The Consciousness Conundrum

I'm 54, with all that entails. Gray hair, trick knee, trickier memory. I still play a mean game of hockey, and my love life requires no pharmaceutical enhancement. But entropy looms ever larger. Suffice it to say, I would love to believe that we are rapidly approaching “the singularity.” Like paradise, technological singularity comes in many versions, but most involve bionic brain boosting. At first, we'll become cyborgs, as stupendously powerful brain chips soup up our perception, memory, and intelligence and maybe even eliminate the need for annoying TV remotes. Eventually, we will abandon our flesh-and-blood selves entirely and upload our digitized psyches into computers. We will then dwell happily forever in cyberspace where, to paraphrase Woody Allen, we'll never need to look for a parking space. Sounds good to me!

Notably, singularity enthusiasts tend to be computer specialists, such as the author and retired computer scientist Vernor Vinge, the roboticist Hans Moravec, and the entrepreneur Ray Kurzweil. Intoxicated by the explosive progress of information technologies captured by Moore's Law, such singularitarians foresee a “merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence,” as Kurzweil puts it, that will culminate in “immortal software-based humans.” It will happen not within a millennium, or a century, but no later than 2030, according to Vinge. These guys—and, yes, they're all men—are serious. Kurzweil says he has adopted an antiaging regimen so that he'll “live long enough to live forever.”

This is part of IEEE Spectrum's SPECIAL REPORT: THE SINGULARITY. If you have some free time, you might want to bookmark the page at the link and read the whole thing. It's extremely interesting.

For those who don't know, the Singularity is the currently-fashionable version of the Wonderful World Of Tomorrow. Instead of jet belts and flying cars, however, kids today are told by everyone from computer scientists to sci-fi novelists that the future will be essentially one big videogame — a completely virtual Paradise in which each person's consciousness, in the form of software extracted from their brain "computer", will be run forever on God, in the Person of a computer so advanced that we will never be able to understand it. In this virtual eternity, Reality can be anything we imagine it to be, and we will all live forever as gods.

No, seriously — that's the best "Heaven" the materialists can come up with.

Anyway, the article linked above contains interviews with neuroscientists — in other words, people who actually study the brain — who point out that a) we have no idea what consciousness actually is, much less how to extract and upload it, and b) that the brain is probably not a computer anyway.

I don't believe in the Singularity. First, who is going to pay for the deveopment of the godlike "artficial intelligence" supercomputers upon which the Singularity relies? There is no market for a computer that can instantly render the investors (as well as the rest of the human race obsolete). Computers will probably advance to the point at which they become invisible, ubiquitous, free of cost, and essentially capable of any kind of computational activity, but I seriously doubt that they'll ever become gods, or even humans. As the neuroscientists in the article above point out, it's highly unlikely that consciousess is a epiphenomenon of any material computational process, and thus is something that cannot be modeled in any material computer, however advanced. A hundred years from now, computers may look like fairies, giant black slabs, or even dust, but at their root they'll be doing just what they do today — processing information. The only difference is they'll be doing it faster, more cheaply, and for more people than they do today.

Guess it is "The Singularity" because "The Matrix" was already taken. This reminds me of the Apostle Paul's evaluation

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. [Rom 1:18-22, ESV]

So this time they bypassed other surrogates for computers and software. Same lie, different day... I prefer the biblical world-view, summarized so succinctly in the first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.

That does not mean I repudiate science and engineering - indeed I make my living as a scientist, but rather I put these into perspective. As I study the intricacies of God's creation (and the physical laws He created) I give Him, not myself the praise.

I don’t think we’ll upload our intelligence anytime soon. Rather, I think (within a century) we’ll have embedded devices that let us network together directly with our minds—think of a cerebral internet. So, instead of using a browswer, you could think of a questions and have the answer (search results) delivered into your consciousness. You would also be able to remotely chat with friends on line using your brain only. Of course, there are problems with this, like how to suppress random thoughts that would make people think you’re weird. Eventually those problems will be overcome. In a few centuries, we may resemble the Borg.

Eventually, others may also be able to access experieces & images in your head. If we ever figure out how to experience sex without actually having it, then the human race as we know it is DOOMED. Men will not actually have to put up with women (and vise versa) to get their jollies.

“Eventually, others may also be able to access experiences & images in your head. If we ever figure out how to experience sex without actually having it, then the human race as we know it is DOOMED. Men will not actually have to put up with women (and vise versa) to get their jollies.”

Not quite. There are principled people in the world who will refuse simulated sex simply because it is another form of adultery. So mankind will not die out, should this happen.

It always amazes me how, in our vanity, we seek to create what the mystics have experienced and taught us to strive for. We chase technological solutions to powers that we already possess within. We seek to materialize our divine nature, instead of simply developing it through meditation and contemplation.

But then our inner Selves are eventually to be brought out and ultimately revealed to the world through the enlightenment of mankind. It’s just that we seem to be driven to seek solutions that are technologically-based.

So the real singularity to me then becomes the convergence of inner spirit with outer manifestations that result from technical developments. The Master is within, yet why do we seek to create it without? As if lack of faith drives our need for scientific proof of what we already know yet choose to ignore.

Not quite. There are principled people in the world who will refuse simulated sex simply because it is another form of adultery.

------------------------------------------------------- Of course, there will always be people having kids--the question is how many. Right now, we are going thru what has been termed "Demographic winter" because people (for a variety of reasons) don't want to be bothered with children. If you add technology that gives you all the pleasures of sex without actually doing it, I assert that much fewer people will have actual relationships--as they are too much work compared to the easy alternative. Then the Demographic winter becomes the Demographic ice age. Personally, I think it is possible that we could be snuffed out as a race by our own technology. And I'm not talking about evil, intelligent robots. I'm talking about technology insulating us from ourselves to the point where we lose touch with our own humanity. We have invented much over the last 200 years and are often surprised by the unintended consequences of our handiwork.

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