Comments on Sentient Developments: Must-know terms for the 21st Century intellectual:...

Hi Sedicious, thanks for the clarification. I over...

2007-10-18T00:41:34.093-04:00

Hi Sedicious, thanks for the clarification. I over simplified for the sake of brevity. You're right -- there's a lot more to the noosphere than I implied. Perhaps a future post....

"Today, paraplegics use NID's to move computer cur...

2007-04-14T03:00:40.592-04:00

"Today, paraplegics use NID's to move computer cursors with their thoughts alone"

A person with paraplegia would most likely use their hand.

"It is becoming increasingly unsatisfactory to dec...

2007-02-17T14:07:00.000-05:00

"It is becoming increasingly unsatisfactory to declare death when the heart stops"
The heart stopping is no longer considered the point at which death is declared, and hasn't been since, I believe, the 1950s when the medical definition of death was changed. Currently, death is declared when electrical activity in the brain stops. The rest of the statement is valid, of course- new cryogenic techniques have revived dogs with no brain activity, so we're about to redefine death once again, and will doubtless do so again in the future.

I am extremely skeptical of Kurzweil's Law of Acce...

2007-02-14T14:41:00.000-05:00

I am extremely skeptical of Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns and the entire style of forecasting which goes along with it. The biologist PZ Myers, among others, has pointed out that the graphs trumpeted as evidence in its favor are bunk. You can hide a lot of sins on a log-log plot. . . .

Yes, the world is changing, and yes, the machines keep doing incredible things. But ascribing cosmic significance to a numerological phantasm is the futurist's version of deducing the age of the Universe by adding up the begats in Genesis.

The sooner transhumanism distances itself from this kind of fuzzy thinking, the better.

How sad to still be reading the intellectual hypoc...

2007-02-12T05:29:39.547-05:00

How sad to still be reading the intellectual hypocrisy of the Darwinist/Dawkinists. You claim a belief in the principle of “natural selection” yet claim that some “memes” are unfit and should be eliminated because they challenge your “meme’s” ecosystem. If you don’t like the consequence of your own “meme” (belief system) then you had better redefine it and resolve the potential for your own extinction. If your meme can’t take the evolutionary pressure – time to die, don’t use it as an excuse for a jihad against other memes to protect yourself.

I took the liberty of duplicating this list on Wo...

2007-01-29T13:56:00.000-05:00

I took the liberty of duplicating this list on Wordie.

Past attempts Remedial Ecology have proved disaste...

2007-01-29T00:53:00.000-05:00

Past attempts Remedial Ecology have proved disasterous. The complexity of ecosystems is far beyond our present understanding and abilities. I think the notion is a bit dangerous as it encourages a "well fix it later" additude. Religion is sometimes criticised in focusing people attention on an afterlife in heaven at the expense of THIS world--a la 9/11 terrorists. but people who presume a future technological solution to any and all problems we face risk the similar

I think that my favorite alternative term for Huma...

2007-01-17T12:12:00.000-05:00

I think that my favorite alternative term for Human Exceptionalism is Iain Banks' term 'carbon fascism'.

Thank you for the list. Now I can point others to ...

2007-01-17T10:16:00.000-05:00

Thank you for the list. Now I can point others to this post to help them understand some of the stuff I've been semi-coherently rambling about.

Great list, George!

2007-01-16T12:34:00.000-05:00

Great list, George!

Vertigo said... But what I wanted to ask: Would i...

2007-01-16T11:43:20.962-05:00

Vertigo said...

But what I wanted to ask: Would it be possible to add a certain time related reference to the topics mentioned?

Interesting request. Some of the topics are immediately relevant, while some ate still further down the road. But you're right, the consensus is that these technologies are still centuries away when in fact they are likely much closer than that.

My own projections are primarily informed by the work of Ray Kurzweil who is an expert in this matter. I highly recommend The Singularity is Near to get a better sense as to when we can expect these advancements.

But to very quickly answer your question, I believe most items on the list can happen in as little as 50-75 years.

Solario said... I have a question regarding M...

2007-01-16T11:38:52.403-05:00

Solario said...

I have a question regarding Mind Transfer or Uploading: What distinction is there between mind transferring and mind copying? Would the intelligence tranfered remain the same or would it just be a perfectly constructed copy? (Of course this could lead to debates such as whether or not you're the "same" person when you're born and when you die, considering you'll probably consist of different atoms etc. which would lead to further discussions regarding a meta-self.)

