Ray Kurzweil's Singularity

[Remus]

Read the full article here: http://thetechnologicalcitizen.com/?p=2197

We stand on the threshold of the most profound and transformative event in the history of humanity, the “singularity”.
What is the Singularity? From my perspective, the Singularity is a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so fast and far-reaching that human existence on this planet will be irreversibly altered. We will combine our brain power—the knowledge, skills, and personality quirks that make us human—with our computer power in order to think, reason, communicate, and create in ways we can scarcely even contemplate today.

Human existence will undergo a quantum leap in evolution. We will be able to live as long as we choose. The coming into being of such a world is, in essence, the Singularity

When you envision our technological future, do you share Kurzweil’s dreams?

Should we place limits on certain technologies, given the dangers they present? Are there any types of technologies we simply shouldn’t pursue?

What are your views on the supposed "singularity"?

Discuss...

 

[Dekstar]

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1760#comic
This is all I have to say on the matter.

 

[Wanted Bob]

On the one hand, I'm really interested to see which direction this technology could take us.

On the other hand however, I worry that melding flesh with machine in order to live forever could remove all the excitement of having a limited amount of time on this Earth.

 

[Viperidae]

I don't care much for his philosophy.

But I do know his company designed the best hardware synthesiser ever made.

 

[Solaris]

I don't think we'll ever be able to transfer our minds onto hardware with purely technological advancements, there are spiritual truths that need to be understood first and these may not allow such a transfer anyway.

What is conciousness? What is awareness? Are we our brains thought process or that which is aware of our brain?

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Dammit Dekstar, you led me to a half hour of SMBC browsing.

 

[fishdbaz]

Well, that's assuming that there is such thing as a spirit.
I'm willing to take a bet and say that there isn't.

 

[MJ12]

there are spiritual truths

Spiritual truths, lolololol.

 

[Solaris]

Spiritual truths, lolololol.

I'm not sure what better way to phrase it.

There are serious questions with regards to ourselves and conciousness that we have no answers for.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

You mean we don't know how our consciousness works yet.

 

[Dekstar]

Dammit Dekstar, you led me to a half hour of SMBC browsing.

Tell me about it. I have the final coursework for my last year of university due in less than a month and I do about 100 comics a day :\.

 

[Warped]

i'm a little buzzed right now but i'm pretty sure our grandchildren will live through this. not us of course. we dont even have flying cars yet!! well they exist but no one i know use them

 

[Stigmata]

I'm not sure what better way to phrase it.

There are serious questions with regards to ourselves and conciousness that we have no answers for.

But that doesn't stop anything. For example, we don't "know" how physics "works", but we know certain things about it, and we can use that knowledge constructively with very little negative feedback.

As far as I'm concerned, consciousness is a natural and, ultimately, unavoidable "dimension" that is emergent from the fundamental interactions of particles and energy. As far as we can tell, consciousness is produced simply by the flow of electrons and various chemicals throughout our neural structure; which itself is nothing more than an ordered flow of charged matter; which is nothing more than an ordered flow of energy.

I mean I'm no physicist, but it seems intuitively true. And if it is, then there are few obstacles in the way of conscious immortality.

 

[Warped]

all i know is that we in general are pretty damn crazy and immortality right now for us would be bad. we got a long time ahead of us. all hearts could be warmer, and people need more reasons to live and not kill. but overall we may have inherited millions of years of violence and hatred ever since we crawled our way out of the deepest of unknown places. i'm just thinking that we're not the first to have a consciousness and we shouldn't be all high and mighty.

 

[Vegeta897]

But I do know his company designed the best hardware synthesiser ever made.

I knew I'd see you in here.

 

[Vigilante]

I thought this thread was going to be about black holes.

 

[Stigmata]

I thought it was going to be about a book.

 

[MJ12]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJQpJ-14GQs

 

[AJ Rimmer]

I'm not sure what better way to phrase it.

There are serious questions with regards to ourselves and conciousness that we have no answers for.

We know it be in brain. Transfer brain. Now robot feel love.

 

[Remus]

i'm a little buzzed right now but i'm pretty sure our grandchildren will live through this. not us of course.

That's where I agree with Kurzweil. I'm reasonably sure we'll see some sort of fundamental shift within our lifetimes, not our children's or grandchildren's, but ours.

Personally I think what Kurzweil calls "stage two" to immortality, will be achieved within the next 50 years. Stage two meaning, the use of genetic manipulation and nano technology to render our present human/organic bodies immune to illnes/aging, and perhaps even reverse aging.

However what I find baffling about Kurweil is how a very inteligent person like that can take Alcor (the cryogenics company) seriously. After seeing those documnetaries about what happens over there behind closed doors, it's clear there is nothing scientific about what they are doing...

 

[PvtRyan]

I am of the opinion that all futurists are full of shit. The Discovery Channel has made me bitter like that by having all these shows about cool future stuff which supposedly are only "just out of reach" which turns out to be blatantly not true or exaggerated. But I suppose it was better than all the reality- and/or car building shows they have today. I don't give a damn about fishermen and hotrods, fuck you.

 

[Eejit]

Futurists always seem ridiculously optimistic with their estimated timeframes, and indeed the predictions themselves.

 

[Unfocused]

I don't think we'll ever be able to transfer our minds onto hardware with purely technological advancements, there are spiritual truths that need to be understood first and these may not allow such a transfer anyway.

What is conciousness? What is awareness? Are we our brains thought process or that which is aware of our brain?

That is if we need to transfer this conciousness at all. We die because our bodies deteriorate. The brain deteriorates as well, leading to mental instabilities with age, but I think the conciousness itself could "live" much longer.

Maybe if we built a robotic human around this core conciousness we would be able to live for as long as whatever energy our conciousness comprises of can exist.

