Slashdot Mirror
Ray Kurzweil's "The Singularity is Near"
popo writes "The Wall Street Journal has a (publicly accessible) review of "The Singularity is Near" -- a new book by futurist, Ray Kurzweil. By "Singularity", Kurzweil refers not to a collapsed supernova, but instead to an extraordinarily bright future in which technological progress has leapt by such exponentially large bounds that it will be... well, for lack of a better word: 'utopian'. "Mr. Kurzweil... thinking exponentially, imagines a plausible future, not so far away, with extended life-spans (living to 300 will not be unusual), vastly more powerful computers (imagine more computing power in a head-sized device than exists in all the human brains alive today), other miraculous machines (nanotechnology assemblers that can make most anything out of sunlight and dirt) and, thanks to these technologies, enormous increases in wealth (the average person will be capable of feats, like traveling in space, only available to nation-states today)." On one hand its fantastically (even ridiculously) optimistic, but on the other hand, I sure as hell hope he's right." Got mailed a review copy; I'm not finished yet, but I agree - optimistic perhaps, but the future does look pretty interesting.
Things have pretty much sucked up to this point.
Someone hates these cans.
Where is my flying car.
Get on it. I was promised one more than 50 years ago.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
And then put a big sign on it that says, "HAAAAA! You pussies don't have the smarts or the guts to regrow me a new body and bring me back! Hahahahahahah!"
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
Pessimist: "That glass is half empty."
Optimist: "That glass is half full."
Kurzweil: "The self-cloning milk in that glass will replicate thanks to nanobots and end world hunger."
Best Windows Freeware
Could the Christians PLEASE get their "Rapture" out of the way first before our "Singularity" arrives?
need a free COBOL editor for Windows?
...vastly more powerful computers (imagine more computing power in a head-sized device than exists in all the human brains alive today)
And we shall call it "Marvin"
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
How cuckoo is Kurzweill really, when he makes another mint from selling his science fiction to the remaining U.S. population, not yet burning The Origin of Species?
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
"imagine more computing power in a head-sized device than exists in all the human brains alive today"
Given the MTV generation, don't we have this already?
Only Slashdot would someone pine for a "robust" society. :P
Just reviewing the list, I appear to be missing a cessna and a vase I can use
Gabby Johnson: [shouting] The singularity's a n[GONG!]
[the last word is lost in the peal of a church bell]
Harriett Van Johnson: What did he say?
Dr. Sam Johnson: He said the singularity is near.
Matt
Because by the time you hit 300, one of your great^x grandchildren is going to kill you for the inheretence. It'll totally be worth it with compound interest.
They have -> You have -> I have
Expensive Sports Car -> Affordable Sports Car -> A 1984 Ford Ares
$3000 Cell Phone -> $0-$500 Cell Phone -> $0.35/minute payphone
Jet Plane -> Cessna -> Sometimes when I'm in my cubical I put out my arms and make airplane noises
Mansion -> Spacious Home -> Small 1 bedroom apartment next door to noisy @ssholes
Ming Vase -> A Vase that you can use -> No vase, but no plants so who cares
Private doctors -> public HMO -> My health plan: don't get sick (thanks to both Clinton and Bush)
Hot women -> fat women -> blind women
Electric heat -> Gas heat -> I just have gas
Gold plated Mozart records -> vynil Beatles records -> police record
Privacy -> a false sense of security -> run, Forest, run
Celebrity friends -> friends -> a socket puppet
Huge income, lots of time off -> modest income, unpaid overtime -> No income, lots of time off
Sex in a private jacuzzi -> sex in the community pool -> sex at the zoo (and not with other patrons)
Dashing good looks -> good hegine -> the roaches I live with are disgusted by me
Vote Republican -> vote Democrat -> Voted for the rabbit to get the tricks
Plays golf -> plays bowling -> plays with himself
Bogus diploma from Harvard/Yale because daddy is a major contributor -> diploma from community college -> Ph.D. in mathematics and computer science (yeah kids, stay in school)
I sure miss the optimism and belief in the future that I've seen in texts from the 60s.
Yeah. If it weren't for them, we would not have all those flying cars and luxurious moon colonies today. Clearly wild-eyed optimism is the way to get things done.
Personally, I think we should all join Max's zombie-survivalist cult rather that Kurzwell's singularity cult or Jack Chick & co's Rapture cult. Who's with me? Organize before they rise!
Besides, either the Rapture or advanced AI could bring about the zombie holocaust, since "When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth!" or SHODAN could decide to cleanse the earth with bio-engineered zombies.
As another great leader once said, "Shop smart, shop S-Mart," notice how Sears and Kmart have merged? How long before the combined corporation renames itself to S-Mart... it's coming, I tell you!!!
If I had a hat that had that much power it wouldn't make me smart. Like the kids today who can't do division by hand because they were allowed to use calculators in class, I would become a gullible moron who believed whatever the magic hat told me was true. There are all ready too many people today who act this way when told something by the magic box, i.e. 'We aren't going to war to control oil, we're preventing a madman from using WMD's that he has been illegally stockpiling. Pictures at 11.' My prediction on the singularity: The rich get richer and the stupid get stupider.
Correction:
Mansion -> Mom's basement
The average person will have a 5000 sq ft home, a self-driven car thats nicer than our nicest limos today, a jucuzzi, televisions anywhere/everywhere, instant commication with everyone they love/know, and all the porn and violence they could ever want. The poor will have 3500 sq ft homes, a nice self-driven car, televisions everywhere, instant commication with everyone they know/love and all the porn a violence that could ever want, but they're complain about how horrible their lives are and how sucky they are because they dont have what the average person has. And, as now, they wont be willing to put any effort, energy or risk into getting it. In other words, not much will change.
That is the most ridiculous thing I have encountered in many days. We should each get in our middle class affordable Cessna and fly out to the place you call home and pelt you with fish sticks just for making such a preposterous statement.
Utopia.
So far all that humans have shown any proclivity for is eating, crapping and sleeping. Any thing more complicated that this just turns into a total clusterfark.
word.
You are wrong, utopia is where I rule with iron fist over mankind with an army of atomic men and... oh, you mean your utopia.
"I think this line is mostly filler"
If people lived to be 300, things would slow down a lot. You could always say "I'll do it tomorrow" and, most likely, you'd be right.
Dear Sir,
It has been brought to our attention that your have openly been making false and misleading claims about our patented product "the future". We hereby order you to cease and desist all written or verbal speculation about the features that will and will not be offered in this product. At what we consider a relevant time, we will make our own press releases about what may or may not constitute your allowable future to whom we consider to be relevant and interested parties. Until then, rest assured that we are only doing what's best for you, your family, your country and/or whoever else our press department believes is relevant at the time. Please also remember that our extensive patents on "the future" only exist to protect our current investments, without which, there would be no "future". "The future" is a very important strategic play for our company and we intend to defend it to the fullest extent of our law.
Sincerely
Monsanto