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In his new book , James Lovelock says the creation of AlphaGo was the start of a new kingdom of life that will create and think for itself. He’s optimistic that this new kingdom of life will want to keep us around like we keep plants in gardens. In our interview at his house near Chesil Beach we discuss the future of Gaia, our new AI overlords and why Elon Musk’s Mars mission is crazy.

James Lovelock on when the ‘Novacene’ began

“It was really kicked off by AlphaGo, the application of mathematical modelling in a much more constructive way than had been done previously. It’s not a logical cause and effect thing. The programme is in a sense choosing its own bits and pieces. If that is not the start of life I would like to know what is. And I see Mr Darwin hovering in the background there, thinking, ‘Right, yeah, now that’s going to evolve.’ […] The artificial intelligence today can think for itself. They will create themselves.”

On why humanity won’t ever move to Mars

“I know a fair amount about Mars. I don’t think we’ll start colonies on Mars. I cannot think of a much more inhospitable place. I think Elon Musk is a very clever man, he must be, [otherwise] he wouldn’t be so rich. But to want to go and live on Mars is just about as crazy as you could be. He must hate people even more than I do.”

You said it would be better for Elon Musk to crash on impact

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What James Lovelock thinks about astronauts who call Earth ‘fragile’… 

“Why fragile? It’s as tough as old boots. It’s been here billions of years. It can’t be very fragile. There, see, that’s a word that slips in, until it becomes a truth that isn’t a truth. They just don’t understand it. They like the look of it. It looks good, it’s like the view outside here [of Chesil Beach]. It’s beautiful.”

…and a helicopter journey with Apollo 13 mission commander Jim Lovell

“Sandy and I travelled on a helicopter at Cape Canaveral with [Apollo 13 mission commander] Jim Lovell. He told us about his experience on Apollo 13, you know the one that had an explosion of the oxygen generator. They had sheer misery. I didn’t realise that most of the journey for him and his fellow crewman that the cabin was minus 30 degrees. There was no heating at all. It was just the temperature of space. He said that it was absolute hell, and it was the most moving story. I doubt whether he felt very strongly about the sight of the Earth coming in from space.”

On inventing the microwave oven

“Among the many varied, weird jobs I had was assisting biologists to freeze hamsters and bring them back to life. I thought we better use high-tech methods of freezing and warming, so that the animal had the best chance. I had a friend in the Navy on that strange laboratory at the top of the hill above Portsmouth, and I said, ‘Is there any chance I could borrow a continuous wave magnetron from you?’ And he said, ‘Oh yes. It’s a secret but you can borrow it.’”

The simple device that I used was a bit box-like, and there was a timer, there were all the essential parts of a microwave oven. And we put these hamsters in it, and turned the switch and wait to see what happened. I put my lunch in on several occasions.”

We found that if you irradiated frozen [hamsters] – and when I say frozen they were like that wood – with 10cm microwaves, it wasn’t long before it was scurrying around. I think I had the first microwave oven ever. I never patented it.”

James Lovelock’s new book Novacene is available now, published by Penguin