Over at Singularity Hub, Aaron Saenz is gushing over Michael Vassar’s Google TechTalk.
Aaron said:
Vassar is the president of the Singularity Institute and a prominent advocate for the belief that technologies may develop exponentially in the future.
Not really… my understanding is that the reason that Michael V. talks about the Enlightenment a lot is that he thinks that was the last major boost in human understanding and reason. He tends to focus more on human thinking than on our technologies, and sees the latter as an outgrowth of the former. That’s the primary idea behind the Vingean Singularity as well. (Remember that one?)
One of the apparent purposes of Less Wrong is to start a new Enlightenment. The jury’s still out on that one, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
Merely having people with credentials, of a science fictional, mathematical or other nature, is in itself insufficient to claim validity for the technological singularity hypothesis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_fallacy/Appeal_to_authority
Also the observation of exponential trends made by Kurzweil and others doesn’t necessarily imply that a technological singularity will happen. Such trends can be observed in many places – not only in technology.
Good points to keep in mind, Bob. Credentials primarily serve as some reference to previous work, but they can also be extremely misleading. It is important to accept this aspect of the nature of reality.
“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”
- William James
“There are two kinds of light – the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.”
- James Thurber
“The human brain seems to be in a state of uneasy truce, with occasional skirmishes and rare battles. The existence of brain components with predispositions to certain behavior is not an invitation to fatalism or despair: we have substantial control over the relative importance of each component. Anatomy is not destiny, but it is not irrelevant either.”
- Carl Sagan
Some psychoactive substances considered taboo have a place in medicine and can provide substantial, cost-effective stability to many imbalances that are currently degrading to the human condition and burdensome to economies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoactive_drug
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine
“Ibogaine is now used by treatment clinics in 12 countries on six continents to facilitate detoxification and relief of chemical dependence to substances such as methadone, heroin, alcohol, powder cocaine, crack cocaine, and methamphetamine, as well as to facilitate psychological introspection and spiritual exploration.”
It seems appropriate to suggest that the predominate “Junk Shot” approach in western medicine is long overdue for an overhaul. It’s been around 40 years since it was last addressed by the U.N. and the U.S. Doctors should have the most up to date, accurate information and tools at their disposal so they can do their jobs to the best of their abilities. This will help the public follow suit and be more prepared for the overwhelming changes that technological progress is bringing with it. It’s irresponsible to do otherwise.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.â€
- Charles Darwin
http://www.physorg.com/news202021302.html
The captioned picture in that article might be an accurate representation of how prepared the majority of the world’s population is to handle being completely immersed in the changes on the horizon. But this need not be the case. It is within our capacity to make huge strides in the correct direction in a relatively short amount of time.
An intriguing discussion will probably be worth comment. I’m certain that you require to write much more about this topic, it may not be a taboo subject but generally consumers are too few to chat on such topics. To an additional. Cheers 707471
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