From: Nick Bostrom (bostrom@ndirect.co.uk)
Date: Fri Oct 23 1998 - 19:08:36 MDT
Kathryn Aegis wrote:
> We're futurists, we should make a prediction every once in a while! If
> you can reply to this by Sunday night, please take a stab at it, I
> would like to get a sense of how my own opinion fits in with others:
>
> By the year 3000, it goes almost without saying that most humans will
> have the means and opportunity to evolve to the transhuman stage. My
> question--will we have seen the first posthuman(s) by then?
Yes.
> How many?
Maybe there is only one on the highest level (a "singleton"), but
that being might simulate or contain vast numbers of minds, and it
might be difficult to individuate some of these minds.
> In what form?
I imagine most of the matter and energy under control is either made
into computronium -- optimized computational structures -- or into
probes that are sent out to bring even more energy and matter under
intelligent control.
Nick Bostrom
http://www.hedweb.com/nickb n.bostrom@lse.ac.uk
Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
London School of Economics
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