An entertaining article in the Business Day section of the Sunday New York Times this past weekend on the Singularity movement: Merely Human? That’s So Yesterday by Ashlee Vance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/business/13sing.html?scp=2&sq=singularity&st=cse
According to Vance, the Singularity movement anticipates “….a time, possibly just a couple decades from now, when a superior intelligence will dominate and life will take on an altered form that we can’t predict or comprehend in our current, limited state. ……[At that point] …human beings and machines will so effortlessly and elegantly merge that poor health, the ravages of old age and even death itself will all be things of the past.”
Under the masquerade of futurism, isn't this concept really just the technologist’s equivalent of the Rapture; the chosen shall be released from their mortal coil and given eternal life? The only requirement for redemption is having made a fortune in technology (hence Business Day) and a runaway ego.
Seems like this is ersatz religion at its worst. I would like to sic the Cerberus of atheism (Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens) on them, if they have not already signed on for the movement. Although there may be hope for Hitchens: Will there be cigarettes, drink and sex there? Not clear how these digitally created, cloud hosted, program driven and mechanically executed embodiments of YOU will be able to enjoy the real guilty (and ephemeral) pleasures of life other than in a virtual sense (already parodied in the last century by Woody Allen in Sleeper; how passé.
All Singularitista please see Metropolis and R.U.R. as the same illuminati that brought you Y2K, are now bringing you a reawakening of the dream of the Ubermensch. This is supposed to be new and exciting?
As with any religion it begins with the mythologizing of the patriarch, Ray Kurzweil: As a child “..sometimes I would put things together, and they would do something cool”. “He saw school as a tool that let him do what he needed to do.” “[he]… realized that some elements of information technology improved at predictable — and exponential — rates”. Oh, really? Never heard of Moore’s law? “A lot of what he has predicted has happened….” Thanks, Nostrodamus.
If you want immortality write a book. I don't think À la Recherche du Temps Perdu even required a typewriter.
I love the idea that having an electronically backed up brain is any improvement. Better have a good surge protector and constantly updated anti-virus, anti-phishing, anti-spam, anti-Trojan programs. Ad-Aware anyone? Hackers and spammers, the “have-nots”, will have a singularly good time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/business/13sing.html?scp=2&sq=singularity&st=cse
According to Vance, the Singularity movement anticipates “….a time, possibly just a couple decades from now, when a superior intelligence will dominate and life will take on an altered form that we can’t predict or comprehend in our current, limited state. ……[At that point] …human beings and machines will so effortlessly and elegantly merge that poor health, the ravages of old age and even death itself will all be things of the past.”
Under the masquerade of futurism, isn't this concept really just the technologist’s equivalent of the Rapture; the chosen shall be released from their mortal coil and given eternal life? The only requirement for redemption is having made a fortune in technology (hence Business Day) and a runaway ego.
Seems like this is ersatz religion at its worst. I would like to sic the Cerberus of atheism (Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens) on them, if they have not already signed on for the movement. Although there may be hope for Hitchens: Will there be cigarettes, drink and sex there? Not clear how these digitally created, cloud hosted, program driven and mechanically executed embodiments of YOU will be able to enjoy the real guilty (and ephemeral) pleasures of life other than in a virtual sense (already parodied in the last century by Woody Allen in Sleeper; how passé.
All Singularitista please see Metropolis and R.U.R. as the same illuminati that brought you Y2K, are now bringing you a reawakening of the dream of the Ubermensch. This is supposed to be new and exciting?
As with any religion it begins with the mythologizing of the patriarch, Ray Kurzweil: As a child “..sometimes I would put things together, and they would do something cool”. “He saw school as a tool that let him do what he needed to do.” “[he]… realized that some elements of information technology improved at predictable — and exponential — rates”. Oh, really? Never heard of Moore’s law? “A lot of what he has predicted has happened….” Thanks, Nostrodamus.
If you want immortality write a book. I don't think À la Recherche du Temps Perdu even required a typewriter.
I love the idea that having an electronically backed up brain is any improvement. Better have a good surge protector and constantly updated anti-virus, anti-phishing, anti-spam, anti-Trojan programs. Ad-Aware anyone? Hackers and spammers, the “have-nots”, will have a singularly good time.
posted by Theomay at 8:04 PM
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