3 ms·
Sure is. But look at how long it has taken us to reach a Type I class with fusion. Another technology that is eternally just 20 years away. My main points of
by aswanson 19y ago
Sure is. But look at how long it has taken us to reach a Type I class with fusion. Another technology that is eternally just 20 years away.
My main points of contention with Kurzweil are in his summary dismissal of fundamental problems in science, acting as if because Moore's law exists, nanobots running in our bloodstream are just a process node or two away.
He is also dismisses biological complexity as not being that inscrutable because our genome is only as long as microsoft word in bit length. This is just silly; the power in the code is it's expressiveness that explodes combinatorially in a given environment. You know probably far better than I do
that his statements about the ease with which we'll understand DNA, etc. to reverse engineer the brain is nowhere near as simple and linear a process as he makes it out to be.
- rms 19y agoI agree. Kurzweil makes for a nice fantasy though. I mean, it could happen... I think we've already hit a lesser singularity and no one noticed except some crazy stoned guy that sent me spam emails: the singularity of information. I can find practically anything I want to with a few keystrokes. I can talk to anyone anywhere in the world with ease. It's pretty cool, even if it doesn't make me a post-human. Maybe human 1.1.
- strey 19y agoI want the singularity of useful information.
- aswanson 19y agoIt does make for a nice fantasy...I got swept up in it for a while. After thinking about it for a while though, I started to have doubts, at least about his time frames. You are right about the information singularity though, I still trip over how easy it is. I remember my earlier computing experiences back in the 80s with the commodore; the computer was a toy. Even back in 91 with my crash-prone Mac classic; it was still a toy. Then in 96 people kept talking about this "Internet". I went to a PC at my school, typed in a few words and answers came back. At that moment I thought Holy s---, it happened without me. In a way, I've been in that state of shock ever since.