[Edit: ninja'd by Glen & Grant since I got distracted by explaining the Zooniverse <https://www.zooniverse.org/> to my science teacher] I think the distinction between singularists and technologists more generally is how their function curves; the singularity being a cultural asymptote, requiring a quicker function than just the maybe-exponential Moore's Law, or even something like a factorial. The contributing factor to the increasing of the increasing of the slope seems to be said by singularists to be strong AI, as machines can start to design (improve) and build themselves. We are not there yet but surprisingly close, as we discussed with the "Open Google. What Just Happened?" discussion. There also seems to be, especially in popular perceptions of singularists (or if you think they are more evangelical, Singularitarians with a capital S), an aspect of body modification, and beyond that identity modification, and beyond that mind/hivemind modification. Apropos is this article by rich entrepreneur (founder of HowStuffWorks.com, which I learned about from a book they published that I read as a kid, *How Much Does the Earth Weigh?*) Marshall Brain which seems very singularist but does not call itself so (it was published in 2005, the same year *the Singularity is Near* came out, the book that made the singularity a household word although Kurzweil et al had been talking about it for quite a while): The Day You Discard Your Body<http://marshallbrain.com/discard1.htm> And the obligatory XKCD reference: Protip: Annoy Ray Kurzweil by always referring to it as the 'Cybersingularity'. <http://xkcd.com/1084/> And this parody of intellectual discussion of the matter by Aaron Diaz: A Thinking Ape’s Critique of Trans-Simianism<http://dresdencodak.com/2009/05/15/a-thinking-apes-critique-of-trans-simianism-repost/> -Arlo James Barnes
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