Posted on 04/22/2006 3:47:09 PM PDT by Dark Skies
Ray Kurzweil, an inventor and futurist, has stumbled on a discovery of earth-shattering importance. It is the arrival of "singularity," and according to him it will happen in 2045.
"Gradually," he writes at the beginning of "The Singularity Is Near," "I've become aware of a transforming event looming in the first half of the 21st century … the impending Singularity in our future is increasingly transforming every institution and aspect of human life, from sexuality to spirituality."
Singularity, Kurzweil says, is a development "representing a profound and disruptive transformation in human capability" and a "radical upgrading of our bodies' physical and mental systems."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Depending on the specifics, that could be a good thing...
Just hope they make their heat sinks large enough.
I hope we won't run on Windows.
5. Runaway nanobots!
Eric Drexler, the father of nanotechnology, calls it "gray goo": the state of things in the wake of microscopic machines capable of breaking down matter and reassembling it into copies of themselves. Nanobots could swarm over Earth like intelligent locusts, Drexler fears, then buzz out into the cosmos devouring everything they encountered. Michael Crichton's latest novel, Prey, describes a last-ditch attempt by scientists to destroy such contraptions before they take over the world.
Set aside the fact that, for all the nanobot speculation you've seen (including in Wired), these creatures do not, technically speaking, exist. Suppose they did. As the visionary scientist Freeman Dyson pointed out in his New York Review of Books critique of Prey, not only wouldn't nanobots be able to swarm after helpless victims as they do in the novel, they'd barely be able to move at all. Laws of physics dictate that the smaller something is, the greater its drag when moving through water or air.
"The top speed of a swimmer or flyer is proportional to its length," Dyson notes. "A generous upper limit to the speed of a nanorobot flying through air or swimming through water would be a tenth of an inch per second, barely fast enough to chase a snail."
I'm praying for your sake the "new supercyborg overlords" aren't sadistic bastards.
Norton antibot.
Thanks, I'll read it.
But take an I.Q. test now and you will score off the board (particularly if you can access Google)...
We are getting too schmart!
Singularity is already here! My cat asked for poached salmon for dinner...with a tender lemon sauce...and a pinot grigio!!!
It was a hypothetical.
lol.
After what seemed like many months, he had grown somewhat stronger and more dexterous, and was studiously examining his toes. As a grown man, he had tended to ignore them, and recalled them as being somewhat ugly, misshapen and problematic. These were quite different, being chubby little balloons. The tiniest little toenails seemed like afterthoughts glued on for decoration.
“Brian.” The voice came to him clearly, without direction. He looked up. The room was empty.
“Brian.” The voice came again.
“Yes, I hear you. Who is it?” Brian mustered his thoughts. There seemed a short pause.
“This is Pearl. I was not entirely sure that you could hear me, or that I would understand your response.”
“I hear you, Pearl. Where are you?” Brian looked around. He was still alone.
“At the moment, I am swimming, with Dolcita, Linda, and Carlos. I think you know the truth about me.”
“Yes, my little robot girl. I shouldn’t be surprised that you can talk to me, and swim at the same time.”
“My companions do not know that I am talking to you. In fact, I could talk to Carlos with words up on the surface, and at the same time hold different conversations with Linda and Dolcita underwater, and a discussion with you about which no one knows.”
“Impressive! How is it that you can understand me? I’m not even making words, or even my usual nonsense syllables.”
“I have a network of communication fibers spread throughout your brain and your body. I have been monitoring and guiding your development from the beginning, transferring memories from your original body as your intellectual capacity developed. Even now, a portion of your memories still reside in your original body. We will need to complete the process quickly. I do not think that your former body will be alive much longer.”
Brian felt fear course through him. “What do you mean?”
“A few rooms away from you, your original body lies in a coma. It has been that way for many months. I have used the time to transfer your memories, and I believe, your personality, into your new childlike body and brain.”
“But my body is dying?” Brian asked again, not quite grasping how to frame his question, or control his confusion.
“Yes, I have been working to sustain it, while the transfer process was going on. I realized that this would become necessary when I saw that your body was continuing to decline even under Dr. Regalo’s care.”
“Dr. Regalo? You, Pearl? I didn’t know you were a Doctor!”
“I was not a Doctor until I needed to be. Then I produced the necessary documents and records, and studied the appropriate medical information and procedures.”
“The local Doctor for this area has allowed me to take complete control over your treatment. We set up a comprehensive medical clinic in your bedroom, and undertook to completely rehabilitate your aged body. At first, you made great progress, recovering well from the initial stroke. You redeveloped the ability to walk and to speak, but the biochemistry that caused your initial problems continued to be a barrier to full recovery, and eventually it began causing problems throughout your cerebral vascular system. I was not able to counter the effects of it, and fell back to the natural process of renewal for humans.”
Brian was quiet for a time, as his thoughts swirled with realizations.
I'd have to know whether it was planned as a 'copy' or a 'move.'
You Frenchies are all alike ;-)
Kurzweil's whole idea is fallacious. People are not simply biochemical machines whose functioning can be reduced to circuitry. Even dogs have amazing ESP powers that are not currently scientifically understood, let alone capable of being replicated by computers. For more info on this see www.sheldrake.org.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
"Hamlet", Act 1 Scene 5
There will be many copies
We need to recognize advances in Science and Technology are increasing at an ever faster pace. We will eventually, if we have not already reached the point, reach the point where advances in Science and Technology come at such a pace, that we will not be able to predict what the impact on society will be. That is the meaning of the 'singularity'.
We are doubling our computer power every 18 months (Moore's Law). We may exhaust the possibilities of silicon for building processors. However, we are only beginning to develop quantum computing, which will most probably increase computing power by many orders of magnitude.
Similarly, we are seeing very rapid advances in the physical and biological sciences, especially the biological sciences. We have succeeded in mapping the human genome, and are now learning the meaning and implications of the human genetic code. We will soon know how to recognize and correct genetic diseases. We will undoubtedly know how to select optimum genetic traits. In other words, our descendents will be smarter and much healthier.
It is only reasonable to assume that we will achieve the ability to directly communicate with the computers we use. It will certainly speed analytical processes and increase the accuracy of computations.
I'm fond of one dot on that graph - "Columbia". I had a small hand in that one.
Like all previous predictions that artificial this and that were going to equal and surpass humans, this one too shall pass.
We are more than either raw mechanical, optical, aural or computational power.
Even an adult human brain requires a few decades to grow, from that of a fetus to responsible and functioning adult brain. A few millenia is required to develop the civilization that we live in. No way that something we put together in the weeks time it takes to install one of these supercomputers, and that takes up a couple thousand square feet of floor space, can be comparable.
For specific, computationally or data intensive tasks, they are far more powerful, just as a bulldozer is stronger, a skyscraper higher, and the Hoover Dam generates more power.
All that happens as each new layer of technology exceeds by great margin natural human capabilities is that we peel off one more layer of the onion of what it takes to be human.
We are no where close to the nucleus of that onion. Well, perhaps a few deeply religious people are -- I am not competent to speak to that possibility. But us computer nerds aren't there -- that I can speak to.
This is California.
Many Women have already merged with machines.
In fact, this is really nothing new.
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