The Singularity

[FLHippy]

The Singularity doesn’t have to be negative. You should all read From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism. Technology will eventually bring about a utopia, or at least help to fulfill one or another utopian ideal. Humanities salvation will come through as social change brought on by the emerging technologies being created now because the Singularity is behind us.

I would disagree. In most all cases, technology enslaves people.

"When I was a kid" we didn't have most of this tech we have now and I feel the world was doing just fine without it.

Now... I'm a cellphone addict and an Internet addict and I'm only one of millions.

All the kids are starting out addicted to technology.

Technology is more like heroin than it is the child of utopian civilization.

[myrkul]

"When I was a kid" we didn't have most of this tech we have now and I feel the world was doing just fine without it.

Now... I'm a cellphone addict and an Internet addict and I'm only one of millions.

Must be rough, being able to summon help from almost anywhere in the country, to say nothing of having the capability to access any information you want, whenever you want.

[SaintDevil]

The Singularity doesn’t have to be negative. You should all read From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism. Technology will eventually bring about a utopia, or at least help to fulfill one or another utopian ideal. Humanities salvation will come through as social change brought on by the emerging technologies being created now because the Singularity is behind us.

I would disagree. In most all cases, technology enslaves people.

"When I was a kid" we didn't have most of this tech we have now and I feel the world was doing just fine without it.

Now... I'm a cellphone addict and an Internet addict and I'm only one of millions.

All the kids are starting out addicted to technology.

Technology is more like heroin than it is the child of utopian civilization.

But what you want to ask is, ..is it a bad thing?...
As long as history shows anything new invented seemed to be always evil, but then in a couple decades we get used to it so much that we don't notice the world without it.

Someone once said that technology makes us less intelligent, but when you look at it, it just makes us think in a different way.
The way out brain works is different, obviously with such a huge amount of information it would be impossible to remember everything.
It's like when you want to know something you just google it.
It is quite interesting to see out progression.

[underminer]

Old people don't google things I've noticed, they prefer to gointo repair shops.

Satoshi = singularity?  Unlikely, much of the bitcoin community is hardly enlightened.

If anything it's about a paradigm shift, which can hardly be classified in terms of good or bad, it's all about how such developments are utilized.

[dank]

The Singularity doesn’t have to be negative. You should all read From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism. Technology will eventually bring about a utopia, or at least help to fulfill one or another utopian ideal. Humanities salvation will come through as social change brought on by the emerging technologies being created now because the Singularity is behind us.

I would disagree. In most all cases, technology enslaves people.

"When I was a kid" we didn't have most of this tech we have now and I feel the world was doing just fine without it.

Now... I'm a cellphone addict and an Internet addict and I'm only one of millions.

All the kids are starting out addicted to technology.

Technology is more like heroin than it is the child of utopian civilization.

Addiction is in the mind, we enslave ourselves.

[underminer]

Jewish and African Americans might disagree.

[FLHippy]

"When I was a kid" we didn't have most of this tech we have now and I feel the world was doing just fine without it.

Now... I'm a cellphone addict and an Internet addict and I'm only one of millions.

Must be rough, being able to summon help from almost anywhere in the country, to say nothing of having the capability to access any information you want, whenever you want.

After hitting send I wish I had added that PERSONAL technology enslaves.

There is a fuckload of awesome tek out there. The internet could be the most wonderful thing. But then there are all these damn people running loose on it. FLHippys and myrkuls and pirateat40s (oh my).

I think of the people who came before us. With nothing more than a stick and a string Eratosthenes was able to accurately measure the circumference of the earth.

I don't loathe tek. I make my living off of tek. But Ive also got another side that knows how to live in the woods and likes to grow my own food and kill and eat the animals that need killing and eating. I get so much more satisfaction out of the times I am able to do those things than the times I am forced to earn money.

Physically, weather is is sailing in my boat and living on fish, or if it is spending the summer in the mountains of north carolina living on small game the works is much much harder, and I learn much much more (about everything) while on those extended adventures. I read books. I write in the margins. I observe a world that moves at a measured pace in sync with itself.

