As someone who works in the AI industry at a fortune 100 company, I can assure you the Singularity is arriving. Most of humanity is rapidly becoming a 2nd class citizen. I am skeptical that we will get AI that can build AI, but I am confident that we will have AI, plus those who control the AI, and then everyone else. I hope to be in the former group and my intention is to encourage my fellows not to take advantage of those in the latter.
On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 8:19 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... > >
