The Singularity: When will it come, and how will the world end before then?

I know it's been three months since we've blogged, but this article(Surviving Immortality: Just getting to the Singularity is the hard part.) inspired me to post. I've been reading lately about the collapse of civilization, but still hold in my head the inevitability of the Singularity. How do these two ideas complement or contradict each other? It's really hard to say. On the one hand, Ray Kurweil essentially says we will leave the natural world altogether as machines(read technology) surpass our human intellect and we merge with this new form of life. But if civilization collapses instead, we will be left with only our knowledge of the earth and what we can share with it(food, grown with our own hands; shelter, created with locally available materials and only our own knowledge of building; clothing, but only that we can make from readily available materials). How can we simultaneously prepare for both scenarios? Or should we more seriously guess that the future holds a road that leads down the middle of both the extreme conclusions of the Singularity and the Collapse of Civilization? At least right now, I am content to dabble in both the world and the technology that takes us from the world.

Game Downloads

here is a great site for game downloads.

http://free-game-downloads.mosw.com/

Ray Kurweil Stars In...

Here is the best quote in the article from Peter Diamandis, "The Singularity, for anyone who stops and thinks about it, is completely obvious," he says.

Read the article The smartest (or the nuttiest) futurist on Earth - May 14, 2007

What excited me most was to hear that Ray Kurweil has movie coming out.
He also has a fund you can invest in, FatKat.

Just check it out and read the article!

Teaching Machines Ethics, Finding God, and Mixing Up the Search

Can you believe South Korea is leading the way in ethics for machines. From the NewScientist,

"He-Young adds that the government's guidelines will reflect the "Three Laws of Robotics" put forward by science fiction author Isaac Asimov. These are:
1. A robot may not injure a human or, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm
2. A robot must obey orders given by a human unless these conflict with the first law
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as this does not conflict with the first or second law"

The mere mention of this makes me think of the slippery slope of ethics. Check out the original article.

And how about the "nature of God and a magic box." This article presents some research as to why exactly we "believe", even if we profess to be a "disbeliever." Check it out.

Maybe you think Microsoft can over take Google in search? (Right.) Well, here is there attempt to Mix things up.

Finally, maybe Ray should think twice before he downs 600 pills a day.

The Next Big Thing

I do not think it is a big secret that my brother and I are fond of Google. I like their business model and I also like what they have to offer. Everyone out there, relax, I do not think they are perfect and I do not have a physical shrine (however my homepage is Google with all my widgets, so I guess that is a shrine in a certain rite). But where is the next big thing coming from. How is your life going to chance. There are companies out there that are bringing widgets to your cell phone, tracking amongst your group of friends, a network of individual Wi-fi routers, and a plethora of new social sites more tailored to the individual and individuals that share their view. It is bringing people closer and closer. Take a look at CNN's 25 potential new Googles as the online world continues to explode.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/21/magazines/business2/nextnet_intro.biz2/index.htm

Bring the Singularity Closer- Psychophysical Law

You can help bring forth the singularity. After reading Larry Dossey's book, "The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things," and his chapter on novelty, I realized simply thinking about, meditating on, and promoting the singularity helps bring it closer. Dossey outlines Gustav Fechner's Psychophysical Law, basically that it is hard, if not impossible, to maintain a level of intensity equal to the intensity generated when experiencing something for the first time. Dossey devotes a small section to "The Pleasure of Prejudice", and says "Many radical ideas throughout history have benefited from Fechner's great principle." As such, the more the singularity and Kurzweil's outline and timeline of the coming singularity is promoted and talked about, the closer it comes to reality. The reason being, people's initial skepticism or denial will soften through repeated exposure. I believe you will find this true for yourself, and for others that you talk to the singularity about. Please consider this as you explore the singularity.