Hi Solario, this is an excellent question and a huge topic that has curfuddled a number of philosophers and neuroscientists.

There is most definitely a distinction between transfer and copying. Both are theoretically possible, and you're right that a "copy" of a person would be just that. With non-destructive copying, you would have the source person and a copy who has shared memories.

As for transfer, that's a bit trickier. I've seen one hypothesized scenario devised by Hans Moravec in which a person (a) has a prosthetic neuron simulated in a computer (b). Once (b) is active and enabled, (a) is disabled, and the subject is now forced to utilize the synthesized neuron. The process continues until all the neurons have been synthesized.

You can find more here:
http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Global/Uploading/

Hi Mr. Dvorsky I love this list! Not only for the...

2007-01-16T10:02:00.000-05:00

Hi Mr. Dvorsky

I love this list! Not only for the clarity of speech used and the ease of understanding these major concepts, but also because it makes a clearer communication between people possible, who discuss these topics.

But what I wanted to ask: Would it be possible to add a certain time related reference to the topics mentioned? I would like to have something like a prediction on when these technologies will come into existence, since I always need to convince other people of the nearness of these concepts. Usually most people write these predictions off as futurist thinking which will not come around for a couple of hundreds of years or so. “Not in this lifetime”. If they do not immediately start saying this is science fiction and will not come around at all. (Although most people then forget that a lot of science fiction from the beginning of the former century has come true!)

Anyway, I got to your site via kurzweilAI.net and I must say: “Keep up the good work!”
I’ll be following your posts regularly now!

Ciao

Vertigo

Fermi paradox No sign of ET? I suggest a careful,...

2007-01-16T09:40:00.000-05:00

Fermi paradox
No sign of ET? I suggest a careful, open-minded perusal of scientific studies of UFO phenomena, beginning with the peer-reviewed Journal of Scientific Exploration.

I have a question regarding Mind Transfer or Uploa...

2007-01-16T08:40:00.000-05:00

I have a question regarding Mind Transfer or Uploading: What distinction is there between mind transfer and mind copying? Would the intelligence tranfered remain the same or would it just be a perfectly constructed copy? (Of course this could lead to debates such as whether or not you're the "same" person when you're born and when you die, considering you'll probably consist of different atoms etc. which would lead to further discussions regarding a meta-self.)

That bit about Japan is absolute bunk. Central hea...

2007-01-15T21:59:00.000-05:00

That bit about Japan is absolute bunk. Central heating never caught on there. They still use oil and electric heaters to warm the rooms they spend the most time in. Strange perhaps for a 1st world country, but it is a cultural thing and has absolutely nothing to do with the cost of fossil fuels.

Hi Sedicious, thanks for the clarification. I over...

2007-01-14T13:43:32.854-05:00

Hi Sedicious, thanks for the clarification. I over simplified for the sake of brevity. You're right -- there's a lot more to the noosphere than I implied. Perhaps a future post....

I don't like your (re)definition of noosphere. Pi...

2007-01-14T13:06:00.000-05:00

I don't like your (re)definition of noosphere. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, at least, clearly spoke of the noosphere as something which already exists today, and is evolving into ever more integrated forms. I believe the same is true of Vernadsky. It also seems to accord with the definition found in Merriam-Webster:

noosphere noun : the sphere of human consciousness and mental activity especially in regard to its influence on the biosphere and in relation to evolution

For your definition, I think it would be much better to use only the term metaconsciousness, and preserve the original meaning for noosphere.

Hey George:Very cool the way my use of the word "r...

2007-01-13T17:29:00.000-05:00

Hey George:

Very cool the way my use of the word "redux" spread from my blog (Milgram Redux) to yours (Must-know terms Redux) to Kurzweil's (which cites your post but where the term does not make much sense out of context). Maybe some memetic engineering is needed? Anyway, grats on the Kurzweil mention.

Cheers!

Peter

I forgot to take credit and blame for my prior pos...

2007-01-12T20:00:00.000-05:00

I forgot to take credit and blame for my prior post. I'm Jake Witmer. I wrote about my dislike for altering the meaning of "libertarian" into "libertine". (The formal Ayn Rand people like Peter Schwartz have done enough damage to the term.)

I have distaste for the adding of terms to "libert...

