Reddit reviews The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
We found 40 Reddit comments about The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Penguin Books
Solar Plane
http://www.solarimpulse.com/en/our-adventure/the-first-round-the-world-solar-flight/
Sustainable City
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UMvj2ZYnU8
New Horizons
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php
Electric Cars
http://cleantechnica.com/2014/07/28/electric-vehicle-revolution-nigh-infographic/
http://www.iea.org/publications/globalevoutlook_2013.pdf
http://www.abb-conversations.com/2014/03/electric-vehicle-market-share-in-19-countries/
http://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/2014/08/3.htm
http://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/2012/04/9.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charging_station#Battery_swapping
http://www.futuretimeline.net/21stcentury/images/future-car-technology-2020.gif
Moon Ad
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/the-first-advert-on-the-moon-japanese-soft-drink-manufacturer-will-deliver-a-can-of-pocari-sweat-to-the-lunar-surface-in-2015-9382535.html
https://www.otsuka.co.jp/en/company/release/2014/0515_01.html
Virtual Reality
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/309486/sony-virtual-reality-gamings-going-to-be-absolutely-amazing/
http://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/2013/06/7-2.htm
Genome Sequencing
http://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Near-Humans-Transcend-Biology/dp/0143037889/
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v30/n7/full/nbt.2241.html
http://www.genome.gov/sequencingcosts/
http://www.wired.com/2014/01/the-fda-may-win-the-battle-this-holiday-season-but-23andme-will-win-the-war/
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-next-generation-sequencing-report-market-size-segmentation-growth-and-trends-by-provider---2013-edition-213150681.html
http://diginomica.com/2013/09/05/four-reasons-big-data-breathes-life-health-care/
http://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/2012/02/24.htm
http://www.genome.gov/27555651
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/may/14/angelina-jolie-mastectomy-breast-cancer
Ray Kurzweil best describes how humankind will transcend biology.
Our biology binds us with time. By transcending biology we will transcend time. With all the time we need, we needn't worry ourselves with trying to create wormholes when we can just send a copy of ourselves in all directions.
The singularity is near by ray kurzweil has all the science behind it.
Accelerando
and Singularity Sky by Charles Stross for Fiction.
Hijacking to plug a couple of other books really worth reading if you're into this sort of thing:
Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization by K. Eric Drexler
The Singularity is Near by the aforementioned Ray Kurzweil
Ask and ye shall receive.
Gnostic Globalists / Fascists
You'll have to search for these in google by title + youtube. Sorry, the links didn't copypasta over.
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Relativism
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Mythologenesis
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Singularity agenda or Identity Apotheosis agenda
Thanateros
Collectivism and the death of the individual
Big Brother / Big Sister
You REALLY need to read this book. Infact, if you think you would actually read it I'll buy it for you.
You bring up an excellent point (and make a great case for land ownership!), and that is that actual physical space can't really be created, and will remain scarce, insofar as Earth has a fixed surface area. If the scenario I described above came to pass, though, would any landlords come looking for rent? Would any governments levy taxes? If no one needs cash and everyone has pretty much everything provided for them, all but the most stubborn landlords won't have any reason to give a hoot. I suspect government would take longer to die out, since it may still be needed to enforce laws, judge disputes, provide safety, etc. It's not hard to imagine a world even further down the line, however, when technology has advanced to the point where humans can't realistically do much damage to one another.
Edit: If you're really into this, I'd suggest reading some singularity-esque literature such as Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (novella), Rainbows End (novel), and The Singularity is Near (speculative nonfiction to be taken with a grain of salt).
The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil
This one was a pretty good read.
The Singularity Is Near
Einstein: His Life and Universe
The Black Hole War
The Trouble With Physics
Parallel Worlds
The Red Limit: The Search for the Edge of the Universe
Warped Passages
The Singularity is Near
> This is my problem with Kurzweil, et al, who make arguments based on the availability of raw computing power, as if all that's required for the Singularity to emerge is some threshold in flops.
That's not quite what Kurzweil says; you can read his book. But you're right: the bottleneck to AI is likely to be software, not hardware.
> I don't think we're any closer to forming an AI now than medieval alchemists were to forming homunculi using preparations of menstrual blood and mandrake root
On this, I'll disagree. For a summary of recent progress made toward AI, see The Quest for AI.
Any futurist or regular reader of /r/futurology can rehearse all of the arguments for why uploading is likely to be feasible by 2100, including the incremental replacement of biological neurons by artificial ones which avoids the "copy" issue. If you're not already familiar with these, the easiest single reference is probably The Singularity is Near.
There are two books I recommend to everyone who is frustrated and/or saddened by the state of the world and has lost hope for a better future.
The first is The Better Angels of Our Nature by Stephen Pinker. It lays out how violence in human societies has been decreasing for centuries and is still declining.
