Hi all,
Today, I want to have a bit of a rant on the obsessions we currently have with the 'Singularity'.
(Source: jimpintoblog.blogspot.com)
Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the 'Singularity', here is a definition:
According to John Brockman's Introduction (https://www.edge.org/conversation/ray_kurzweil-the-singularity):
"We are entering a new era. I call it "the Singularity." It's a merger between human intelligence and machine intelligence is going to create something bigger than itself. It's the cutting edge of evolution on our planet. One can make a strong case that it's actually the cutting edge of the evolution of intelligence in general, because there's no indication that it's occurred anywhere else. To me that is what human civilization is all about. It is part of our destiny and part of the destiny of evolution to continue to progress ever faster, and to grow the power of intelligence exponentially.To contemplate stopping that — to think human beings are fine the way they are — is a misplaced fond remembrance of what human beings used to be. What human beings are is a species that has undergone a cultural and technological evolution, and it's the nature of evolution that it accelerates, and that its powers grow exponentially, and that's what we're talking about. The next stage of this will be to amplify our own intellectual powers with the results of our technology".
Let's have a look at this argument from a humanistic point of view.
Let me start by suggesting that these technological advances are almost inevitable; however we are so obsessed with pushing this forward. It seems to me that if we put the same amount of effort (and money) into advancing our social behaviours, then we would have a solid ethical basis for these technological advances.
It seems that we only face the problems that technological advance brings AFTER it has been implemented. We remember the story of Sir Mark Oliphant who worked on nuclear energy. He never forgave himself when his work was used decades later to develop a nuclear bomb.
(Source: slideplayer.com)
In terms of our social behaviours, we traverse the earth like Neanderthals, and yet, we have incredible abilities to bend technology AND nature to our will, but we also have the flipside in which selfish powerful interests end up having control over these technologies.
The 'Singularity' will be a major disaster if we don't spend the next 10 or 15 years developing our social skills to be able to deal with the challenges that these types of technologies will inevitably bring. We need to learn about empathy for others, we need to understand that we have no instinct and that we are socially-constructed and constituted beings, and we need to learn how to live together.