complexitystudies » singularity

Rees and posthuman future

guenther — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 22:21:32 +0000

Edge.org questioned science celebrities (sorry, could not resist on what they changed their mind about. Sir Martin Rees talks about posthumanism (that what comes after transhumanism

Rees: We Should Take the ‘Posthuman’ Era Seriously

Public discourse on very long-term planning is riddled with inconsistencies. Mostly we discount the future very heavily

Indeed – the source of many problems at the the society/global level; also at the individual level, although here “future” is a shorter time period as on the global level of course.

In particular, we need to keep our minds open â€” or at least ajar â€” to the possibility that humans themselves could change drastically within a few centuries.

That sounds very pessimistic to me – if it doesn’t happen by the end of the century I would be surprised (the transhuman step is beginning today: cochlear implants, neuroprosthetics etc etc)

It seems absurd to regard humans as the culmination of the evolutionary tree. Any creatures witnessing the Sun’s demise 6 billion years hence won’t be human â€” they could be as different from us as we are from slime mould.

Indeed, it’s not even clear for how long our descendants would remain distinctively ‘human’. Darwin himself noted that “not one living species will transmit its unaltered likeness to a distant futurity”. Our own species will surely change and diversify faster than any predecessor

I think the above quotes highlight one of the most important insights which have not yet made it into public thought and discussion.

Technorati Tags: evolution, singularity

Droid Rage – New York Times

guenther — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 17:24:00 +0000

Natasha Vita-More, a female transhumanist, is interviewed:

Droid Rage – New York Times

Technorati Tags: singularity

A Thinking Ape’s Critique of Trans-Simianism

guenther — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 11:30:44 +0000

I found a wonderful satire here, written from the perspective of an ape shortly before the transition of the species to a genus of “homo”.

Enough is Enough: A Thinking Ape’s Critique of Trans-Simianism

Everyone critical of transhumanism should read and think about this piece carefully.

Technorati Tags: philosophy, singularity

On Becoming a Neuron

guenther — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:54:07 +0000

In a seminar talk I gave last week I spoke about viewing individual humans as neurons which reinforce/dampen certain ideas.

Apparently, a New York Times author thought similarly and Ben Goertzel comments on the idea:

The Singularity Institute Blog : Blog Archive : On Becoming a Neuron

Technorati Tags: singularity

News from Qrio

guenther — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:40:30 +0000

Originally, Qrio was scheduled for commercial release, but the project was stopped unfortunately (by Sony – the robot dog AIBO was cancelled too).
These were very sad and unfortunate news for robot enthusiasts – and now we have these news from encouraging experiments with Qrio (probably a prototype):

Key Found to Making Robots Human-Friendly | LiveScience

More info on wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: singularity

The Fermi Paradox

guenther — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 21:53:32 +0000

The Sentient Developments blog visits the deeply troubling Fermi Paradox once again. The Fermi Paradox is actually quite simple: if intelligent life exists in the universe, why aren’t they here yet?

If life could develop easily, it would certainly have done so millions of years ago in other parts of the galaxy. Enough time should have past for these civilzations to have colonized all the galaxy. But obviously, they have not.

Read here for more details and some further links:

Sentient Developments: The Fermi Paradox: Advanced civilizations do notâ€¦

There are some (speculative) solutions to this problem:

1) super-intelligent species do not want to colonize the galaxy but draw back into their own virtual worlds – all they need is raw computing power, not habitable worlds.

2) there is some kind of transition phase in the development of civilzations where everything goes awry: instead of reaching the singularity, nuclear war or a similar catastrophe ensues.

3) There is no intelligent life apart from that on earth in our galaxy (quite unconvincing, huh?)

(1) and (2) seem to me the most likely candidates – (2) being especially troubling for our civililatzion here on earth.

Technorati Tags: singularity

Defeating aging: Aubrey de Grey’s handbook

guenther — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 20:57:59 +0000

Aubrey de Grey’s book will be out soon, am looking forward to it:

TED | TEDBlog: Defeating aging: Aubrey de Grey’s handbook

Technorati Tags: singularity

Genetic Engineering – Synthetic Biology

guenther — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:12:15 +0000

Getting cells to do interesting things might soon become a reality:

Genetic Engineering – Synthetic Biology – Genes and Heredity – Cloning – Biology – Science – New York Times

Technorati Tags: genetics, singularity

Cyborg moths

guenther — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:30:26 +0000

To all those singularity doubters: biological engineering is upon us, and will change our ways more than can yet be imagined:

Cyborg moths Times Online

Technorati Tags: artificial intelligence, singularity

Video: The Earth Without Humans: Scientific American

guenther — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:11:52 +0000

I have long been fascinated with the possibility that maybe we were not the first sentient species on earth, but that a prior civilization somehow became extinct and that their remains would not be visible to us anymore (100 000 years would probably be more than enough). Unfortunately, one thing definitely speaks against it: that there are – or better, were – so many ressources like metals and oil near the surface. Any pre-existing civilization which would have gone through similar stages like industrialization would have mined everything within reach, in effect preventing our ancestors from entering a bronze or iron age.

But here a nice video which speculats on earth without humans:

Video: The Earth Without Humans: Scientific American

Technorati Tags: doomsday