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Yet throwing money at sth does not make him an expert. Neuroscience is growing by leaps and bounds, ask any neuroscientist you know. It is indeed peculiar that

by return0 14y ago

Yet throwing money at sth does not make him an expert. Neuroscience is growing by leaps and bounds, ask any neuroscientist you know. It is indeed peculiar that he has a pessimistic view of it, but i would bet the best neuroscientists do not share that view.

freshhawk 14y ago
You might want to check in with some neuroscientists. If you take offense at personal attacks at Kurzweil's sanity and intelligence you might want to ... prepare yourself. Imagine if a retired doctor started doing speaking tours about the future of the internet and computing and completely disagreed with the general consensus on HN about what could plausibly happen. Imagine what the comments about him on HN would be. They would view Allen's response as "not delusional" rather than pessimistic. I'm often surprised by how widespread singularity fans think belief in it is. Outside the tech industry, where people have spend their entire lives in a field that has seen no increasing exponential returns (other than problems solved purely by computation, which they consider a wonderful thing but often not a fundamental advancement to their field) there is very very little belief that "the singularity is near" or that kurzweils utopian interpretation of the singularity is correct.
pknight 14y ago
Neuroscience, as a science, might be growing by leaps and bounds but if you ask the average neuroscientist how much the field currently knows about how the brain works I think the answer will be a great deal more modest. It's very early days still I think. Not to mention the fact that nobody understands how and why consciousness works, which seems to me a key feature in eclipsing human intelligence with AI.
salemh 14y ago
Job prospects for neuroscientists are completely bleak. Which is a weird dynamic of "need" vs "supplied" (or, will pay/fund). It's rather sad.

by return0 14y ago

freshhawk 14y ago

You might want to check in with some neuroscientists. If you take offense at personal attacks at Kurzweil's sanity and intelligence you might want to ... prepare yourself. Imagine if a retired doctor started doing speaking tours about the future of the internet and computing and completely disagreed with the general consensus on HN about what could plausibly happen. Imagine what the comments about him on HN would be. They would view Allen's response as "not delusional" rather than pessimistic. I'm often surprised by how widespread singularity fans think belief in it is. Outside the tech industry, where people have spend their entire lives in a field that has seen no increasing exponential returns (other than problems solved purely by computation, which they consider a wonderful thing but often not a fundamental advancement to their field) there is very very little belief that "the singularity is near" or that kurzweils utopian interpretation of the singularity is correct.

pknight 14y ago

Neuroscience, as a science, might be growing by leaps and bounds but if you ask the average neuroscientist how much the field currently knows about how the brain works I think the answer will be a great deal more modest. It's very early days still I think. Not to mention the fact that nobody understands how and why consciousness works, which seems to me a key feature in eclipsing human intelligence with AI.

salemh 14y ago

Job prospects for neuroscientists are completely bleak. Which is a weird dynamic of "need" vs "supplied" (or, will pay/fund). It's rather sad.