But that goes back to the point you made, that we need to understand the brain far more than what we do now.

 

[Mogi67]

Commence the obliteration of being. Hasn't our humanity already been crushed enough by technology? It will never stop, everything is to be consumed and ordered by technicity, the ultimate result being the loss of identity, the loss of transcendence. And for what? A shopping-mall nihilism; A comfortable, meaningless life, where we're glued to the television, to our computer, to our engineered 'community'. Mass culture turns us into unthinking clods..modernity threatens to render humanity inert, incapable of genuine action, literally congealed into nodal points of a mass.

The futurists are fools, this is a catastrophic threat to genuine individuality

 

[fishdbaz]

That's ridiculous. Technology is one the very things that makes us human. Besides, life without technology is just as meaningless, only less interesting and more painful. Also, if anything, technology has augmented individuality; compare a tribe of proto-humans where to be an"individual" would mean being left for dead to today, when you're free to say and do almost whatever you want without fear of being brutally beaten by unsympathetic cavemen.

 

[Mogi67]

That's ridiculous. Technology is one the very things that makes us human. Besides, life without technology is just as meaningless, only less interesting and more painful. Also, if anything, technology has augmented individuality; compare a tribe of proto-humans where to be an"individual" would mean being left for dead to today, when you're free to say and do almost whatever you want without fear of being brutally beaten by unsympathetic cavemen.

I think not. Technology is a creation of humanity, not an essential trait. Information, as well as art, has become commodified. Serialized objectivity annihilates the individual into a "they" where people think the same thought. The press caters to idiocy and exists for profit. It benefits splendidly from the license of contempt. It appeals to the lowest instincts, seduces the unstable and the irresponsible, cheapens the currency of discourse. The world is a pseudo-world of crowd cliches. One's thoughts appear to be one's own but in fact they follow dominant trends in the media, one's class, race, gender, peer-group, or corporation. People prefer googling to thinking, The public is a massive abstraction that sleepwalks through a desolate world, reducing individuals to a numerical anonymous existence, passionless, indolent, complacent, stupid, passive, gossipy, superficial monstrosities.

I've been reading a lot of Heidegger btw

 

[Unfocused]

Commence the obliteration of being. Hasn't our humanity already been crushed enough by technology? It will never stop, everything is to be consumed and ordered by technicity, the ultimate result being the loss of identity, the loss of transcendence. And for what? A shopping-mall nihilism; A comfortable, meaningless life, where we're glued to the television, to our computer, to our engineered 'community'. Mass culture turns us into unthinking clods..modernity threatens to render humanity inert, incapable of genuine action, literally congealed into nodal points of a mass.

The futurists are fools, this is a catastrophic threat to genuine individuality

The futurists are not neccessarily saying that they want to get their bodies immediately replaced with "robot parts" and/or have their conciousness' loaded onto computers.

But after a certain time our bodies are not able to function by themselves anymore. This is when I'd welcome the ability to resort to technology if it would enable me to live longer.

 

[Mogi67]

The futurists are not neccessarily saying that they want to get their bodies immediately replaced with "robot parts" and/or have their conciousness' loaded onto computers.

But after a certain time our bodies are not able to function by themselves anymore. This is when I'd welcome the ability to resort to technology if it would enable me to live longer.

Fair enough, I'm going to refuse any augmentations offered to me.

 

[Remus]

Fair enough, I'm going to refuse any augmentations offered to me.

It's a very personal choice. No one will force you to become an immortal superhuman if you don't want to. However it's wrong to deny these kinds of advancements to those of us that want them.

Also I strongly disagree with your opinion that technology removes individuality. If they will come up with a technology that turns all humanity into a singular hive mind, I will be the first to reject it.

 

[fishdbaz]

I think not. Technology is a creation of humanity, not an essential trait. Information, as well as art, has become commodified. Serialized objectivity annihilates the individual into a "they" where people think the same thought. The press caters to idiocy and exists for profit. It benefits splendidly from the license of contempt. It appeals to the lowest instincts, seduces the unstable and the irresponsible, cheapens the currency of discourse. The world is a pseudo-world of crowd cliches. One's thoughts appear to be one's own but in fact they follow dominant trends in the media, one's class, race, gender, peer-group, or corporation. People prefer googling to thinking, The public is a massive abstraction that sleepwalks through a desolate world, reducing individuals to a numerical anonymous existence, passionless, indolent, complacent, stupid, passive, gossipy, superficial monstrosities.

I've been reading a lot of Heidegger btw

Oy vey.

If it weren't for technology, humanity would consist of a couple hundred-thousand hairy ape-things roaming around Africa getting murdered by all the species that are actually adapted for something other than thinking. If it weren't for technology, chances are that you and I wouldn't even exist! Sure technology is a creation of humanity, but to not acknowledge that it is also an essential trait is foolish.

Of course the press and the mass media caters to society as whole; do you think it's feasible they'd going to cater it just to your tastes? You say that what we think is our own opinion is actually completely unoriginal? Yes, that's social interaction. Humans learn through imitation: How do you think we learn to speak? How do you think we form our very consciousness? Social interaction is based around doing what the other guy is doing! Sure, sometimes that isn't the most intelligent course of action to take, but it's been ridiculously succesful so far: in terms of success as a species, we've gone from hundreds-of-thousands to billions. In terms of satisfaction on the individual scale... Well, consider the fact that you can even make the argument that technology and society are bad instead of having to spend all of your time scrounging for food.

Sure, if you want to live a short violent life as a hermit living in the wilderness, then by all means be my guest. I'll be flying my starship to Mars while playing Half-Life 2: Episode Three on my virtual reality PC 3000 while not dying of old age, cancer or anything really.