OK, I get that Mr Kurzweil is smart and rich. But I also think it's clear that he's also a kook.
Ray Kurzweil deciphers a brave new world | Newsmakers | CNET News.com: "I'm quite aggressive in reprogramming my biochemistry. I take over 200 supplements a day. The thing that's unique about our program is that it's what we call aggressive supplementation. We're not programmed to stick around as long as I am. We need to reprogram our biochemistry, to reprogram our disease processes, processes that result in cancer, and various aging processes. My own personal program is detailed in the book."
And it's also clear that he doesn't get what Vernor Vinge is talking about in the Singularity. The Singularity is not "the geek rapture." It is the point where we can no longer predict that happens next. It's technology accelerating to virtually infinite power. We don't know if it mean the end of life as we know it (or just the end of life, period), or if it means cool, god-like, superhero powers for everyone. But then again, Mr. Kurzweil is interested in selling books. "My own personal program is detailed in the book."
But I'm pretty sure that taking vitamins won't help much. So keep munching your Flintstone chewables, Mr. Kurzweil. I wish you luck in your quest to live forever, I really do. But to live forever as a machine means to leave being human behind. We humans are big, messy and and unpredictable. Our thoughts and minds are made up of not just the things that happen to us, but the bio-chemical soup of our own bodies. You take my mind and record it into a machine and it's not me.
Do I want to live a long time? Hell yes. I want a very long life in a healthy body. I do not want an infinite existence as a running application staring out through digital cameras.
My own personal program is detailed in the blog.
science, kurzweil, shit
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11 years ago
2 comments:
I agree on you, that Kurzweil seems to take his ideas to the extreme.
But you are a little off in your comments.
1. The definition of technologically singularity you summarize is actually the same definition, that Kurzweil uses in his books.
2. As to eternal life through technology, you seem to simplify things with todays view of technology. Remember that technology can also be nanotech and genetic modifications. And those technologies can be used to alter your human body, so that you don't have to leave it in order to live forever.
Excuse my english, I am from Scandinavia ;)
I guess my frustration with Kurzweil is, surprisingly enough, his lack of imagination.
Vinge has explored the topic in his novels and even he has found that you simply can't talk about the post singularity world. Yes, Kurzweil is glowingly optimistic, but friendly, intelligent computers and massive life extension are all straight line predictions. They are not, and cannot be, a hope for a real world after the . . . I don't even know what to call it.
I'm actually leaning more towards Bruce Sterling's thoughts on the topic of the singularity and why it wont happen after all. You can hear is talk on the subject here at The Long Now.
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