From Matt Springer of Built on Facts. For what it's worth, many people at the Summit were skeptical of Kurzweil's specific vision. I mean in the audience, not just among the speakers.
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Well, Kurzweil recently said that we'll be immortal in 20 years. He's 60 years old now, and American male life expectancy is roughly around 80 years, so perhaps this makes him come off as an older guy fearful of his impending demise and engaging in some really wishful thinking.
Also, I wonder if the recession has had any impact on expectations, especially considering that there is evidence of deep, structural economic problems that could keep the economy stagnated for many years.
The Singularity will no be something that happens all of a sudden, the Singularity is going on now.
As for physical immortality, that would require attaining perfection, and in this reality perfection aint gonna happen.
may I pimp my own skeptics' take on this?
http://www.haibane.info/2008/03/02/singularity-skeptic/
i find the vision these singularians have to be not trans-humanism, but null-humanism. Their Utopia is no different from enslavement in the matrix.
meat matters. you've all read Terry Bison's classic, right?
http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html
The Singularity will no be something that happens all of a sudden, the Singularity is going on now.
Maybe this is explained in the book or something, but why does he call it a singularity if it's not a singularity? Why not call it "The Acceleration Phase"?
I wonder if the recession has had any impact on expectations, especially considering that there is evidence of deep, structural economic problems that could keep the economy stagnated for many years.
While Kurzweil himself is suspect, the idea that advances in technology will change society profoundly is not.
We can march forth blindly or we can talk about it.
I vote for talking about it.
Keesey, #4
I speak for myself.
It's funny that Bison's classic actually is making the point that meat DOESN'T matter as much as we assume it does, so it's odd that it's being invoked here in favor of meat-centrism. The point of that story is that there can exist beings as conscious and intelligent as us that are NOT based on meat.