Introducing the Singularity: Three Major Schools of Thought Thursday, Oct 25 2007
singularity 10:04 am
Accelerating Future compañero Jeriaska has recently transcribed Eliezer Yudkowsky’s talk from the Singularity Summit 2007. Yudkowsky is a highly respected figure in the transhumanist community whose intense dissection and analysis of futurist issues is second to none. Thank you Jeriaska for transcribing this!
Judging by the way some people casually use the word “Singularity” in the comments section of this blog, I think you could really use this. Read this talk and you’ll see the “Singularity” for what it really is — three entirely separate but terribly conflated ideas. Cory Doctorow, for one, is guilty of conflating these ideas to the point where they were nothing more than a tepid paste by the time he was through with them.
Lots of other fantastic transcripts are up at the People Database Blog, and many more will be going up in coming weeks. Subscribe for the latest info, mofo!
October 25th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Mmmm, tepid paste. [Actually, I agree]
October 25th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Cory’s novel “Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom”* addresses a lot of transhumanist topics, though, for example very prominently mind uploading.
I found its first paragraph very enticing when I read this novel for the first time:
I lived long enough to see the cure for death; to see the rise of the Bitchun Society, to learn ten languages; to compose three symphonies; to realize my boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World; to see the death of the workplace and of work.
[Source: Project Gutenberg]
Now I know that Accelerating Future’s criticism of Doctorow isn’t about his fiction but I just wanted it to mention
October 26th, 2007 at 4:45 am
A minor quibble: I know that when Eliezer is talking about “village idiots” he’s referring to simplifying notions of what intelligence is but I actually think that (fortunately!) “village idiot” isn’t part of the everyday lexicon anymore. I’d be thankful if he dropped that phrase which is so insistently popping up in his talks.