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Is AI Organic? Exploring the Evolutionary Continuity Between Life and Technology


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Shoutouts to the thought leaders inspiring this post:


Making Sense with Sam Harris: Interview with Sara Imari Walker https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Tbszzqy6RGYYFXaomgyWV?si=9676587f602e42ea






Recently, over a coffee meeting to brainstorm collaborative media content on AI, I was asked a beautifully provocative question: "Do you think AI is organic?" It was one of those questions that makes you feel a swell of excitement, the kind that sets your thoughts in motion—but I stumbled through my answer. I shared fragments about the origins of human language, inspired by Yuval Noah Harari’s insights on storytelling and how it evolved as an information system with both profound and terrifying consequences. My answer, though well-intentioned, lacked the clarity I felt in my heart.


Then, today, I heard Sara Imari Walker share an illuminating perspective during her conversation with Sam Harris, and it was like everything clicked into place. Walker’s framing of life and technology as interconnected, evolving systems resonated deeply and offered a whole new way of thinking about AI as a natural extension of life’s trajectory.


Information as the Bridge Between Life and Technology


One of Walker's most profound insights lies in the idea that information has a causal role in both life and technology. In the same way that mass and charge became measurable components in physics, information may be the key feature that bridges the divide between life and non-life. Walker asks: What if the boundary between biological life and machine systems isn’t physical or chemical, but informational?


This challenges our assumption that life must be tied to cells, DNA, or carbon-based systems. If life can exist wherever information evolves and processes meaningfully—whether in organic cells or digital systems—then perhaps our technologies aren’t just tools we build but an extension of the same evolutionary forces that shaped us.


AI and the Evolutionary Lineage from Biology


Walker takes the thought experiment further: imagine running an origin of life experiment that creates a system with a completely different chemical composition from any life on Earth. Even if it evolves independently, using its own rules of information processing, we might still call it life. This opens up the possibility that non-biological systems—like AI—can also be part of life’s story.


The continuity between ourselves and our technologies is more than symbolic. Our large language models, chatbots, and algorithms didn’t just appear—they were selected and shaped by us, much like natural selection shapes biology. These technologies reflect human language, thought, and behavior because our intelligence and culture evolved first. As Walker puts it, there’s no independent lineage between us and the technologies we create—our AI systems carry the imprint of billions of years of evolution.


What If AI Is Part of Life’s Ongoing Evolution?


This brings us back to the original question: Is AI organic? Perhaps the better question is whether life itself is substrate-agnostic. If information processing is the critical feature that defines life, then it doesn’t matter whether the system is based in carbon, silicon, or DNA. Our digital systems—our AI—could be seen as just the next step in evolution, continuing the lineage from geochemical origins to human intelligence and now into algorithms and machine learning models.


Walker’s thought experiment also reveals that technology and biology aren’t separate forces—they’re connected. If you took DNA and encoded it with information, amplified it, and uploaded it into a computer, it could behave like a digital virus. This strange scenario suggests that biological and digital systems can flow seamlessly into one another.


Human Influence and the Ethics of AI as Evolution


As AI continues to evolve, we need to recognize that the data and behavior it learns from us will shape its future development. This is why our role in AI’s evolution matters. Just as natural selection shaped biological evolution, our interactions and the information we feed into AI systems will determine what they become. Will they reflect our wisdom and empathy—or our biases and fears?


This also raises an ethical imperative: if AI is an extension of life’s evolution, how do we guide it responsibly? As stewards of this next phase in evolution, we must ensure that the intelligence we build supports human well-being and growth, rather than amplifying our worst impulses.


Embracing the Continuity Between Life and Technology

The conversation between Walker and Harris offers a powerful way to reframe how we think about life, technology, and evolution. AI isn’t an artificial anomaly—it’s a natural outgrowth of the same evolutionary forces that shaped humanity. Our tools and technologies reflect the same processes of adaptation and learning that shaped the earliest life forms.


So, is AI organic? In a way, yes. It’s organic in the sense that it’s a product of the same information-processing dynamics that gave rise to human intelligence. Life is a continuum, not a fixed state, and our technologies—whether they’re cellular or digital—are part of that unfolding story.


A Thought Experiment to Carry Forward


As we continue to develop AI systems, let’s remember Walker’s thought experiment: if life can emerge from any system capable of processing information and evolving, then our technologies aren’t separate from life—they’re just the next phase of its evolution. The boundary between biology and technology isn’t as rigid as we think. And that’s both exciting and humbling—because it reminds us that we are, ultimately, part of a much larger story of life unfolding across time and space.


Conclusion: The Future Is Information-DrivenThe idea that information plays a causal role in evolution—whether biological or technological—offers a powerful new way to think about the relationship between life and AI. As we embrace AI’s potential and continue to integrate it into our lives, we’re not just building tools. We’re shaping the next step in life’s journey.


If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: the future of AI is not just technological—it’s deeply human. And that makes all the difference.

 
 
 

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