Comments | jackwilliambell: I am not a Singulatarian

jackwilliambell

I am not a Singulatarian

Aug 27, 2007 04:52

There are plenty of Singularity doubters out there. Some think we won't last long enough. Others simply figure the robots aint gonna take over, period.

The common thread among all the deniers appears to be a misunderstanding of what a Technological Singularity really means. For what it's worth, you often find the same problem on the other side of ( Read more... )

singularity, rant, futurism, transhumanism

Comments 9

very well anonymous August 27 2007, 16:41:38 UTC

Well written.

Re: very well jackwilliambell August 27 2007, 18:15:50 UTC

Thanks!

farmgirl1146 August 27 2007, 20:23:51 UTC

Very interesting Mr. Bell. I would add to your observation that "there is no change which doesn't bring some good and some bad" with the thought that the Technological Singularity might be not world-ending but it may be human ending, but not as in Darwin's Radio with an intelligence that is smart than us, but rather with an intelligence that is dumber than us and brings us down to its level.
Thanks for the link to Vinge's original formulation. I didn't have that before.
As far as it being a religion: we don't need another half-baked religion. That really will send everything to hell or at least into the S__ter.

jackwilliambell August 27 2007, 22:10:10 UTC

I am interested in what you are thinking for this: "an intelligence that is dumber than us and brings us down to its level"

Is this related to the concept of AS (Artificial Stupidity)? Or does it have something to do with politics?

And no, we don't need no more steenkeen religions. They are already overcrowding their habitat. The meme pollution is terrible!

farmgirl1146 August 28 2007, 18:14:26 UTC

The concept of AS, as in a refrigerator that monitors itself, or a vacuum that detects dirt and can "figure out" what to do, that's great ( ... )

k6rfm August 28 2007, 08:05:42 UTC

Interesting. The true believers in Nanotech and the Singularity do share with Christianity the basic idea "I will never die."

I agree with you that the Vinge Singularity is likely, but I think it's going to be later than you think, in particular after everybody I know is dead. Despite lots of smart people working on it, we've made essentially no progress in creating a real AI in the last 50 years; until there's a breakthrough there none of the nano/singularity stuff can proceed.

jackwilliambell August 28 2007, 11:12:10 UTC

Well, the longer we can put off a Technological Singularity the more likely we can find a way to make it into a 'soft-takeoff' scenario. Also the more likely we can find a way to create a 'friendly AI'. Both of these are good things for humanity.

Technological Singularity ext_61163 August 28 2007, 19:38:37 UTC

Thank you for your visit Jack. As you can see I wrote that piece with the idea that the Singularity could be (mis?)interpreted as a New Age religion and a solution to problems facing humanity. You are quite correct in stating that the Singularity is more akin to buying a winning lottery ticket than it being a sure fire thing. I personally believe a Singularity will happen before the Christian Second Coming though, the odds are pretty good concerning that, depending on your philosophy of course ( ... )

irrationalrobot June 23 2011, 06:14:11 UTC

(disclaimer: Haven't read the links)

Consciousness is a weird phenomena- as we see it show up in fits and starts with actual, real-deal humans. Computers are so unlike that, I can't imagine that they'd develop consciousness in a way that would make sense to us, or be much like us at all.