From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Fri Dec 15 2000 - 03:01:08 MST
Anders Sandberg
> The problem with having a total singularity in a field is that all
> fields are dependent on each other. The only fields that might have
> real individual singularities are the finite fields where one day
> everything can be known (stamp collecting?).
I don't think we expect a technological singularity in the field of stamp
collecting. τΏτ
In his book, _Consilience_, E. O. Wilson describes the overlapping of the
sciences, and how they all fit together (someday) to form a single body of
knowledge. If we figure out why there is anything rather than nothing
(theory of everything), before runaway technological acceleration spikes, we
will have robbed our mind children of this opportunity for discovery.
Consequently, I propose a toast... <hiccup> To the spiritual robo-sapiens
artilects of technological singularity: Go get 'em, kids.
>Isn't that the same thing? I thought the vision was that nanotech would
come
>out of biotech, particularly the protein folding stuff, as general nanotech
>would bootstrap from protein based work?
>
>Emlyn
Sounds intriguing...
Where did you get the vision that (general) nanotech would bootstrap from
protein based work? It sounds like as good a vision as any. Did you read it
here, originate it yourself, discover it around Stanford, encounter it from
Drexler and company?
Stay hungry,
--J. R.
3M TA3
"If you go back a hundred years," he explains, "one of the biggest
scientific questions was 'what is life?' And one of the most prominent
theories had to do with vitalism--some substance, some thing that is
transmitted from cell to cell, animal to animal, that is the essence of
life. Well, you don't hear anybody talking about vitalism anymore. We've
come far enough to see all the mechanics--we've seen how DNA works, we've
seen all the pieces of the cell, and we don't have need for a hypothesis
like vitalism." So it will go, Sejnowski suspects, with consciousness.
(Phlogiston, incidentally, refers to a theoretical substance that people
once sought in combustible material, thinking it made up the "substance" of
fire.)
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