Despite the prevalence of war and crime in our media, human beings are less likely to suffer violence today than at any point in our prior history. The west suffered an upswing in social violence from the 1970s -1990s, which has since been linked to lead levels, but violence in the west has been declining since the early 90s.
Put simply the world is a better place than most media coverage would have you believe and it's getting better year by year.
The second book I recomend is The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil. It explains how technology has been improving at an accelerating rate.
Technological advances have already had major positive impacts on society, and those effects will become increasingly powerful over the next few decades. Artificial intelligence is already revolutionizing our economy. The average human life span is increasing every year. Advances in medicine are offering hope for previously untreatable diseases.
Basically, there is a lot of good tech coming which will significantly improve our quality of life, if we can just hang on long enough.
Between those two forces, decreasing violence and rapidly advancing technology, the future looks pretty bright for humanity. We just don't hear that message often, because doom-saying gets better ratings.
I don't know what disability you're struggling with but most people have some marketable skills, i.e. they aren't "worthless". Based on your post, you clearly have good writing/communicating skills. That's a rare and valuable trait. You could look into a career leveraging those skills (e.g. as a technical writer or transcriptionist) which your disability wouldn't interfere with to badly (or which an employer would be willing to accommodate).
As for being powerless to change the world, many people feel that way because most of us are fairly powerless on an individual level. We are all in the grip of powerful forces (social, political, historical, environmental, etc.) which exert far more influence over our lives than our own desires and dreams.
The books I recommended post convincing arguments that those forces have us on a positive trend line, so a little optimism is not unreasonable. We may just be dust on the wind, but the wind is blowing in the right direction. That means the best move may simply be to relax and enjoy the ride as best we can.
Lets do some math.
My son was born this year. With an average life span of 76 years, he should most likely die by 2090. But, I will also make the assumption that in the years between 2014 and 2090 we will find ways to advance the average life span to a little bit longer, lets say 30 years. So now, his average life span is 106 years and the "death year' is extended to 2120.
But between 2090 and 2020 science will continue to advance and we will probably have a life expectance of 136 years by then, which now make his death year "2050". And so forth until science finds a way to keep him alive for ever. Even if it takes the better part of a century, some of the younger people will still be beyond the cutoff.
Now. If you actually talk to real scientists who have studied this in much more detail, they are saying that this will not take a century, and should just take a few decades to achieve " escape velocity" for immortality. There is a book written about this, and how in the next few decades, we will unlock the masteries of aging. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
Demon Haunted World is so good - it's in my "big three," books that really helped me change my worldview. The other two are A Brief History of Time and the deliciously amoral The 48 Laws of Power.
If you lean towards the nerdy, Ray Kurzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity is Near are also quite interesting. They lay out a fairly stunning (and strangely convincing) optimistic view of the future.
I really enjoyed The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil. It's definitely a little science heavy, but no unmanageable for the general reader. Kurzweil's writing flows really well and he keeps it interesting throughout.
If you're interested in the subject, I would recommend that you read The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzwiel.
While all his books are great. He talks a lot about exponential growth in "The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence" and "The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology"
His most recent book, "How to Create a Mind" is also a must read.
> That's because doomsday prophecies sell and get the gullible to part ways with their money.
> Hmmm.........
The same can be said about promises of paradise, revolution and a host of other assurances commonly associated with the singularity.
For example, The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil, ranks #3 in sales for books on biotechnology, #42 in sales for books on evolution, and #54 for books on biology & life sciences on Amazon. Others are promising immortality to the world's wealthiest, provided they pay, based projects being run by several singularitarians (most notably Kurzweil himself). There's a lot of money to be made in telling people what they want to hear.
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil
What's So Great About America by Dinesh D'Souza
If you guys enjoy this stuff and the idea of AI, I implore you to check out Ray Kerzweil revolutionary docubook on "The Singularity" aka the point in time in the near future where technological evolution surpasses the rate of biological evolution.
have you read TSIN yet?
Give this a read. This isn't some crackpot, this is Google's director of engineering. I'm not saying it contradicts what you are saying.
>I doubt we'd anything like a true AI in 20 or so years
Is pretty close to his timetable too, but honestly even getting close to that computational power is well over what is needed to drive a car.
Thanks!
Have you read The Singularity is Near? It's quite an interesting read.
Dr. Steel has a great view of things; I agree to everything in this video!
Of I saw the context; that's how I ran into this rant.
First of all, "Industrialization didn't improve things but for a small subset of society" isn't true. I can see where you're coming from, but even the poorest nations and people have benefited from industrialization.
Industrialization has caused murder rates to go down approx. 30-100 times lower. We are living in the most peaceful times in human history. See, thousands of years ago, you were lucky to see the age of 25. Now, even the poorest nations have average lifespans of 40+.
The reason you're so cynical is because news is more widespread nowadays. Again, I know where you're coming from because I have parents who think like you do.
