From: James Higgins (jameshiggins@earthlink.net)
Date: Thu Aug 02 2001 - 00:39:34 MDT
At 11:03 PM 8/1/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>Brian, those are interesting and important points. I've forwarded your post
>to Ray for his thoughts.
>
>Is there a consensus on this list that the Singularity is good and should be
>accelerated?
My opinion:
Q: Is the Singularity good?
A: Yes, I think.
There is a small chance that it may turn out not to be, but that would be
impossible to even fathom unless you had already transcended. My basic
thought on that is, if we achieve ultimate knowledge, eternal life and can
essentially have anything we want when and how we want it, is there any
point? In other words, if we achieve all our goals in what would be an
instant on our time frame, what comes afterwards?
Maybe post-Singularity is heaven. We know all, everything is peaceful, and
it is eternal. Forgive the analogy, but I've actually been comparing
various aspects of the Singularity to religion (I'm not religious, but find
some of the similarities quite intriguing). Only problem is, I've often
wondered if Heaven would be boring.
Q: Should the Singularity be accelerated?
A: Sooner is better than later, but please not tomorrow.
More specifically, I realize that life post-Singularity will be very, very
different. There are things I would very much like to do/experience before
the Singularity arrives. The "ideal" scenario IMHO would be if the
Singularity was widely announced at being exactly 1 year away and everyone
had the chance to enjoy themselves until that point (ie: year long
vacation). Unfortunatley, I'm very much aware that this is impossible on
many levels. So while I would much prefer to see it soon, I wouldn't want
it to arrive this year. Yes, I also realize that this is somewhat selfish
of myself since people die every day. I could also die before the
Singularity arrives. Yet, I imagine, there are things most people would
want to do before it arrived if they only knew.
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