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Singularity Of The Nerds

Too Much Free Time

from the building-the-AI-to-take-over-the-world dept

Mon, Jan 12th 2004 2:01am — Mike Masnick
The SF Chronicle is running an article on the folks involved in "Singularity", the group that believes they absolutely must build a "smarter-than-human" artificial intelligence in the next decade to "save the world". They believe that, at that point, humans will have reached the end of Darwinian evolution, and will then live forever (though, you may argue with their definition of being alive). If it sounds vaguely cult-like, you're not the only one to think so. They insist, though, that if they don't build this artificial intelligence, someone else will, and that would be bad - though, they're never really clear on why they'll be so much better at it.
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13 Comments

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  1. identicon
    dorpus, 12 Jan 2004 @ 5:50am

    Oh God, cults.

    Yesterday I was hoodwinked by a posting on craigslist.org about a "zen archery club" near my place -- it turned out not to be an archery club at all, but really a religious cult in which they create an atmosphere of total silence to make it uncomfortable to leave, and people are supposed to spend 20 minutes aiming at the target until the arrow "shoots itself". Predictably, the sensei was a fat middle aged guy named Bob with purple tinted glasses who likes to touch people.

    Having spent the past month in Japan, I felt like strangling them and telling them that Japan is nothing like their fantasies -- it is a place obsessed with fashion, drinking, and sex. The only people who practice zen in Japan are white tourists.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    dorpus, 12 Jan 2004 @ 5:51am

    Re: Oh God, cults.

    But as luck would have it, I did go to another craigslist.org activity after that, an air hockey session featuring normal people -- we went out to dinner.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Precision Blogger, 12 Jan 2004 @ 8:18am

    Maybe they can reach their goal (sort of):

    It might not be so hard for them to develop an AI that's smarter than THEY are.

    - The Precision Blogger
    http://precision-blogging.blogspot.com

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    transhuman2, 12 Jan 2004 @ 8:53am

    not really a cult

    more of a reasoned, analytical follow the assumption and see what is the inevitable result. If you think your mind is rational and can handle the truth then think seriously about this topic and do a little research...
    a brief perusal of http://www.singinst.org/ will
    get you started

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    eeyore, 12 Jan 2004 @ 11:54am

    more of the same

    Everybody wants to live forever. Every religion has it's own version of the afterlife. It sounds like this guy sees this as his ticket to immortality. He will probably be as ironically disappointed as all the idiots who had themselves cryogenically frozen after they were already dead.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2004 @ 12:51pm

    Sure kid, I've read Vernor Vinge, and all the rest

    Obviously, Mr. Yudkowsky is a very intelligent man (yes, I've looked at his website), but this story sounds like it came straight out of an issue of Wired Magazine from 1999. Where do these geniuses get this idea that you can "achieve immortality" by dumping your "consciousness" into a computer? There are very fundamental questions for which Yudkowsky and the "Singulatarians" offer ludicrous answers based on unfounded nonsense. Let's face facts: after half a century and more of research into "artificial intelligence" (note that many researchers today are scared to use the term, fearing ridicule, and prefer newer, cooler terms such as "intelligence augmentation"), no one on this planet has the slightest idea what thought or consciousness really is. Well, "obviously", it's a multithreaded program running on an organic supercomputer, easily simulated by the latest open-source toolkits. And also "obviously", if you build a tower high enough, you will reach the sky. Come on, being human is pretty amazing, wouldn't you say?

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Adrian Anders, 12 Jan 2004 @ 2:57pm

    Hey, haven't I seen this plot before.....

    Hey, this is my first time posting on techdirt, but after reading the aforementioned article, I couldn't help but bring up the striking similarity between the goals of these “Singularity” cultists, and those of Seele, the sinister organization behind “The Human Instrumentality Project” in the popular Japanese anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion. Seele’s plot was to use these bio-angelic organisms known as Evangelions as an instrument for the next stage of human evolution (don’t ask me why, the whole series is pretty f’d up). In the minds of Seele, they believed that they were preventing mankind’s eventual extinction by bringing every human mind together into one singular being (starting to see the similarity?). Let’s just hope that these nutballs never rise to possess any real power, otherwise we might have city crushing robots to deal with ;-)

    ATA

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2004 @ 3:39pm

    Re: more of the same

    "The dead do not get disappointed."
    -Kai, Last of the Brunnen G

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    toinfinityandbeyond, 12 Jan 2004 @ 8:40pm

    Re: Sure kid, I've read Vernor Vinge, and all the

    hmmm...i think its called a space elevator ;-) - just one of the many coming wonders of nanotechnology (aroundd which much of the singularity will be based) -- try a little extrapolation of your initial premises and be truthfull about where the exponential curve is taking you...if your mind can handle it without future shock...

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    kri, 19 Mar 2010 @ 10:06am

    Re: not really a cult

    you are a dork, my not-friend.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    kri, 19 Mar 2010 @ 10:14am

    Re: not really a cult

    and when i say dork, i am referring to transhuman2 and everyone else excited in the singularity cult/religion. seriously, you make the future the lamest place imaginable. get a girlfriend and quit hoping for a virtual one who will always "love" you. that's what this is all about you know, nerds who can't find girlfriends, so they have to ruin the world in order to make their virtual ones. they're worse than scientologists.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    kri, 19 Mar 2010 @ 10:15am

    Re: not really a cult

    and when i say dork, i am referring to transhuman2 and everyone else excited in the singularity cult/religion. seriously, you make the future the lamest place imaginable. get a girlfriend and quit hoping for a virtual one who will always "love" you. that's what this is all about you know, nerds who can't find girlfriends, so they have to ruin the world in order to make their virtual ones. they're worse than scientologists.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    kri, 19 Mar 2010 @ 10:15am

    Re: not really a cult

    and when i say dork, i am referring to transhuman2 and everyone else excited in the singularity cult/religion. seriously, you make the future the lamest place imaginable. get a girlfriend and quit hoping for a virtual one who will always "love" you. that's what this is all about you know, nerds who can't find girlfriends, so they have to ruin the world in order to make their virtual ones. they're worse than scientologists.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]


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