Ray Kurzweil's Vision of the Singularity, In Movie Form

destinyland writes "AI researcher Ben Goertzel peeks at the new Ray Kurzweil movie (Transcendent Man), and gives it 'two nano-enhanced cyberthumbs way, way up!' But in an exchange with Kurzweil after the screening, Goertzel debates the post-human future, asking whether individuality can survive in a machine-augmented brain. The documentary covers radical futurism, but also includes alternate viewpoints. 'Would I build these machines, if I knew there was a strong chance they would destroy humanity?' asks evolvable hardware researcher Hugo de Garis. His answer? 'Yeah.'" Note, the movie is about Kurzweil and futurism, not by Kurzweil. Update: 05/06 20:57 GMT by T : Note, Singularity Hub has a review up, too.

Comments

Re:All about dates now.

[MozeeToby]

No, his argument is that lots of cool stuff happened in the past, and the cool stuff is happening more and more rapidly as time goes on. Basically, each major 'cool thing' that happens increases the amount of processing power being used to solve the next problem and create the next cool thing.

Agriculture led to a massive population increase that in turn led to more human beings working to solve problems. Iron tools reduced the time it took to do tasks and freed up more time for other pursuits. The printing press led to the education of vast numbers of people who would otherwise have remained ignorant. Computers aid research in ways that no one could have imagined 70 years ago.

If you grant that progress is happing at an accellerating rate, there comes a time in the future where things change dramatically in very short periods of time. If you chose to call that point "OMG ponnies!!!!!" so be it.

Re:I think Kurzweil is an unrealistic optimist.

[DragonWriter]

Here's more progress: people don't know their neighbors and can't let their kids wander the neighborhood.

They may choose not to more now, but to the extent they do it is largely due to media-driven hysteria; while the actual incidence of the kinds of crime that are the focus of the fears behind that decision has declined while the perception of the incidence of those crimes has increased.

Re:Machines won't destroy us.

[bnenning]

Machines have deprived millions of people of a decent living under their own control.

Oh good grief. Machines and technology in general are the only reason any of us have a "decent living" in the first place.

The initial promise of machines was that they would free us from the drudgery of work, but all they have done is make us work in boring jobs

As opposed to the hotbed of excitement in subsistence farming? Well, I suppose there's a certain thrill in finding out each week whether or not you're going to starve.

So tell me again about how the Luddites were wrong.

Because your romanticized version of the past never existed.