let's be clear

[rone]

The Singularity is the nerd version of the Rapture, and it's just as likely to happen, and it's just as embarrassing to write about.

Comments

Re: What I like is s.f. fans decided that there will be more oil

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

I'm a chemist, but I'm inclined to agree with your biologist friends.

My point about Stone Age hunter-gatherers isn't that they no longer exist or that they are stupid or inferior. As I understand it, the idea of the Singularity is that the "after" side is incomprehensible and unimaginable to those on the "before" side. I think that would apply to modern western society (technologically, politically and in other ways), from the perspective of the average SAHG.

This does not mean that they are unable to adapt to contemporary technology if they are exposed to it. After all, shitloads of people in this country, yours and many other nations happily use telephones without having the slightest idea of how they really work: when they dial the number of their best friend, they might as well be reciting a magic spell, for all they know about what actually happens within the phone, or the assorted telephone exchanges en route.

The above, and my earlier comment probably mean that I don't really believe in the Singularity, as presented by certain SF authors, in the sense that I don't believe in it as a sudden one-off event. Change is a process, it takes time, even if the rate of change can vary.

Re: What I like is s.f. fans decided that there will be more oil

[mouseworks.livejournal.com]

There is a good argument that Stone Age hunter-gatherers don't exist now or that most of us are still hunter-gatherers, only we go to the supermarket instead of finding a place to trap horses. The people who are still hunting and gathering have contacts with people with radios, generators, and stuff (I saw a short film of an Amazonian family that bought a generator and TV and watched Bay Watch every week).

I agree with you on the unlikelihood of A Singularity. The biggest changes were in the 19th Century, to electric communications, lighting, etc., and we've been making it easier to use near light-speed communications ever since, but the jump from 3 day to almost instantaneous happened in the 19th Century. The Net is only a bit more than deskilled telegraphy compared to the changes telegraphy made possible (coordinating rail transport for one).