2007-01-12T19:58:00.000-05:00

I have distaste for the adding of terms to "libertarian" that pervert its meaning into something that does not advocate individual freedom. This distaste is amplified because there is a Libertarian Party that is struggling to insert the idea of individual freedom into the mainstream of American politics. Their job is made harder by quasi-intellectuals who mislabel them. IE: "Soft Paternalism" or "Libertarian Paternalism". This is a light form of "smearing". See: http://www.mainstreamlibertarian.com http://www.objectivistcenter.org http://www.optimal.org Many in the scientific crowd favor stealing from "the ignorant masses" to fund research, or other half-assed support of individual freedom, so long as it leaves their ox ungored. Ayn Rand's criticism of a "State Science Institute" still holds. Moreover, there is adequte support for freedom from such researchers as Peter Voss to not attempt to continually pervert the definition of well-defines words he's used. "Libertarian" Should never have to be called "classical libertarian" because people are too damned afraid to talk about freedom consistently (the underlying root cause of all the "renaming"). -We're too afraid to take responsibility for ourselves, so let's advocate a newly-named term that attempts to have both individual freedom with the portions of tyranny that we identify with --THEN, we'll support it. Sure. And once it's nice and watered down, it will be no different from continuing to support the same controls and regulations that have driven us into slavery, except with scientists intead of politicians as the masters. No thanks! What I argue may not have meaning post singularity, but if so, the dialogue will be advanced light years beyond what is possible with inadequate (slow, serial, inaccurate) human speech, so why bother to burble back and forth about things that people are only willfully evading? Unless they've studied Ayn Rand, and fought for years with/against the Libertarian Party, they're not qualified to talk about freedom anyway. I strongly urge people not to pervert the English language even more than it is already perverted, especially with respect to complex and specific terms. This is perhaps like the naming of a specific substance, that is very difficult to chemically identify and create: it cannot be sold/distributed if it is mislabeled. (Ask anyone who's tried to buy pure resveratrol --- 3,4,5 trihydroxystilbene--- does not equal "grape skin powder"!) When specific terms that are very important and contain much research just to comprehend their nuances, to speak inaccurately about their meanings is to communicate with the intention of misdirection. The Libertarian Party is attempting to win elections to avoid tyranny and mass murder by government. If such tyranny (as is believed by careful observers) is actually caused by government economic controls and business regulations and taxation, it renders "Libertarian Paternalism" a contradiction in terms. It represents an unclear and uneducated understanding of the term "libertarian". Since the stakes are so great, why not just use a more correct term "Libertine Paternalism" or "Libertine flavor of socialism". Such terms are vastly more accurate, but they paint the user in a less flattering light, and are thus less likely to be used.

wow, thanks for the post. my mind was blown in so ...

2007-01-12T17:52:00.000-05:00

wow, thanks for the post. my mind was blown in so many ways. it's pretty amazing to think how many of these ideas about robotics, consciousness able to exist outside the body, and more -- all these were envisioned throughout history. seems whatever we can imagine, we can eventually build. (makes me wonder why we can't imagine a world free of war...then build that).

Any "post scarcity economy" would depend on techno...

2007-01-12T16:30:00.000-05:00

Any "post scarcity economy" would depend on technology and infrastructure changes that haven't happened yet. Pointing out that some individual countries are moving away from this model doesn't imply that the world, once the necessary technology arrives, won't flip en masse to a different paradigm.

The semi-utopian conception of a post-scarcity economy is only one endpoint of those technological developments. I'll be the first to admit that we might see a negative result.

Great listing of emerging 21st century technologie...

2007-01-12T11:05:00.000-05:00

Great listing of emerging 21st century technologies and concepts - which will become mainstream in our collective consciousness.

My favorite website on the Internet is Ray Kurzweil's site at Kurzweilai.net. If you sign up for this site's daily email - it helps to keep abreast of much of the rapid change which is taking place around us.

Let's enter many of these impending technological slippery slopes with both gratitude and compassion.

All the best!
Ted Stalets
http://www.DomainNesteggs.com

Use Internet Explorer to view emerging technology websites in virtual reality, robotics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, etc.

I had not heard that the Japanese were not heating...

2007-01-12T10:52:00.000-05:00

I had not heard that the Japanese were not heating their homes anymore.

The New York Times ran a story the other day about Japan's increasingly sparing use of energy:

The Land of Rising Conservation

You'd expect the North Koreans to live this way. But the Japanese live in an allegedly "wealthy" country at peace, yet they've adopted a regimen reminiscent of war-time fuel rationing.