Posted on 12/27/2012 7:12:33 PM PST by SeekAndFind
A lot of what they build in Silicon Valley these days is pretty mundane: sexting apps, social games, and new ways to "share" things over the Internet.
So it's pretty exciting when you hear about someone who has some really crazy ideas for what the future might hold.
One such person is a new Google hire named Ray Kurzweil.
The geeks among you already know who he is.
But I only learned about him from a Bloomberg BusinessWeek story by Ashlee Vance.
In it, Vance writes about Kurzweil's plans to…
…Bring his dead father back to life.
…Help humanity “live long enough to live forever” and "transcend biology."
…Engineer the "singularity," which is in Vance's words, "the moment when superintelligent machines light up with something approximating life and either destroy humanity or carry it to unimaginable heights."
At Google, Kurzweil will have funding to pursue all these ambitions and more.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
“When I die, I don’t want a big fancy funeral, I just want a few of my close friends and family to get together, you know, and try to bring me back to life.” -maxwell Smart, Agent 86
I just read today that Google has pulled their free sync application for calendars and contacts. Existing users can keep using at Bunday can’t put on new devices or set up new accounts. Instead Goebels going to make people go to a pay service Or require people to use their proprietary systems like the android store. Sounds like they’ve got a couple of different flaws in their business model now.
Is he in for a surprise.
Go ahead. Toss that coin.
And all of this time I didn’t even know that Google even HAD a dead father.
Kurzweil does not even have an elementary understanding of metaphysics.
I used to get a ‘chuckle’ when Ted Williams’ son wanted to keep him on ice so when the time was right he could clone him.
I kind of figured what could the guy do with him that Ted didn’t do himself when he sired the son that wants to clone him for a replica.
If it worked don’t you think it kind of would have happened with the ‘original’ offspring???
I used to get a ‘chuckle’ when Ted Williams’ son wanted to keep him on ice so when the time was right he could clone him.
I kind of figured what could the guy do with him that Ted didn’t do himself when he sired the son that wants to clone him for a replica.
If it worked don’t you think it kind of would have happened with the ‘original’ offspring???
Doncha just love these fascistic, mad scientists who love to ‘play god’?
Never can accept that there may be a higher power at all.....and never got over the death of his parent......like most of us have.
Liberals are all the same. They NEVER ‘get over’ ANYTHING and ALWAYS carry a grudge. They still live in High School.....when they were rejected for the Prom. Then they take it out on ‘Humanity’. That we must all be killed unless we think like they do.
Genius and insanity are often found in the very same minds. Often the dividing line is when to use it for good or evil and to know the difference.
In my humble, not-nearly-as-smart-as-Ray Kurzweil opinion, I think he’s too optimistic in his projections and I’ve never gotten why he brings up Moore’s Law in connection with something like biomedical research. But the man is undeniably a genius and I have no doubt that he will be proved right in many of his views. Just not in his lifetime or mine, but give it a hundred years or so.
He sounds like a mass murderer in the making. Wonder if google checked if he owned a gun.
He speaks of life; yet, says humanity should be destroyed.
"A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." James 1:8
“…Engineer the “singularity,” which is in Vance’s words, “the moment when superintelligent machines light up with something approximating life and either destroy humanity or carry it to unimaginable heights.””
Google = SkyNet. When the Google-Terminators arrive, it will give a whole new meaning to the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.
The republicans just ran this guys spiritual brother, for president of the United States.
Oh come on. He doesn’t advocate the destruction, he’s really just talking about the same general idea that all the big sci-fi authors grappled with: that creating intelligent machines stronger, and possibly smarter than us, could lead to our own extinction.
Isaac Asimov came up with his “Robotic Laws” to deal with this kind of problem, postulating that intelligent machines would need to be “hard-coded” to never cause harm to humans, otherwise building them would be too risky.
With a pact with the devil he might succeed.
I’ve read a good deal about the possibility of this type “singularity” and it is a bit unnerving. Who’s to say that Asimov’s 3 laws will always be incorporated into leading edge robotics and computer technology. If the singularity is real there is always the chance that the 3 laws are ignored for the sake of getting to market first, etc. and thus, there is that danger. I doubt it will happen in my lifetime but we are hurtling headlong in that direction.
Wait a week, then Google his fathers’ name. If comes back with a current street address, they may really have something !! :)
Avoiding his own words and instead reading his mind to make it fit and what others did?
You didn't feel my pain so POP POP!!
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