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Transhumanism, abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.[
Now, with this in mind, I would have to say the reason why this topic has not been discussed is, greed. There will always be the ruling elite. There will always be the poor. There will always be the person who tries to take over the world. And why do these humans spend billions of dollars for this control, it is because they want power. Power and control go hand-in-hand. It is really this simple. The people who have power keep the people who do not have power poor. WHY?? So the poor are forced to rely on the ruling elite for everything. If Transhumanism was practiced, our life on earth would be a utopia. Everybody would have a home, job, health, and food. There would be no wars and everybody would get along with each other. Understand what I am saying???
I understand what you are saying but you are wrong. The singularity is not being held back by anyone as society is advancing towards it at a exponential rate and we will reach it sometime between 2030 and 2045. The thing is most people, elite included, do not fully understand what the singularity is at this point. I think it will begin to go mainstream by 2019 as that is when advancements in computers will make one computer that costs 1,000 dollars as intelligent as a human and that is when all of the projects to reverse engineer the brain will start to be completed and the impact they will have on society will be noticeable by everyone. Finally it won't be a "utopia" but it will be a lot better then today just like life today is a lot better then it was in the 1800's.
This is what is coming with the singularity and I can't wait!
Unless you're the product of a feral childhood or a member of a hunter-gathering tribe from the third world, there's a really good chance that you're familiar with the comic-book legend of Superman. Even 74 years after he made his debut on the front page of Action Comics, he remains a powerful force in the American cultural landscape. In fact, the only thing that can match the power he exudes on pop culture is his godlike supernatural physical abilities. It is precisely those stupendous superpowers that elicit our adulation. We love Superman because he can do things that we can only dream of. That will change very soon as we undergo the "biotech revolution." We are currently at the beginning stages of this revolution that will prove to be one of the most transformative eras in human history, and our bodies will be the beneficiary of most of the innovations.
The human body will be the next computer interface
This is a big step towards the singularity:
You have probably heard a lot about wearables, living services, the Internet of Things, and smart materials by now. Designers are beginning to think about even weirder and wilder things, envisioning a future where evolved technology is embedded inside our digestive tracts, sense organs, blood vessels, and even our cells.
As a service design consultancy we focus on how the systems and services work, rather than on static products. We investigate hypothetical futures through scenarios that involve production/distribution chains and how people will use advanced technology. Although scientifically grounded, the scenarios proposed aren’t necessarily based on facts but on observations. They are designed to create a dialogue around technologies that are still in science labs. To see the future, first we must understand the past. Humans have been interfacing with machines for thousands of years. We seem to be intrinsically built to desire this communion with the made world. This blending of the mechanical and biological has often been described as a “natural” evolutionary process by such great thinkers as Marshall McLuhan in the ’50s and more recently Kevin Kelly in his seminal book What Technology Wants. So by looking at the long timeline of computer design we can see waves of change and future ripples. Here’s our brief and apocryphal history of the human-computer interface.
When Superstorm Sandy hit, New Yorkers lined up for payphones because there was no electricity for cellphones or computers, let alone for streetlights.
Power-wise, we are still living in the same fossil fuel land of 100 years ago.
Singularity? Try "Age of Failed dreams", as Vernor Vinge puts it. That's where we are, as we realize the apparent exponential growth was just the middle of the S-curve, and progress levels out again.
Singularity? Try "Age of Failed dreams", as Vernor Vinge puts it. That's where we are, as we realize the apparent exponential growth was just the middle of the S-curve, and progress levels out again.
I have read this before when I was looking up critics of the singularity. The interesting thing is this was presented in February 15 2007, over 6 years ago. Since then progress has already made this paper obsolete.
1) It says we progress in a "S" curve. That is correct but just because one "S" curve comes to a end does not mean there will be another one that will take over at a faster rate. That happened when vacuum tubes hit a wall and it happening now. By 2020 the current chips will hit a wall but already the next generation has been invented and is ready to take over and a even faster rate.
