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| Thursday June 30th, 2011 |
by Kevin HealeyIn May, doomsayer Harold Camping garnered extensive coverage—from the curious to the condescending—for his ill-fated prediction of the Second Coming. While "The Colbert Report" spoofed the incident, NPR offered more sober speculations on an apparent "prophesy upswing." When similar predictions arise from a source whose claims to mathematical accuracy and are far more credible than Camping's, journalistic sobriety is definitely the appropriate response.Enter Ray Kurzweil, the famed inventor and author who is making the rounds on cable television to promote his vision of a post-human future. Kurzweil says we are approaching two crucial turning points: first, when science will reverse-engineer the human brain (2029); and second, when super-intelligent machines will merge with humans (the so-called "Singularity") to make us effectively immortal (2045). This month Kurzweil launched a publicity blitz, speaking to Jimmy Kimmel and Bill Maher to promote the documentary "Transcendent Man," which explores his vision.
Kurzweil is aware that his ideas invite comparison to the Harold Campings of the world. In a publicity photo for his book of the same name, Kurzweil clutches a street-preacher-style cardboard sign reading "The Singularity is Near." (A New York Times reviewer called this his "crazy man photo.") But Kurzweil can afford such feats of self-deprecation because, he argues, his ideas are "based on a detailed scientific analysis of the history of technology and not on faith." Any comparison of the Singularity to religious prophesy is simply "incorrect."
Of course, critics disagree—often vehemently. Technologist Jaron Lanier has criticized the Singularity as "rapture for nerds." Wired magazine's Kevin Kelly suggests that Kurzweil's "unwavering" certainty amounts to a kind of "faith." Biologist P.Z. Myers lambasts Kurzweil's understanding of brain physiology, saying that "he seems to have the tech media convinced that he's a genius, when he's actually just another Deepak Chopra for the computer science cognoscenti."
News outlets have also picked up on the quasi-religious themes, describing Kurzweil as "proselytizing" on behalf of "the gospel of 'Singularity.'" The New York Times compares his Singularity "dogma" to third-century Gnosticism. The Globe and Mail gets personal, suggesting that Kurzweil's fascination with tech-driven immortality reflects a deep-seated longing to reconnect with his late father.
Kurzweil's post-human predictions may or may not be correct; only time will tell. In the interim—while Singularitarians are still merely human—claims of scientific objectivity may veil a quasi-religious ideology with real political-economic consequences. Whatever nuance Kurzweil maintains is easily lost amid the throngs of followers at Burning Man-style events like the upcoming Extreme Futurist Fest 2011. For this reason it's important for journalists to keep working what Forbes columnist Lee Gomes calls "the Singularity skepticism beat."
Interestingly, Bill Maher raises a point that most journalists have missed—namely the strong reaction that may arise from traditional religious communities. "You're selling crack on their corner" by talking about immortality, Maher warns. Indeed, Kurzweil's prediction of achieving the Singularity by 2045 has already ruffled the feathers of some of the millions of Americans who believe Jesus will return by 2050. While Kurzweil's quirky persona may keep him in the news, the developing story here may be a broader culture clash between those who envision a future techno-utopia and those who fear being "left behind."
Kevin Healey received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Communications Research at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His dissertation is titled "The Spirit of Networks: New Media and the Changing Role of Religion in American Public Life." Kevin's research on media and religion appears in Journal of Mass Media Ethics, Cultural Studies<=>Critical Methodologies, and Symbolic Interaction.
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| Posted by Matthew Bailey on Tuesday August 30th, 2011
What bothers me about the way that the "Popularization" of the Singularity that is taking place is that so many people seem to simply make up their own idea of what the Singularity is without examining the premises and claims made by those who seem to have formalized the concepts most clearly.
Ray is an excellent promoter of the idea, and he is trying to take it to the mainstream.
I hope that this pays off, because there are some HUGE Problems with the crowd that seems to be most focused upon the Singularity (this being amateur Futurists and tech geeks).
In this crowd, there is a very high degree of Autism Spectrum disorders.
This creates a group of people who tend to be anti-social and selfish, and lacking in empathy.
I have seen many of them dismiss concerns over problems that we have NOW because "they will be irrelevant once the Singularity gets here" (as if it were something that is going to arrive or appear at any second from out of the blue. More on this in a moment).
They seem to have no compassion for the millions of people who could die between now and their miraculous Singularity.
And, the idea that the Singularity is a single event in time and space is another problem (Ray works hard to eliminate this belief).
They act as if the Singularity is going to happen at 10:36 am, October 12th, 2036, at the MIT Media Lab's Personal Robotics Group (just as an example).
The reality is that the Singularity has already begun, and it will be happening until sometime in the 2100s.
This is just another piece of dogma that is attached to the Singularity.
It makes me very reluctant to broach the concept with Professors (I am back in school as a "re-entry Student" in my 40s to get a Degree in Cognitive Computation and hopefully a Graduate Degree in AI, Cybernetics, or Robotics) who I think would benefit from the knowledge about the basic hypothesis of the Singularity.
But from what I have encountered, they have been very hostile to the concept.
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| | Posted by Kevin Healey on Tuesday July 5th, 2011
Hi Matthew,
Yes I saw your article and found it very helpful. In fact it brought me to the BrittGillette website that I link to. I should have included a link to your article in my piece - my apologies. What specifically bothers you about the way that the popularization of Kurzweil's vision is taking place? His talking-point appearances on cable television, the Extreme Futurist-type of events, or something else?
Dr. Tutashinda,
Your book sounds fascinating. Where can I find a copy? Your argument appears to resonate with my own critique of Kurzweil and others' discussion of virtual reality - namely that the experiences they describe are already possible through advanced practices of dream yoga (or lucid dreaming), although with vastly different political-economic implications.
Kevin
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| | Posted by Matthew Bailey on Monday July 4th, 2011
Kevin,
Nice to see that someone else has picked up on this theme.
I did a piece in H+ Magazine, earlier in the year, that echoes many of the themes you describe here:
http://hplusmagazine.com/2011/04/14/the-technological-singularity-as-religious-ideology/
I have long discussed these topics with Ray, and I was probably the first to bring up the "You are selling Crack on their street corner." argument to him.
He was rather dismissive of the argument that there could be a severe religious backlash to his hopes and dreams (not to mention mine) regarding technology, especially given the atmosphere in the USA regarding the importance education and evidence (facts) in argumentation these days. He bases this upon the "Protestant religious values of the Enlightenment."
I do not doubt that those values once held tremendous sway, but I think he is living in a rather more insular world than many, and may either be intentionally, or accidentally avoiding the atmosphere of ignorance that has become de rigueur for many in the USA.
I wish that I could be more coherent right now (I have a horrible cold right now).
I think that ultimately, Ray is right about many of his predictions. But I think the way that the popularization of that vision is taking place is complicating the fulfillment of that vision.
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| | Posted by K. Tutashinda, D.C. on Monday July 4th, 2011
Please check out my book, The Singularity is Already Here: An Indigenous and Grassroots Perspective on Our Technological Future. It challenges the materialist and capitalist foundations of current singularity theory by looking at Shamanistic and Mystical examples of internal states of spiritual concsiousness of oneness or nondifferentation. It further critiques the elitist philosophical paradigm of Western science and proposes alternatives. It finally serves as a clarion call to Indigenous and Grassroots communities to envision emergent high tech and low technologies from their points of view and cultural paradigms.
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