Accelerating Future

Aubrey de Grey on the Singularity Friday, Jun 22 2007 

singularity Michael Anissimov 3:07 pm

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16 Responses to “Aubrey de Grey on the Singularity”

1. Dale Carrico Says:
   June 24th, 2007 at 5:49 pm

   Is there (or will there be) a written transcript of this nicely concise but still nicely provocative talk available anywhere online?

2. MCP2012 Says:
   June 25th, 2007 at 3:34 pm

   YEAH—I concur! That would be a very good idea!!

3. Michael Anissimov Says:
   June 25th, 2007 at 7:03 pm

   Dale,

   There is no transcript, but since you ask, I will put it on my to-do list to write one.

4. DavidtheDuke Says:
   June 25th, 2007 at 8:47 pm

   Even if it has been said for years (it has), I think he said it in the most pragmatic, realistic, yet not gloomy way possible. It sums it up quite nicely. A transcript would be okay I guess, but it doesn’t seem to serve any special purpose. Beyond the conciseness and get-to-the-heart-nessity I like of the interview, there isn’t really anything special about it. I think it serves better as a video.

5. Tom McCabe Says:
   June 26th, 2007 at 10:19 am

   If writing a transcript is too time-consuming, you can just hire someone else to do it for $1 or so on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (mturk.amazon.com).

6. MCP2012 Says:
   June 26th, 2007 at 2:04 pm

   The main reason (or at least one of the main reasons) for a supplemental transcript is for visual (as distinguished from aural) scanning of the text, and thus acquisition-availability for excerpts (quotes) for use in articles/postings elsewhere, both online and (at least potentially) in hard-copy. Aubrey is (as to be expected) eloquent and certainly this particular talk is worth transcribing…

7. Hairyman Says:
   June 27th, 2007 at 6:56 pm

   I wonder what Aubrey de Grey’s advice on diet is. Does he recommend CR? Supplements a la Kurzweil?

   Anissimov, can you post something about your diet? Do you eat meat?

8. Michael Anissimov Says:
   June 27th, 2007 at 7:13 pm

   I’m a vegetarian for ethical reasons. I get exercise by walking everywhere.

   Since I’m only 23 my life expectancy is 80 at least, meaning I’m not scheduled to die naturally until 2064, by which point we’ll have either destroyed ourselves or successfully implemented SENS if it is possible.

   So who really cares what I eat? Even if I ate cheeseburgers all day, I would probably survive long enough to take advantage of extreme life extension. And if I didn’t, there’d always be cryonics.

   Cryonics makes it pointless to overfocus on life extension techniques in the here and now, unless what you are doing is so important that you must stick around for a few years longer instead of getting frozen.

   I see some transhumanists who are obsessed with popping supplements, CR, and the like. That’s all that’s on their mind. It distracts them from other stuff arguably more important, like heuristics and biases, for instance.

   On the issue of diet though, I have to laugh at meat-eaters. You expect superintelligences not to kill or torture you yet you support the torture and killing of other animals. Some people think with their stomach and not their brain.

   I don’t know what diet Aubrey recommends, but the guy sure can drink. I presume he focuses on SENS and SIAI more than his diet.

   Kurzweil focusing on his supplements makes sense because he’s older, and because humanity needs him up and on his feet for as long as it takes.

9. Hairyman Says:
   June 27th, 2007 at 7:38 pm

   Wow, thanks for the fast response Michael. You look different in that pic with Aubrey (are you emulating his long hair?!). I am vegetarian too, for similar results as yourself, as well as due to disgust if an animal lookalike is on my plate.

   I am only 29, but my hormones, body fat, metabolism etc… are out of whack. I got hairy ears, balding itchy scalp, fatigue, body temperature changes etc… I haven’t had much success with diet and exercise changes in preventing these things so far — but I still like to know what the smart life extension proponents think about diet — especially the “older” guys, in case they think of something that will help me get more energy in my ONGOING life. I agree with you about not worrying about diet and longevity at our age.

   An unrelated question for you (should probably go under your post about how one should get involved in the transhumanist movement):

   Do you have any advice for someone who wants to pursue a career in this field? Are there any job sies you can recommend? e.g., assistant mathematician to Dr. Grey:-)

10. Michael Anissimov Says:
    June 27th, 2007 at 7:45 pm

    If you want to do something for transhumanism, do what you’re best at, and use it to help transhumanism. Absolutely anybody can help by donating to transhumanist organizations, which most of the time is more useful than trying to contribute directly.

    For advice on diet, I would consult a nutritionist or personal trainer - not just any transhumanist.

11. Tom McCabe Says:
    June 28th, 2007 at 12:59 am

    “Cryonics makes it pointless to overfocus on life extension techniques in the here and now, unless what you are doing is so important that you must stick around for a few years longer instead of getting frozen.”

    I suspect that everyone involved even to a moderate degree in transhumanism fits this criterion, you, me, and all the regular commenters here included. I assume that all human life is morally equivalent, so your death in and of itself (ie, independent of its causal effects on other deaths) is worth around a half a second, the time it takes for someone else to die randomly. Half a second is not a lot of time- even if only 1% of the people involved in the final Singularity project read an individual comment, the effect on the time to Singularity from reading it alone is around that scale. If anyone decides to actually take action based on what you wrote, the effects are probably at least an order of magnitude larger.

12. Hairyman Says:
    June 28th, 2007 at 6:46 am

    By the way, in your article “A Concise Introduction to Heuristics and Biases”, you have 1*2*…*9 (and vice versa) = 40,000 when it should be 362,880.

13. Hairyman Says:
    June 28th, 2007 at 6:47 am

    By the way, in your article “A Concise Introduction to Heuristics and Biases”, you have 1*2*…*9 (and vice versa) = 40,000 when it should be 362,880. Or am I misinterpreting what you said there?

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