Douglas Hofstadter Looks At the Future

An anonymous reader writes with a link to this "detailed and fascinating interview with Douglas Hofstadter (of Gödel Escher Bach fame) about his latest book, science fiction, Kurzweil's singularity and more ... Apparently this leading cognitive researcher wouldn't want to live in a world with AI, since 'Such a world would be too alien for me. I prefer living in a world where computers are still very very stupid.' He also wouldn't want to be around if Kurzweil's ideas come to pass, since he thinks 'it certainly would spell the end of human life.'"

Comments

Boooring!

[r_jensen11]

I watch TV, I know what's going on, and quit trying to fool us! Forget whatever Douglas Hofstadter says, the future is now!

Deep admiration for humanity.

[jwiegley]

I am a deep admirer of humanity at its finest and deepest and most powerful â" of great people such as Helen Keller, Albert Einstein, Ella Fitzgerald, Albert Schweitzer, Frederic Chopin, Raoul Wallenberg, Fats Waller, and on and on.

There's an optimist for you... 6.6+ billion humans and he can name but a dozen he admires (less than 0.0000002% of the population, all of whom are dead by the way) and then draws the conclusion that humanity as a whole is worthy of deep admiration.

I would argue that is not a very scientifically accurate conclusion based on the evidence available.