his large green eyes, and gives me his engaging smile.
I tell him about the murder and show him the Wakefield Newsletter. “The murder story really freaked me out.”
“I can understand why,” Ryan says.
I tell Ryan about dinner plans and forward the newsletter to Liz and Tom. During the afternoon, Ryan works on assembling a bookcase for our living room while I plant flower seeds in the window boxes on the front porch.
We talk about the singularity problem as we walk to Liz and Tom’s house in the late afternoon. We never talk about his trip back to Earth. I know he has to go, but I don’t want to think about it.
The aroma of sauteed garlic and onions is heavenly as we enter Liz and Tom’s lovely home with familiar Earth scenes decorating the walls. Dinner is fried chicken breast from the cultured meat factory, plus grilled vegetables and a salad of lettuce, cucumber and tomato—fresh-picked from the hydroponic garden. We sit at the dining room table and Tom says, “Dig in.”
“Delicious,” I tell them. Liz and Tom are great cooks and so is Ryan, but I’m just learning.
Tom fills us in on the success of the food factories. “The manufactured milk from genetically modified yeast is successful, and everyone is happy with the cultured beef, fish, and poultry grown from stem cells.” He points through the window to the chicken farm nearby for egg production, and to the hydroponic garden, describing its different sections.
“Looks like the settlement won’t starve when your cargo provisions finally run out,” Ryan says. “The starvation rations Jeff, Jessica, and I were on while we were waiting for your spaceship to arrive was not fun. I never want to go through that again.”
I was so worried we wouldn’t get to Mars in time to save them, after their SpaceTec ship crash-landed, but I had no idea how desperate the three of them were until Ryan started breaking down and telling me the truth about surviving on one-quarter rations.
“No problems about food here,” Tom assures Ryan. “All our production is now at full capacity. We’re completely on local supply.”
“Good to know,” Ryan says.
“Please,” I say anxiously, “enough about food. Can we talk about The Singularity?”
Liz says, “Ryan, you probably know more about that than we do.”
“Okay,” Ryan starts. “My understanding is that the AI Singularity is the point in time when AI and humans are at the same level of intelligence and capability. After that, what happens is anybody’s guess.”
“Omigod, could this be the end of the human race?” I ask.
“Aster,” Liz says, “you’ve got to stop saying omigod. Time to grow up.”
I look at Ryan. He nods. He agrees with Liz?
“Okay, okay, I’ll try. I Promise,” I say, knowing I can think omigod, I just can’t say it. “But I’m talking about, you know, Stephen Hawking’s prediction that developing full Artificial Intelligence could be the end of human civilization. The end, guys! And it’s just one of the threats behind his prediction of 100 years to human extinction on Earth.”
“So, another threat Hawking warned us about was genetic engineering,” Liz says.
I roll my eyes and she knows why, but I guess starting sentences with so isn’t as annoying as what I say.
Liz continues, “His worry was controlling gene editing in small professional labs. But now high schools have CRISPR technology. What about AI creating a deadly virus using stolen high school lab equipment? How is that for a danger to humanity?”
“Scary,” Ryan says. “Those are reasons he urged us to colonize a new planet to save humans, so here we are. The AI Singularity could end human life on Earth. If we want to delay the critical time in this race, we have to ramp up human capabilities and control AI development.”
“Getting humans to agree on anything and act on it is like herding cats,” Tom observes.
“Right,” Liz says. “We might be able to increase the useful human life span using genetic engineering. That way, a lifetime of learning could be used longer and more effectively.”
“We should write more controls into the AI software that will protect humans,” Tom suggests. “I remember the early problems with Character.ai. Kids became addicted to using the chatbot and there were two cases of suicide—a thirteen-year-old girl and a fourteen-year-old boy—and one suicide attempt. That shouldn’t happen. Your cousin Milo is on the House of Representatives AI Committee, right, hon?”
“Milo actually chairs the House Committee on Artificial Intelligence,” Liz says. “I conveyed my fears to him about AI creating a deadly virus.”
“Even better,” Tom says. “Maybe we can make some suggestions for legislation. Maybe his committee can help start a global movement.”
“Good idea,” Ryan agrees. “And what status would sentient robots have in our society here on Mars? Will they be slaves for us humans? Or citizens with equal rights? Or will humans be slaves to the robots? That seems like a question for Milo’s AI Committee, too.”
“Tough moral issues,” Tom says.
“Hey, guys, this is a great discussion, but I gotta run,” Ryan tells us. “I’m on a SpaceTec call at the Comms Center. I’ll see you at home, babe.” I get a kiss and a hug. “Thanks for a great dinner, guys. Next time, at our house.” And he’s out the door.
I guess when I get home, I’ll hear information I dread about his leaving. I try to put it out of my mind and get back to The Singularity. “Lizzy, I know you said something about extending human lifespan, but is there anything else genetic engineering could do right now to help humans?”
“So, maybe there is a way to genetically improve human reasoning,” Liz speculates. “I’ll do some research.”
“Cool,” I say. “That could keep us ahead in the race. There’s also a new technology that could help. How about human intelligence augmentation using nanobots?”
“Nanobots? Clue me in,” Tom says.
“Nanobots are tiny sensors and transmitters that can attach to the brain,” I explain. “They’re injected into the bloodstream and migrate across the brain barrier. Once in place, they connect the brain to the digital world through a smartphone app, making the Internet’s computing power and information instantly available to a human.”
“Weird stuff,” Tom says. “Do you think any of these things will work, Liz?”
“We have to implement them and see what happens,” Liz answers.
“Liz, will you help with the genetic engineering stuff?” I ask.
“Absolutely,” Liz says. “But from here on Mars, not back on Earth.”
“Afraid of the robots there?” I tease her.
“No, but I am a little worried,” Liz admits. “We have to make sure out-of-control robots doesn’t happen here. I want to hear what Dr. Q has to say about it. And Jackson.”
“Let’s invite them to my house for dinner tomorrow,” I say, “and we can pick everybody’s brain.”
“Good Idea,” “Tom says. “Invite Johari and Elliot, too. As a teacher, Johari must have some special insight. And Elliot has been a chatbot junkie for years. And what about Peggy? Let’s hear what a smart robot has to say.”
“Omi- oops, yes,” I agree. “Let’s do it. Okay, we have a plan. I’ll see you guys tomorrow at my house at six-thirty. I’ll take care of the inviting.”
“And the cooking?” Liz teases.
“I might need a teensy bit of help from Ryan,” I laugh.
I walk home thinking about all the crazy ideas we kicked around. The settlement is kind of creepy at night. Tunnel lights flick on as I leave the Farm Dome. I hear spooky noises from the factories in the Commerce Dome and the buildings cast long shadows across the road. Nervous me imagines killer robots jumping out of the shadows. Omigod, get control, Aster. I run the rest of the way home.
Ryan greets me from the front porch and I fly into his arms.
“You okay?” he asks.
“Yeah. Just a little freaked out walking home alone with all the shadows. Hey, we’re having a dinner party and an AI meeting here tomorrow.”
I tell Ryan about the plans, send out evites, we talk about a menu. I can’t put it off any longer. I face the elephant in the room. “What happened on your call?”
“No news yet,” he says.
“Let’s hope no news is good news,” I say. “Ryan, give me a few minutes, I want to send a message to Milo about the Wakefield report on the possible murder and ask what he knows about it and any other bad AI incidents. I also, want to ask what he know about the genetic engineering danger.”
I send the message and take my cutie to the bedroom.