The Future of "Moving Pictures"

If you awake at night from dreams of the future 3D technologies we will be able to exploit, your dreams are closer to reality than you may think. Moving pictures, like those of the 1920's, are obviously a thing of the past and could no more hold the attention of most thirteen-year olds than paint drying. Yet, 3D interactivity would bring most of us to a giddy torrent of giggles.
And here is the future before our eyes. (Read the article here.) Researchers are on their way to creating, " a system that provides interaction with 3D images without the need for any additional hardware such as gloves or virtual reality goggles. [!!]" The article is titled, "Moving Pictures," in the sense that you will actually be able to "move" 3D pictures and objects with no more than your bare hands. The applications for this technology seem endless and exciting. The idea also begs the singularity closer, so close we can almost touch it.

Jet Engine (just a bit smaller)

Scientists are developing ways to have jet turbine engines at the nanolevel. This means an increase in power in all future devices and could just let your iPod battery life last just a bit longer.

http://www.nanotechwire.com/news.asp?nid=3802&ntid=120&pg=1

Natural Language Search, Robotic Exoskeleton

Will PowerSet, a new search engine based on natural-language expressions set to debut later this year, rival Google in the near future? (Read Powerset article here) Will commericially available robotic exoskeletons be available soon? The researchers say they aren't planning on commercial production, but have successfully created a robo-skeleton that test patients learned to used in 30 minutes. (Read Robotic exoskeleton here)
I would sure be interested in my own robo-exoskeleton, and a search engine I could talk to. "Hey, Powerset AI, when did the world begin," and my answer would pop up right on the screen. "Hey, that house needs to be moved." "Don't worry, I can just pick it up and move it with my handy robo-exo-skeleton."
Sounds like fun.

Propelling Us Into The Future

The human mind predicts the future. What is truly fantastic is that no one can ever, logically speaking, be correct in telling someone that something will never be.............. here the thoughts and ideas in the 19th Century are now becoming a reality. The only thing that really ticks me off is that CNN deams this "Offbeat" news when, if you follow the link below this article, we see what is not offbeat.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/02/01/nanomachine.reut/index.html

It is important to know that this video is front page news......WTF.

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/us/2007/02/05/weaver.soldier.as.knight.kusa&wm=11

We Merge

We merge with our music, our movies, our files... They become an extension of us as we travel through this analog life. The digital only gets closer and closer to living directly in our brain, until our brain is digital, until our brain is no longer a brain, but a supercomputer... no longer a single super computer, but part of and inseparable from the world wireless network of information, of creation, and eventually, of being. Our "bodies" will be what our imagination can tolerate.
It would seem imperative that we focus on this element of creativity in our work, our play, our living, and eventually, in our simulation of "dying" and "rebirth", as our brain patterns, and self-patters, and spiritual patterns, upload from this body 1.0 to our "body" 2.0.
We should prepare ourselves by emerging ourselves in the changes taking place every day, every second, every nanosecond, as the world turns. Reading, thinking, experimenting, opening ourselves to the singularity.

Swimming Like a Fish

While artificial hearts, brain implants, and artificial/biotic limbs are already tomorrow's technology being used today there are some even more exciting advances on the way. I would like to fantasize a bit about enhancing our bodies to explore the world in ways we have never seen. One particular idea in development, readily studied, experimented, and commented on by one Robert Freitas, is called respirocytes. These are artificial red blood cells. It turns out our blood cells are incredible creations, however, they are severely inefficient and can be replaced and enhanced at the nano-level. These artificial blood cells would allow a more efficient use and distribution of our oxygen and other gases in our body. This would mean swimming underwater for hours without ever having to take a breath, or running a marathon while barely being winded. On another level these "nano blood cells" can capture toxins and harmful compounds we might breath into our lungs. Smoke deaths would cease to exist, though shark attacks may become more prevalent as we start to fearlessly swim through the exotic without scuba gear. This idea, this thought experiment of extending beyond physical limitations is fascinating. I invite all who read this to comment: tell us what enhancement you would like to see in the future made to our bodies, limitations that you would like extended. I have always dreamed of being able to "breath" underwater, but what else could these respirocytes mean for us mere humans as our bodies move to version 2.0. All thoughts are welcome.

Here is a link to an understanding of respirocytes for those wanting more information.....
http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine/Respirocytes.html

The World is Flat- When Will My Body Be?

