The Social Implications Of "The Singularity Moment"

You might want to re-think these first two.Nuclear power was enthusiastically embraced 40 years ago. In the USA a political decision was made to stop its expansion. In France they chose just the opposite.In vitro fertilization is a major method used to overcome infertility issues. There are IVF clinics in every major city in the country.I don't understand the gene sequence issue. We use it all over the world sequencing more and more organisms each day.Space travel, at our present level of technology, is so expensive it can only be funded at the level of the society - government. But the technology we do have is being used by many nations.Maybe you use some other definition of "absorb"?

Kurzweil's "Singularity" may seem hooey to a lot of people but it already has started and will continue to grow.Ray has fallen off the wagon in taking this concept to absurd extremes but his initial view is quite viable.The singularity is not about technology take-over or cultural absorption problems. It is, as defined by Kurzweil, the evolution of human intelligence augmented by technology (read his book).The "Singularity" has already begun. This computer and this Internet are extensions and augment human intelligence today. No big surprise here. Where Kurzweil takes this (before jumping off his bean) is that future enhancements of human intelligence will be via nano-tech directly implanted in our bodies.Nano-tech is already a viable technology though it is young and still quite specialized. But as this rate of technology continues to speed up (a phenomenon I think we can all agree is real) the nano-tech parts start entering the human body and eventually our brains.Nano-bots will be used to clean up the plaque in our arteries and help stave off disease. Nano-bots will slowly build tissues replacing our own tissues with less-degradable organics. Who knows. Maybe replacing our bones with carbon composites, our muscles with "memory metals," our stomachs with acid-resistant polymers.Then as more technology and knowledge becomes available these nano things will be directly interfaced into our brains and connected to the vast libraries of human knowledge.If Straggler in London and I in Arizona are having a real-time face-to-face (via an implanted Virtual Interactive Visitation link) discussion that devolves into a syntax tussle over the definition of Bill Clinton's favorite word "is" neither of us will have to consult a dictionary. The Interactive Robotic Virtual Intelligence Network Gateway (IRVING) will find it for us and instantly pop it into our consciousness like we know it all along. Then, of course, we can argue whether my definition from the GT283.234 node is more apropos to the theme than his which came from the LM921.077 node. Such is the nature of discussion.Anyway.We will not become machines nor will we be controlled by machines, any more then we can say we, today, are controlled by computers and the Internet. Our humanity or spirit or soul or whatever the religionists are want to call it will not disappear or be subjugated to a superior non-human intellect. We will have arrested the human genome, replaced degradable body organics with non-degradable counterparts, augmented our innate intellect with nano-technologies with the prospect of living happily ever after. So goes the idea of the Singularity.I won't be here to see it if it happens. Some of you may ... if it happens.This is all doable with future technologies. That's not to say it will be done, but there isn't anything but a lack of knowledge and technology standing in the way, both of which will come in time.I think Kurzweil greatly overestimates the speed of this timeline, but not the viability of such technology and its integration into our bodies.

Well, I suppose if the pissing contest is over we might as well get back to the topic at hand.Please refer to my message Message 57 above as a starting point. Then maybe we can help answer Phat's OP.If we use Ray Kurzweil's own definition of the Singularity then, my dear Phat, we will all understand the new technologies quite well since we will all be plugged into the common human knowledge bank which will give us the intellect (augmented by technology) to understand.

A kill joy realist.Just think. After so many eons of intellectual development we end up with Ghost Hunters. Imagine the inanity we can achieve with a technologically-augmented thousand-fold intellect!

Don't knock Watson. The game was just a means to an end. The development of the data base, algorithms and speed of processing was the real achievement.If Kurzweil's singularity comes to pass we could all have a Watson.Well, not me, but these younger kids may see that capability in their own heads someday.