From: Avatar Polymorph (avatarpolymorph@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Aug 14 2002 - 13:13:12 MDT
Anders Sandberg wrote:
"But I also think we should be careful not to think that any
movie of 2050 that doesn't show near-singularity ageless transhumans
doing witchy nano stuff is shortsighted. That vision of the future just
happens to be a popular one on this list but it is just a vision of the
future, not anything preordained other scenarios have to include. We can
argue and should analyse the likeliehood of a radically transhuman future,
but we shouldn't take it as a given even as transhumanists. If we ignore
other possibilities we both miss the chance to learn from them and the
freedom to select likely paths towards our preferred future."
We walk the razor's edge. The Singularity is inevitable, but the degree to
which we accept boosting is up to us. Our societal norms in our local areas
are up to us, but minimum group rules will undoubtedly come into being.
The achievement of Singularity technology by those who wish for it (and
there will be a minimum of some, in all probability a majority of most) is
INEVITABLE in my opinion, and therefore the Singularity is inevitable.
Without disparaging the importance of individual moral choice, and its
empowerment by the general conditions of the Singularity, the fact of the
Singularity itself is akin (as was stated in 21st century magazine a few
years ago in their article on the Singularity) as a change as vast as that
which saw life begin on the planet.
Movies that have any sort of nanotech drift inevitably towards the
Singularity. Drexler is an unbelievably rational author. His logic
implicitly births the Singularity, in Engines of Creation. (Which is why I
regard him as equal to Darwin, the guy who wrote Evolution Part Ii, aka
self-direction (the sequel)).
Some ethics and all culture remain very freeform in the future, so I am sure
fiction and fictional movies-realities are not going to die out ever, even
with "friendly self-directed superintelligences"!
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