Read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Near-Humans-Transcend-Biology/dp/0143037889
if you want a look of what is coming ahead and why we are in theory living in a third industrial revolution. Once you read this, you will learn to love the future. I guarantee it.
The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil
"Based on current resources and estimated usage patterns based on historical information," shipping from the moon could be cost effective by 2045.
wow, yeah, 10 years is closer than 50 that's for sure. If you are right, that is something to be very excited about for sure. Just think of the possibilities. Can I ask where you get the estimate of 10 years? I am fairly uneducated on the subject, and admittedly I haven't even read the book about it therefore I am hesitant to even mention it, but I am familiar with Ray Kurzweil and his theories about The Singularity (basically when man and machine combine, hence "redefining" what it means to be human). I found his recent comments on nano-bots in our brains making us "God-like" intriguing to say the least, and if ever we will be able lay back, close our eyes, and experience some sort of virtual reality, it just makes sense to me that the most likely time when that will happen is when we have super intelligent nano-bots inside of our brains manipulating the way they work. I, personally, can't wait for this to happen, but I also know that I will be very apprehensive when it will come down to willfully injecting into my body millions and millions of nano-bots that have been specially designed to 'hijack' my brain, and make it work better. I think I will probably wait 10 years or so after people start doing it, maybe longer.
Here is Ray Kurzweil's book I was referring to that I really want to read: The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
EDIT: I forgot to mention why I really brought up the singularity-- Mr. Kurzweil initially predicted that the singularity would occur sometime before 2030 (aka in the 2020's), but I believe he has now modified that to say that it will occur in the 2030's. Either way, that is not far away, and, being a pretty tech-savvy person myself (I pay attention to a thing or two) I think the 2030's is a reasonable estimate for something like this, but, as I mentioned earlier, I think it is the ethics of such a thing that will slow down true VR development (see: how the world responded to cloning)
double EDIT: just another thought (albeit quite a tangent)-- once a true singularity has been achieved (if ever?), 'transplanting' our consciousnesses into another body all of a sudden becomes quite a bit less sci-fi and altogether a more realistic possibility...
Please read The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil. It will tell you what's next in terms of technology+biology.
Ray Kurzweil has been scarily accurate at predicting technological trends. You should check out The Singularity is Near, in which he makes some very specific estimates about many of these types of questions. You will have a completely different outlook on the way technology progresses after reading this... I certainly did.
How can you be right or wrong about something that doesn't exist yet? I recommend this book.
https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Near-Humans-Transcend-Biology/dp/0143037889
Did the book happen to be The singularity is near?
https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Near-Humans-Transcend-Biology/dp/0143037889
It's not inevitable. Here you go:
Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime
Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
I was actually thinking this a few days ago about my dog. Having read The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil, there are a few sections devoted to uploading the brain and using technology to augment brain capabilities. What it boils down to is that the truly unique things about our brain are 'past memories', 'emotions', and 'personality'. Every thing else is the brain is just stuff that regulates our bodies and processes information.
If we take the personality, memories, and emotions of my dog, and improve on the other parts of the brain by adding better memory, speech recognition, etc. Then we might just be able to create another biological species that rivals our intelligence.
We already are making the assumption that technology will make humans more advanced, the same thing should eventually apply to all other biological animals as well. (Except Mosquitos, of couse)
I suggest this book by Ray Kurzweil. Simply amazing.
The Singularity Is Near. Not sure why you're asking it in this forum, but it wouldn't mess with my theology at all, and I would welcome it as a blessing.
Not covered in this video: Peak Oil and the End of Cheap Abundant Energy.
All the bots in this video (and our whole society, in fact) are fueled by cheap abundant energy from fossil fuels. Reddit loves to pin its hopes on vaporware sources of cheap energy that are always JUuuuuST about to be figured out, but the reality is that we are NOT going to find a working replacement for our energy needs.
Bots may be here now, but they are not here to stay. The future will look more like The Long Descent and less like the Singularity.
Horses and human labor are poised to make a come back. Learn a trade craft. Grow food in your back yard. Develop a skill that will have value in the post-collapse economy. Become a beekeeper. Become a homebrewer. Make soap. Collapse now and avoid the rush.
EDIT: For a much more level-headed analysis, read this article right now: The End of Employment by John Michael Greer
Here is the text that describes Kurzweil's vision. It is the only book I've ever read twice (besides the Bible, but I was confused then). I really suggest you pick it up - if money is an obstacle feel free to pm me your address and I'll send you a copy.
What about the 5 years part? That the next 5 years of technological advancements will be like the last 25? I didn't say in the next 5 years unemployment will be out of control... checkout the book The Singularity Is Near to learn more about that. Every technological advancement builds off of the last and helps the rest, i.e. self driving cars in the future making everything cheaper -> cheaper to do all kinds of scientific/medical research.
I can see how that was confusing, probably more like 20 years from now we'll absolutely have to have basic income or negative income tax. We'll have more people than ever with fewer jobs than ever!