While we may not have reached the singularity, I already feel "enhanced" by my connection (fingers and eyes) to the computer. My old boss used to describe computers as "brain amplifiers" when pitching the purchase of new computers to management (asking, "how much amplification do you want?"). It was appropriate. I am fortunate to have witnessed the birth of computers in the workplace, and I have seen the good and bad of how engineering has changed due to computing having become an integral part of the process. Engineering is exponentially more rapid with computer. Unfortunately, engineers that were brought up within the computer era lack the engineering common sense in many cases that is used to tell whether the computed result is plausible. We have come a long way in our marriage with computers. While the futurists get many things right, they almost always get the timing wrong. I remember during the rise of GaAs ICs in the semiconductor industry, it was frequently touted as being the technology of the future; only the likeness turned into, "the technology of the future...and it always will be". One can think that the singulatity is only 12 years out...and it always will be. Viable hot fusion energy production is only 25 years out... and it always will be. :)
On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 9:19 AM, Jones Beene <jone...@pacbell.net> wrote: > With or without LENR (hopefully with) "The Singularity Is Near".... "Near" > being the operative variable to be concerned about today as it is the Ides > of March. > > The date when "Humans Transcend Biology" was a 2006 non-fiction book about > artificial intelligence and the future of humanity by inventor and futurist > Ray Kurzweil. It has evolved several times with input from many others into > a coherent vision of things to come - and embraced by almost all of the > great minds in Technology and Futurism. At the same time, this vision has > been marginalized from the pulpit by almost all religious leaders who see > it as heresy. Yet, ironically, the inevitable result of Transhumanism can > be seen as the actual fulfillment of ancient prophecy... in a way scarcely > imaginable to those "left-behind." History is written by the survivors. > > The Singularity is more than the "Age of Intelligent Machines," or even > the "Age of Spiritual Machines" the time when we invent a viable > deity-substitute, the iGod of technology. The full concept predicts that > that inevitable trends in all branches of high-tech like AI and genetic > engineering and even alternative energy (according to the Anthropocene > Institute) will merge together into a synergistic paradigm shift, each > reinforcing the others shared vision. It is as if this merger were being > "directed" from afar .... a double irony. > > Following the paradigm shift which is the Singularity, most of humanity > will effectively become 2nd class citizens, so to speak or else "absent" in > some way. There could be a new mythology which is put in place to prevent > the mass of humanity from fully appreciating their predicament and > revolting against an invisible enemy. This has been dramatized in film, and > will continue to be the subject of debate as to who is really being > left-behind and who gets the ticket to Elysium. > > But the die is cast, and a mass catastrophe like a genetically engineered > plague, is not ruled out. The bottom line is that within a short time, the > onslaught of Evolution will have presented Earth with more than a new elite > - it will be a new dominant species - part biological and part > manufactured, Brave New World meets Asimov's Robot series (he did not go > far enough). > > That future date for the Singularity has been moving target, but was > updated today to be the year 2029, or 12 years from now. > > Personally, I'd welcome the change, but the date is a bit too far out > there to make a reservation. As MLK would say ..... *I may not get there > with you*, but I've been to the mountaintop... > >
