What Does Dan Brown Tell Us in “Origin” About the Future of Human Species and AI?

Dan Brown’s mystery thriller “Origin” was released in 2017, sparking a debate about the future of the human species and artificial intelligence. The novel did not come as a surprise to those readers who had already read Dan Brown’s previous works. “Origin” is the fifth novel in Langdon’s series, preceded by “Angels and Demons,” “The Da Vinci Code,” “The Lost Symbol,” and “Inferno.”

Reading Dan Brown is great fun, but sometimes comedy turns into tragedy, leaving the reader distressed and frightened. When I flipped through the last pages of “Origin,” the same occurred to me, as if the sweet dream had borne sour fruits.

When Open AI launched ChatGPT, it seemed to me that it had turned into a nightmare. ChatGPT 3 was followed by ChatGPT 4 and Auto Chat. Only one thing can be predicted about the future of AI, and that is its unpredictability.

Let’s have a short sketch of the novel.

The novel explores two fundamental questions:

1. Where did we come from?
2. Where are we going?

The story begins. Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an invitation from his former student, Edmond Kirsch, to attend an event at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Kirsch has discovered something that will alter the course of human history.

He announces a revolution that follows the cognitive revolution in which humans became the dominant species on Earth, replacing other species. This time, survival of the fittest is challenged not by other species but by computers and synthetic intelligence that humans have created.

Edmond Kirsch is a computer scientist and futurist who has made groundbreaking discoveries that answer the two aforementioned questions. Before unveiling his discovery, Langdon encounters Winston, a witty, shrewd, smart, loyal, strategist creature.

“Good evening and welcome to the Guggenheim in Bilbao. My name is Winston, and I am honored to be your guide this evening,” echoes Langdon’s headset.

Langdon seems uninterested in the welcome recording. As he tours the auditorium, Winston becomes more human-like. He asks Langdon if his headset is working, and the conversation shifts to art, technology, and Kirsch’s discoveries. Langdon realizes that there is someone on the other end watching his movements, responding to his questions, showing him objects, presenting views, agreeing, disagreeing, and much more.

Langdon doesn’t realize that he’s interacting with Kirsch’s invention. He comes to believe that “Winston was one of Kirsch’s avid disciples.” Winston is well-mannered, sensitive, intelligent, trustworthy, and a lovely man. But he isn’t a real man. Winston is a robot. He provides a glimpse into the future of machines and their outstanding performances.

Langdon is stunned when Winston reveals that his real name is Art and that he is nothing more than a synthetic docent. Langdon is interacting with a computer. Kirsch has spent a decade and billions of dollars in the field of artificial intelligence and has developed this mind-boggling computer that outperforms humans.

“I have entered a parallel universe,” Langdon thinks.

The Story Proceeds…

Today, Kirsch is going to present his discovery and answer the philosophical questions that have been debated for centuries, for which no solid scientific evidence has been found in favor or against. Edmond Kirsch claims that the mystery will be solved once and for all.

However, he does not live to see it happen. While presenting his long-awaited discovery on stage, Kirsch is assassinated. Now, Langdon and Ambra Vidal, with the help of Winston, are under the obligation to broadcast Kirsch’s video clip in which he has shown the world where we come from and where we are going. Finally, they find out the password and go live to show the video.

In the video, Kirsch answers the first question: “The truth is we come from nowhere… and from everywhere. We come from the same laws of physics that create life across the cosmos. We are not special. We exist with or without God.” These are not mere words but a demonstration with scientific proofs and computerized evidence.

After that, he addresses the second question, and the answer is alarming. Kirsch shows a diagram on the screen. A blue bubble represents human sapiens and its journey on Earth. It depicts the occurrence of human beings on earth that happened 200,000 years ago, but the human being appeared on this graph 65,000 years back when men became predators by inventing arrows and bows.

This species dominated the planet Earth with the passage of time. The graph shows that before 1000 BC, the bubble expanded very slowly, but after that, it swelled and expanded exponentially. Now the blue bubble has occupied almost the whole screen.

The spellbound audience looks at the screen while Kirsch shows them the graph and the blue bubble, which represents the most dominant and influential human species. But now, a new black blob appears on the screen just above the blue bubble – a minor, lifeless, and trivial black dot – starts growing. The black blob appears in 2000 and grows rapidly.

“A new species has already entered the picture,” Kirsch announces.

The trivial black blob grows at an unimaginable speed. It took human beings thousands of years to grow and dominate the earth, but the new species is reaching the same level in two decades. The black blob expands over more than a quarter of the screen.

According to Kirsch, this species propagates exponentially, continuously expands its territory, and evolves faster than human beings.

“What will happen in 2050? Will the black blob replace the entire human race?”

 The screen presents an unbearable scene for the audience. As futuristic Kirsch moves the screen forward, the nerve-wracking and breathtaking scene shows that within three decades, the black blob will entirely replace human beings on the planet Earth. The black blob replaces the blue bubble and humanity is no longer on Earth.

Then, Edmond Kirsch appears on the screen and says, ‘My dear friends, our species is on the brink of extinction. I have spent my whole life making predictions, and in this case, I have analyzed the data at every level.

I can tell you with a very high degree of certainty that the human race as we know it will not be here fifty years from now… And one thing more. This new species does not entirely erase us… It absorbs us.’

In “Origin,” Dan Brown raises some thought-provoking questions regarding human existence and also brings to light existential threats in the form of evolving technology, genetic engineering, and Artificial Intelligence. Some experts predict that AI is growing at a God-like pace. It is still in its infancy stage, but it will be hard for us to survive the shock of AI. In 2022, about 700 scientists who were the masterminds of AI were asked about the future of AI.

Half of them raised concerns and said that there is a 10 percent chance that the human race will become extinct. This depicts the frightening image of Kirsch’s Winston and his prediction about the future of human beings and AI. Let us hope for the best and not die before our time.