Friday, January 05, 2007
The Singularity & ET - Is "It", and are "They", near?
If even ten per cent of what Kurzweil predicts happens in our lifetimes, we're in for a wild, wild ride!
As it relates to UFOs, however, given where we may soon be going (or we may already be there), do you really think aliens hundreds, or thousands, of years more advanced than us are visiting Earth as biological entities?
It just doesn't make sense. AI? Possibly. Biological beings? Hard to believe.
In the end, it might not matter. But consider this - in terms of "contact", what if the "aliens" are simply waiting for us to take the leap - not into space, but into our own future, where we become like them?
The more one stops to think about it, the very notion of extraterrestrial biological entities visiting us borders on the ridiculous when compared with the prospect of some form of AI.
Food for thought.
Paul Kimball
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I haven't watched the vid yet but the idea is right on target!
Http://oddempire.org
Biological entities or AI- what does it matter? WE ARE IN A RIDICULOUS UNIVERSE ALREADY!!
How ridiculous is anything in a virtual reality matrix?
The old argument that goes 'why would they come all the way here just to blow us up or take our resources' is no longer worthy.
They could be using stargates and wormholes to eliminate the distance problem. That means biological beings with the right ships and technology to tend to their organic substrates could travel anywhere and do anything they wish.
Sam:
The old argument that goes 'why would they come all the way here just to blow us up or take our resources' is no longer worthy.
They could be using stargates and wormholes to eliminate the distance problem. That means biological beings with the right ships and technology to tend to their organic substrates could travel anywhere and do anything they wish.
I disagree, at least in terms of relative probability. To say that "wormholes" and "stargates" is speculative is to be kind. Sure, it may be theoretically possible, but by the time a society figures it out, and creates the technology that would allow them to master it, will their be any biological entities left, or will they be, for all intents and purposes, machines? If you buy Kurzweil's theories (and those of others, of course), we are much closer to that possible future than one where we can master star travel. At the point where you can achieve virtual immortality, the distance between stars doesn't really matter either - it would be at that point, as machines, or some combination of organic and AI, that star travel could proceed, without the need for truly exotic, far out technologies like "stargates".
Paul
The end says as much as the beginning. These technologies can be used or misused at our own peril. Every technology can be used for destruction, sometimes on a massive scale. When we take up the tools of the gods we embellish ourselves with their wisdom, something that does not seem to be increasing expotentially.
We have such trouble with motor cars, I fear we cannot control nanoparticles - a great tool for spies and terrorist as well as marketers and doctors. Virtual reality will become a great tool for torture and the sex trade. If we can network our brains, we lose the "I" and become the "we" at which point the individual becomes redundant. How can I write if I don't have a viewpoint, if everyone thinks the same, if the world is homogenous, what have we gained if everyone is average, no one is special.
This future seems no brighter than the slag heap of the present that we've managed to make. I'd rather have a cold beer on a fishing boat in a world that gives me the comfort of knowing death is inevitable and ubiqitous, than to live forever in a twisted space where you can't trust what you breath or what your nerve endings tell you. But thats just me, I'm still human.
Biological beings? Hard to believe.
And yet that's what we appear to see in case after case. Something is amiss.
An advanced nanotech AI would most likely be able to control its presentation with great subtlety. It might be necessary or desirable for such an entity to present itself to us as a human or humanoid.
Will
Will:
Good point.
And... Happy New Year!
Paul
Will--
That was to be the premise of my book "The Postbiological Cosmos" -- rejected by one editor because it was, presumably, old and boring (!).
rejected by one editor because it was, presumably, old and boring
Well, look at it this way Mac - at least you weren't rejected because you're old and boring. :-)
Paul
Happy New Year Paul and Mac!
Tell them if they don't publish your book then maybe the future won't need them! (Psst...say nothing over the Internet you don't want our future AI overlords to know!)
Will
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