Thomas Friedman talks about ten "flatteners" of our world. If we stick to the last eight, we can relate them easily to the coming singularity at the level of a single human being. Friedman talks of:

1. Work Flow Software
2. Uploading
3. Outsourcing
4. Offshoring
5. Supply-Chaining
6. Insourcing
7. In-forming
8. Steriods

This discussion centers around the macro level, but we can easily see how it relates to the present and coming nanotechnologies. We will relinquish control to nanobots customized for optimal work flow, uploading, supply-chaining, insourcing, in-forming, and steriods within our own body. The offshoring may occur as the information the nanobots transmit about our physical well-being is constantly reevaluated and optimized by people or computer programs anywhere in the world. Most nanobot scenarios include the constant transmission of information from the circulating nanobots in our bodies to outside sources, a sort of BAN ( body area network), or PAN (personal area network).

I makes me wonder what kind of control we will have over all of this information.

I relate it to my experience on the WWW, where everyone competes for my information in hopes of getting me to read their stuff, by their product, look at their video, etc. How will companies compete to gain the information nanobots accumulate in my body?

And an even bigger question? Who will control the nanobots? Will I control them, or leave that to some more capable computer program (computer conscious)? When will I fully merge into this technology so that I have the super-computing capability to control my own functioning, without leaving too much to outside control?

When will the singularity come, and what will my living look like?

iPhone

How integrated have we already become. I know that as I walk/train to work each morning I put in my ear buds and start up my iPod. I turn on my cell phone and check my email, my voicemail and the local weather. I am in constant communication throughout the day either through sporadic text messages, phone calls, or emails. This all goes with me. My Internet on my phone allows gMail in its most basic form and the weather takes at least 10-15 seconds to load. In our generation this is basically too long. So what if we combine everything we are used to at our desktops and even our "portable" computer laptops. What if we combine it in a pocket sized device capable of integrating all our present technological needs. What if Apple unveils an iPhone.......nice. I will speak briefly about the features and provide a link to Apple's iPhone website. Quite frankly, it is incredible and I believe it is only just the beginning of our truly mobile lives......

iPhone
Phone
Internet
Music
Video
Instant messaging
Camera
Maps
more....

I am not compensated by Apple, and nor do I think this will be the only device to allow to take all aspects of our lives with us. However, this is the coolest so far, let's be honest with ourselves.

At more than a glance we see our Family Room (tv), or kitchen (phone), our bedrooms (stereos, etc) combined into one device. Let's redefine what it is to be homeless.

Take a look......http://www.apple.com/iphone/

"Singularbot" in Our Body

This article describes the trip a microscopic, remote-controlled bot will make in the human body by 2009. Can the singularity really be far off? View article here.

Enrich, Enhance, Extend

I am not going to preach about how the media skews our interest toward the dark and gloomy. The time comes all to uncommonly and briefly when CNN or FOX or US Today tells of the actual positive contributions the humans of the world are making to enrich, enhance, and extend our lives. This blog will attempt to show (through advancements in nanotechnology and biotechnology) some of the advancements of the ideas E(cubed) and how prevalent it has become and how it is going to explode over the next few decades. We will also inject our own critiques, ideas, and futurist comments on the world to be and the world that is. We will attempt to explain in lay person's terms, because we are in fact, lay people. There is a calling to all of you to reach out past your natural inclination toward negativity and instead of standing out over the ocean at the edge of a pier, thinking of all the lives lost at sea in the attempt to discover the world, think of the how the ocean has spawned life to grow and to evolve so that we can attempt to understand the world.

A little on cancer.
Both my brother and I, the two bloggers you see here, have been directly impacted by cancer by loss of grandparents and extended family. It is terrible no doubt, and prevalent no doubt, however there is beauty in the ocean, closer than the horizon.

Extend!

Cancer Deaths Down
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5128204/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/17/AR2007011700702.html

This is why........

http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cancernet/400388.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4734507.stm

Next up...... iPhone

As We Near the Singularity

As We Near the Singularity, who will compete for (and complete) our lives? I may find that I have purchased a gLife. Your friend may purchases an iLife. There will of course by generic vLives. We may even have eLives. We look forward to the day.

gLive = Google

iLife = Apple

vLife = virtual Life

eLife = eBay life