On my return to society, I feel enslaved by personal technology and surrounded by chaos. Is it really a good thing to have anything you want anytime you want it? For a while it sure is nice. I like regular (hot) showers. I like the wide array of groceries the tek money can buy me.. But it's no where near as satisfying as the fish I caught myself or rabbit or the deer. All of which I thank for their lives so that I may live. I don't bother to thank the animal I bought at the grocery store for it's life. I'm so very far removed from the process of those animals that it seems pointless. I don't know how it lived or died.

I leave december 1 for my next extended rendezvous with nature. This time on my sailboat where I will be mostly free of the tek bonds. But not completely. While it's certainly romantic to head out on the water with nothing more than a compass and a map, it's a very poor idea and a minimalistic but important array of tek will be keeping me safe on this coming journey. Internet included..

[underminer]

Technology is a tool, if you don't have the discipline or fortitude to wield it--you are the tool.  I myself feel little adverse affects from exposure to modern amenities, I can (and often do) leave them for weeks or days at a time to live a simpler life as well.  I think the problem with society is not the tehnology's spread, but rather the lack of backbone from couch potatoes.

[FLHippy]

Technology is a tool, if you don't have the discipline or fortitude to wield it--you are the tool.  I myself feel little adverse affects from exposure to modern amenities, I can (and often do) leave them for weeks or days at a time to live a simpler life as well.  I think the problem with society is not the tehnology's spread, but rather the lack of backbone from couch potatoes.

Looking for an opportunity to kick the habit for a month?

I posted this yesterday.

http://daytona.craigslist.org/rid/3376062705.html

[underminer]

Don't want to be murdered and thrown off your sailboat.  (Quite naturally.). I am always VERY cautious about meeting people irl I met online.

[dank]

Jewish and African Americans might disagree.

What?  That's still enslaving ourselves.

[FLHippy]

Don't want to be murdered and thrown off your sailboat.  (Quite naturally.). I am always VERY cautious about meeting people irl I met online.

wow! Murdered?

You should be cautious of people you meet anywhere.

But please, assure me that I am not coming off as a murder with that rideshare post

I normally sail solo. But a very good and able sailor friend of mine died in the storm when hurricane sandy came through my area. His and another boat became tangled and in his attempt to free his boat, he was crushed between the two.

I posted that ad because I thought that if Dan had an extra set of hands that evening, he would be alive today.

I suspect I will travel solo to Miami this winter. And that is fine. But having an interesting person aboard would be nice too. And I, like you, will be very cautious of who I would allow to come.

I'm only just seeing your avatar. I didn't realize you were female. It would be pretty creepy of me to be inviting a very young looking woman I met on the internet on this trip. I apologize.

[myrkul]

Jewish and African Americans might disagree.

What?  That's still enslaving ourselves.

Taken very broadly, yes, yes it is.

[dank]

Let's not forget, we're all the same.

[underminer]

Well I guess if you didn't see my avatar it doesn't creep me out quite as much.  I *might* be interested, but obviously I'd need more details, sir.  I tend to be able to take long vacations from work and haven't planned out my next one yet.

[myrkul]

Google just hired Ray Kurzweil.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/14/ray-kurzweil-joins-google-as-engineering-director-focusing-on-machine-learning-and-language-tech/

Soon.

[Hexadecibel]

Bitcoin has been part of my singularity plans since I had heard of it.

[Luno]

Bitcoin has been part of my singularity plans since I had heard of it.

Having plans for the post singularity world is a logical fallacy for a human intelligence.

[myrkul]

Bitcoin has been part of my singularity plans since I had heard of it.

Having plans for the post singularity world is a logical fallacy for a human intelligence.

That implies that Hex there is of human intelligence. How do you know that they're not an AI?

[Luno]

Bitcoin has been part of my singularity plans since I had heard of it.

Having plans for the post singularity world is a logical fallacy for a human intelligence.

That implies that Hex there is of human intelligence. How do you know that they're not an AI?

He has to few posts to be a bot.