The Singularity is Near

[oneirophrenia]

Ray Kurzweil's incredibly ass-blasting awesome new book, The Singularity is Near, is just so amazingly cool. I've never been much of a Singularitarian, mainly because a lot of transhumanist thinkers who deal with the subject seem to think of the "Singularity" as just that--a precise single moment--rather than a period of time, probably several year or decades in length...but Kurzweil does a great job of illustrating that the Singularity is a moment in history, and he does a pretty damned good job of showing how the technologies and philosophies that will bring about this historical epoch will arrive out of what we currently have today, technologically and sociologically. It's simply inevitable: all upward progress in technologies aim in the direction of a major phase change, an era when, as the book's subtitle says, "humanity transcends biology." Best of all, Kurzweil is an inventor, a pragmatic man, and all of his predictions are founded in very simple extrapolations based on current technology and human drives. He's not going to deluge you with stupid theories of semiotic evolution or whatever, he just shows you what technology will most likely be able to do within the next thirty years.

Now...I don't know whether or not his time frame will be accurate, but I'm pretty confident it will be accurate in the long range. Kurzweil also tempers his pragmatism and optimism with a healthy dose of realism, realizing full well that a technological Singularity will neither be Good nor Bad: technology is neither inherently good nor evil, but if these technologies end up in the wrong hands, well...there could be problems. Kurzweil does a pretty good job of painting a glowing vision of the Singularity era, but I'm a bit more pessimistic, and I can almost guarantee that people are going to plowed under when the changes really start to hit. The best way to avoid that is to be prepared. So get this damned book and read it. It may very well give you a leg up when the Robot Apocalypse is going to come! But if nothing else, it's a pretty fascinating read, very enjoyable, and just flatout fun!

Particularly pay attention to some of the reviews posted on Amazon.com concerning this book. They're generally quite enlightening and very intelligent, and complement the book quite nicely.

Comments

Re: Don't Lie

[oneirophrenia.livejournal.com]

Twice? Shit, fool, he wouldn't even HAVE to ask! The man's my number one g33k hero!

[theantidj.livejournal.com]

Hey there Mr. Pegritz. I haven't seen you on IM in the past few days, so I figured I'd drop you a line about this here.. David Cronenberg is going to be on Fresh Air this afternoon. I think it's on at 3 on 90.5. I figured that you'd want to know.