| | I assumed that he was talking about Kurzweil's notion of singularity, but there are a lot of implications to the notion.
I would say "he should watch the Torchwood - Miracle Day mini-series"...it gives an interesting perspective on what would happen if everyone all of a sudden, for all practical purposes, became immortal. It would solve one problem though. When it comes to global warming, the libs are worried about carbon sequestration. If everyone stopped dying and people kept on having babies, well....humans would become the next living breathing coal bed. Of course, we would, in very short order, strip the planet of all carbon and phosphate resources and thus it would be a problem that would solve itself.
But then, the singularity also suggests a diaspora of sorts were our great new intelligence spreads through the UNIVERSE like a virus. So the whole Torchwood - Miracle Day scenario would be dismissed.
I can see how Kurzweil's fantasies appeal to liberals. They like to see themselves as extremely powerful. This implies an almost godlike status in the creation of "life".
It's actually kind of interesting how kurzweil's thoughts parallel the mormon evolution through exaltation and eternal progression. Basically, after death, good mormons get their own planet to rule as gods and goddesses with all power, glory, dominion and knowledge. Koan has basically joined the Church of TDS (Technology Day Saints). It's kinda funny if you think about it.
But let's face it, if technology really did advance to Kurzweil's singularity in the near future, it would be a tragedy. The vast majority of the people on this planet refuse to take responsibility for their lives. They still expect the government to take care of their basic needs. As a population, we have reached the combined maturity of a 14 year old teenager. And when you have the human organism that has the combined maturity of a 14 year old, no good can come from something so powerful as what Kurzweil describes. We are many centuries, if not many hundreds of centuries, from reaching the kind of maturity that could create the technology to reach the singularity. This implies both the ability to create the technology and to use it in a way that produced the desired results.
Let's face it, humans need kurzweil's singularity to facilitate evolution. Modern liberalism is designed to remove the challenges to survival that are required to put "survival of the fittest" in play. A species that has no challenges does not adapt. It reaches a plateau and stagnates. If anything, as a species, we are becoming weaker. The struggle of life isn't supposed to be easy. We need challenges to grow individually and we need them to grow as a species.
As you said, we aren't there yet and if there was any possibility of developing technology that would get us to the singularity, we would sabotage it long before we got there.
I guess it isn't surprising that someone who shows no skepticism toward the Church of Anthropogenic Global Warming, also shows no skepticism about the "singularity".
Psssst, Koan, the answer to life, the UNIVERSE and everything is 42. And you are living on the greatest computer ever created and you are part of the computational matrix. It was designed by the previous greatest computer ever, "Deep Thought", who though couldn't give the answer to life, the UNIVERSE and everything, could design the computer that could. But watch out for the mice!!!! They want to chop your head off!
Don't Panic!!!
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