http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_singularity03.htm
The idea of grumpy old nerds complaining about the lack of a singularity tickles my funny bone. But there are some solid thoughts in the transcript. Given the title of my talk, I should define and briefly discuss what I mean by the Technological Singularity: It seems plausible that with technology we can, in the fairly near future, create (or become) creatures who surpass humans in every intellectual and creative dimension. Events beyond this event - call it the Technological Singularity - are as unimaginable to us as opera is to a flatworm. The preceding sentence, almost by definition, makes long-term thinking an impractical thing in a Singularity future. However, maybe the Singularity won't happen, in which case planning beyond the next fifty years could have great practical importance. In any case, a good science-fiction writer (or a good scenario planner) should always be considering alternative outcomes. I should add that the alternatives I discuss tonight also assume that faster-than-light space travel is never invented! Important note for those surfing this talk out of context. I still regard the Singularity as the most likely non-catastrophic outcome for our near future. There are many plausible catastrophic scenarios (see Martin Rees's Our Final Hour), but tonight I'll try to look at non-singular futures that might still be survivable.
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On 'IC Talk': Seyit Karga, Ultimate
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