Look at this:
Moore's Law Maintained by 3D Computer Chip
To maintain Moore's Law, Intel had to substantially redesign the transistor, the tiny electronic switches that make up a computer chip. Previously, packing transistors into a tighter arrangement caused them to leak, meaning the chip would overheat. This led many to predict to the end of Moore's Law and the end of consumers' expectations for ever-faster computing. "Intel got around that by adding an extra dimension to transistors, which for decades have been made as a stack of flat layers of material on top of one another." The company is already at work on a chip with smaller features, scheduled for production by 2014.
2) Then the paper talks about AI and software. Since this was presented many scientific programs have been started to reverse engineer the brain and it will be completed in 5-10 years. Once it is done the advances we will see in AI during the 2020's will be amazing. This is not a thought that is seen a crazy but main stream in the scientific community.
The question is not "if" the singularity will hit but "when". Everything I read it that it will happen between 2030, the optimistic date, and 2045, the conservative date. Personally I think that we are in the event horizon as there is no turning back. It will become mainstream around 2019 and will reach the singularity sometime between 2035 and 2045.
Last edited by Josseppie; 03-12-2013 at 10:48 AM..
When Superstorm Sandy hit, New Yorkers lined up for payphones because there was no electricity for cellphones or computers, let alone for streetlights.
Power-wise, we are still living in the same fossil fuel land of 100 years ago.
In some ways yes we are but that is changing at a exponential rate. Because of this we will not be in the next 10 to 20 years.
I have read this before when I was looking up critics of the singularity. The interesting thing is this was presented in February 15 2007, over 6 years ago. Since then progress has already made this paper obsolete.
That paper can only be made obsolete by reaching the singularity (note it is authored by one of the inventors of the singularity)
Quote:
2) Then the paper talks about AI and software. Since this was presented many scientific programs have been started to reverse engineer the brain and it will be completed in 5-10 years. Once it is done the advances we will see in AI during the 2020's will be amazing. This is not a thought that is seen a crazy but main stream in the scientific community.
Heard it before -- fusion power, flying cars, and all the rest of the failed dreams of the last century. Realistically I don't think we'll have reverse-engineered the brain in 50 years, let alone 5 or 10.
That paper can only be made obsolete by reaching the singularity (note it is authored by one of the inventors of the singularity)
No it can be if the principals such as mores law is proven to continue and they have been.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nybbler
Heard it before -- fusion power, flying cars, and all the rest of the failed dreams of the last century. Realistically I don't think we'll have reverse-engineered the brain in 50 years, let alone 5 or 10.
The boy that cried wolf. Back then they did not understand how information technology advanced. It was not till the 1960's that Mores Law was even introduced and it was not fully understood for a few decades after that. That is why predictions made back then were off. Today we know how information technology advances well until the singularity as that is when all the models break down.
As far as reverse engineering the brain. There are a few large projects working on it including the Blue Brain Project and they have made considerable progress towards reverse engineering the brain. In fact they have made all the goals they have set and you can already see the impact of that in the real world. Personally I think 2019 is the year it will be completed by but the more conservative estimate is 2023.
Speaking of Mores law here is more information on it in the Scientific American:
Predicting the future of technology often seems a fool’s game. In 1946 for example, Thomas J. Watson, founder of International Business Machines — now known simply as IBM — is said to have made the prediction that the world would need just five computers. But US researchers now say that technological progress really is predictable — and back up the claim with evidence regarding 62 different technologies. The claim is nothing new. But what a group of researchers at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have done is to put it to the test. In a study published in PLoS ONE, they compared several mathematical laws that purport to describe how the costs of technologies evolve, and found that the most accurate was one proposed as early as 1936.
the singularity (note it is authored by one of the inventors of the singularity)
Keep in mind that Vernor Vinge is not only a retired professor at SDSU but also a science fiction writer. Thus he looks at all possible outcomes. Notice he does not say the singularity will not happen he says "what if the singularity does not happen"? Then he lists some possible out comes if it does not happen. The interesting thing is he has the more optimistic date of when the singularity will occur, by 2030.
This is from 2012 and is Vernor Vinge talking about the coming singularity:
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Will We All Be Like Superman Soon?
The human body will be the next computer interface
