Posted on 11/19/2005 11:34:03 AM PST by Momaw Nadon
At the onset of the twenty-first century, humanity stands on the verge of the most transforming and the most thrilling period in its history. It will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged, as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity.
For over three decades, the great inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he presented the daring argument that with the ever-accelerating rate of technological change, computers would rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now, in The Singularity Is Near, he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our own creations.
That merging is the essence of the Singularity, an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today—the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity. In this new world, there will be no clear distinction between human and machine, real reality and virtual reality. We will be able to assume different bodies and take on a range of personae at will. In practical terms, human aging and illness will be reversed; pollution will be stopped; world hunger and poverty will be solved. Nanotechnology will make it possible to create virtually any physical product using inexpensive information processes and will ultimately turn even death into a soluble problem.
While the social and philosophical ramifications of these changes will be profound, and the threats they pose considerable, The Singularity Is Near maintains a radically optimistic view of the future course of human development. As such, it offers a view of the coming age that is both a dramatic culmination of centuries of technological ingenuity and a genuinely inspiring vision of our ultimate destiny.
celebrate singularity... has a certain non ring to it.
Is it wrong to want to put an end to human suffering?
Is it wrong to want to live forever (or as long as we want to)?
There's nothing wrong with wanting any of these things. Playing God in order to achieve them, on the other hand, is another matter.
If scientists were successful in achieving these things, would it be wrong?
I doubt you and I have the same conception of "God" but I agree with you 100%. When man plays at being God we get such things as the Holocaust, abortion and Stalin's USSR. To each thing there is a season...
Thanks for the suggestions!
"The First Immortals" by Halperin is already on my to-read list.
I will include "The Truth Machine" on the list as well.
Lots of Singularitarian and Transhumanist thought resembles Nietzsche's philosophy. Humans who have different world views will be at risk.
I really loved both books. The author is a Rare Coins dealer in Dallas who just decided to write a novel...
Whatever.
I think all will agree that the subject of Kurzweil's Singularity needs to be examined from all points of view. Let's make an effort to provide constructive comments.
Do you believe the merging of man and machine is the next step in human evolution?
Probably too busy assimilating pizza and beer!
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Eternal porno.
Louis Wu's wire. With a remote control the masters can turn to a low setting for work and war.
Of course we here at Alien Mind Control Satellite Industries won't give up our evil hegemony without a fight!
Interesting concept. Nice technology no doubt. But fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of human beings.
I'd file the hype portion of this one with the antique notion: "The human mind is just a computer."
No. Probably the next step will be the ability for prospective parents to select out undesirable genes from their offspring. There's no need to wait around for a plague do that nasty job for us. Then, on average, we'll all be healthier. Seems desirable.
The man-machine stuff is mostly nonsense. I can see some limited use for specialized prosthetics. But nothing that anyone would consider a new species.
Nothing is perfect. Everything has flaws. Depends how you look at things of course. However you look at it, the universe seems to be bigger in content than anyone is capable of fully knowing. This is a good thing since that means no matter how long we live we might expect to stumble across something unexpected and not unpleasant. It does not change character nor poetic insight. Living longer and seeing more is simply a difference of quantity, which in itself isn't particularly interesting.
I remember studying electronic music at the Berklee College of Music in 1971 with the brilliant instructor Michael Rendish.
Conventional wisdom back then was that it was not possible to build a polyphonic synthesizer keyboard (i.e. able to play more than one note at a time), because of the staggering amount of signal processing required for each key.
At the time, he was right. But as we all know, today polyphonc synthesizers are everywhere, even in the toy section at Wal-Mart.
Take it a step further to the reversal of the aging process. Would we not become Homo sapiens sapiens immortalis?
"The man-machine stuff is mostly nonsense. I can see some limited use for specialized prosthetics. But nothing that anyone would consider a new species."
Cochlear implants are already being used to assist hearing. Artificial limbs, although crude, already exist. Artificial eyesight is on the horizon. What if we could have non-biological brain implants for augmented memory?
Replace just one neuron with a computer circuit. Is the person still human? Of course. Then replace 2, 100, 1,000,000 and more neurons with circuits. At what point does a person go from being human to being something else?
Take it even further. Replace all of a persons frail biological parts with non-biological parts? Is that person still "human"? What does it even mean to be "human"?
My plan is simple:
1) Maximize the whole in the ozone layer over the South Pole.
2) Hook up a giant pipe up to the vacuum of space.
3) Run PVC to all the major populated areas.
Voila! - The ultimate in "central vacuuming". Why, the savings from fall leaves clean-up time alone will pay for it.
Bonus:
All the stuff floats out south of the ecliptic, so no other planets get "dusted". (The solar wind will take care of the rest).
Extra Bonus: Will leave a nice spiral tracing the earth's revolution as the sun traverses the galaxy.
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