tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post934113581275553510..comments2024-03-21T22:36:54.451-04:00Comments on HISTORIES OF THINGS TO COME: Fountain of Youth 14: Embrace Your ImmortalityLC Douglasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-1626175745503061222012-07-25T03:14:38.410-04:002012-07-25T03:14:38.410-04:00I wouldn't underestimate humankind's abili...I wouldn't underestimate humankind's ability to take back the advantage; but not before there is a lot of trouble. My comments on reality blurring around our technology are an attempt to understand how computers can dominate us, well before any singularity and super-intelligences arrive. I think what may happen is that one part of humanity integrates tech within their bodies, and another part will refuse to do so, and a third group will be middle-of-the-road about it. And what will ensue will be a very human conflict. Who knows how human beings will emerge from that possible scenario? When I speak of Millennial sensibilities, I often note that people are doom-filled. They assume the worst. I have written several posts on this. But we must presume that people still have ample capacity to rise above brutality and a cruel fate.LC Douglasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-74278192009110359692012-07-24T10:27:55.161-04:002012-07-24T10:27:55.161-04:00I think I'm somewhat clearer now what you are ...I think I'm somewhat clearer now what you are getting at when you say "Millenial". It's a shame the interviewer didn't ask this guy if he sees this as a step to creating gods. A robotics engineer named Hugo DeGaris has applied the word "godlike" to the super-intelligences he believes will be created this century. Rather than our worshiping them, though, he puts the odds higher they will simply remove us as a nuisance.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-76104356098165561212012-07-22T00:01:34.647-04:002012-07-22T00:01:34.647-04:00@Anon, the golem or frankenstein idea is not at al...@Anon, the golem or frankenstein idea is not at all new - and I have posts on both which you can find in the search function in the top right of the blog. BUT the application of that old idea to a computer interface is Millennial. Just my opinion, but I think lumping Zuckerberg in with Galileo wildly overestimates Zuckerberg's capabilities and place in history. I have no doubt that religions will evolve and as I have said, yes, it worries me if we end up worshiping quantum computing designers or genetic engineers or one of their products - or conferring upon them mystical abilities. I think that is something to be concerned about. Anyone who thinks he can deconstruct consciousness into mechanistic bits is treading in that direction, even if he explicitly denies it.<br /><br />@Luke TY for the link.LC Douglasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-91317123211550793242012-07-20T20:12:44.997-04:002012-07-20T20:12:44.997-04:00Here's a good source for the viewpoint of tran...Here's a good source for the viewpoint of transhumanists: <a href="http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/simplified" rel="nofollow">Transhumanism as Simplified Humanism</a>Lukehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03839692078152193518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-5282916861261114942012-07-19T12:57:50.597-04:002012-07-19T12:57:50.597-04:00I agree with you the claim he could engineer immor...I agree with you the claim he could engineer immortality is grandiose. As you note, even stars die. So of course he has no idea what he's talking about. A person, no matter how much math he knows, cannot conceive of something as transcendent of his nature as the length of the average lifespan of a star. And a star's lifespan, in turn, doesn't hold a candle to forever.<br /><br />What seems to unnerve you is his certainty that consciousness is purely mechanical. You write:<br /><br />"I am continually amazed at how rigid people's thinking has become, how certain they are that they are right about what they believe... The new Millennium is filled with the blind, who think they can see."<br /><br />Blind is putting it too strong. Scientists are sometimes opinionated. That's nothing new. It's not something that "became" so recently. To be fair, some people do "see" farther than others can. Look at Gallileo, Faraday, Tesla, Alexander Graham Bell, Einstein. Look at Mark Zuckerberg.<br /><br />I also don't see the tie-in with the Millenium. The fictional Dr. Frankenstein, we are told, worked on the same problem as this guy, and was similarly laughed at at the university. Before that, there were stories about rabbis making golems. Not new, not millenial.<br /><br />Nowadays there exist some Jewish, Christian and Moslem theologians promoting nondualism, specifically responding to recent science. Perhaps these people see what's coming and hope to adapt their belief systems before all these breakthroughs come to pass and leave them out of it all. Memes compete. Otherwise, these religions would have disappeared long ago.<br /><br />It doesn't personally bother me to imagine human metaphysical systems have had it all wrong, or that people could make machines smarter than ourselves, or that some of the Unknowable might end up known tomorrow. The real concern I have, is what is going to happen to all of us, i.e., the regressive "old" technology, once industry starts stamping out pallettes full of brand new superbrains like cans of Pringles. Do we become the biological equivalent of landfills of "e-waste"?<br /><br />And much more interesting than the phenomenon of opinionation or religious delusion in human beings, which are nothing new, is the fact that those tales of Frankensteins' monsters and golems end badly. Could our collective unconscious be harboring some trepidation about this future we are being dragged into?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com