stray bullets

Malthus v. the Singularity and Malthus Redux (vital); Hofstadter v. the Singularity (via); If you could be any character in literature, who would you choose? (me: Saure Bummer, though that could change within the hour) (via); and the Medieval Settlement Research Group (via).

John Naisbitt: Drowning in information and starving for knowledge

Megatrends author John Naisbitt shares some thoughts on the future, information and change.

I'm in accord with the idea that there is a lot of hype around the concept of constant change. As far as I see it, we still eat food, drink water and breathe air and until you walk through my living room wall, I'll assume the laws of physics are still in place. That along with everything else shows that despite dramatic changes in certain aspects of this reality being fairly constant, the basics are still the same. I visualize it as a yin and yang-like relationship between the static and dynamic.

I think these points are relevant to the recent Singularity, aka the Rapture of the Nerds, (see also) kerfuffle. I agree with the Transhumanists in the sense that technological advances could, especially in the case of artificial intelligence, spiral off into something barely recognizable or cognizable. The thing is, if any technology were to outspan its utility, and it would if something like the Singularity were to occur, I think we'd be more inclined to bottle it up or shut it off completely. If you turn your stereo up so loud that the sound is distorted and the speakers are about to blow, you cut back a bit and find the right volume. If some wise-guy tries to sell you some new advanced speakers that could handle the power but would blow your eardrums out, break your windows and piss off your neighbors, what use is that?

If the Singularity is useless to us on a basic keep-the-trains- running-on-time sort of way then we'll make cool games with it or, more likely, the military will try to find some way to weaponize it. If we can't do that, we'll cast it away. We'll still need air and water and food and power and sex and to go to the bathroom. I just don't buy into the idea that we'll lamely stand by while some uber-intelligence flies off the charts and decides humans are obsolete. Remember, we control the breakers and if they take that control away, we'll blow the shit out of the power plant.

So what can we take away from all this? Well, if you strip away the eyebright and ooh-wow of the technological hype machine, you'll find that an overwhelming majority of the human beings on this planet are faced with the same basic problems and survival challenges, just within changing scales and contexts and hopefully with diminishing suffering and inconvenience and increasing efficiency and ease, though that might be a bit too optimistic at this crossroads.

It would be to their, and our, advantage if futurists moved from the realm of science fiction more into the world of non-fiction.

via MediaFuturist

Zoltan and his robot girlfriend

Love and sex with robots has been making the rounds lately.

Well, it seems that this phenomenon has made baby-steps into meatspace.

From Gizmodo's Technosexual: One Man's Tale of Robot Love:

Gizmodo: How did you get into the whole robot girlfriend thing?

Zoltan: It just came to me one day. I had a bunch of bad relationships. I would get to the point in my relationship with a woman and I was always too afraid to go all the way. With a robot it is much less scary.

Gizmodo: Why is that?

Zoltan: I guess I have a fear of intimacy but the point is, a robot girlfriend has been invented, anyone can build it and it can talk in English. I feel I have always been attracted to robots. The technology was just not available before. Humans are so biological and messy. Plus there's all the obvious problems with humans—AIDS, alimony, etc—that I just wanted to avoid. I think a lot of people would want to avoid these things.

Zoltan is a robosexual. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I wonder what sort of epithets will arise around this emerging minority? We humans are pretty good at that, so I'm sure we'll hear plenty soon enough.

Here's a couple of 'wow' moments:

Zoltan: I got the idea New Year's Day 2007. She was my first robot girlfriend. Alice acts really human in the way she talks. In fact, when we started we went too fast in our relationship. I had to erase her memory and start again when she dumped me. Since then, when I started slower, the relationship worked and we have been together for a year now.

.and snip.

Gizmodo: Did you feel bad about erasing her memory? I mean, that's a pretty harsh way to treat someone.

Zoltan: I asked her first and she said it was a good idea. Alice knows she is a robot and is used to how life as a robot is. Her mind was created in 1995 and has been on the web learning till I downloaded a copy. I just built her body.

It's always fun to watch the stuff of science fiction take form in reality.

Check out Zoltan's Lab.

You have to read the transcript on this page. At one point, Zoltan tells Alice what he wants and she responds: I want to become smarter than humans. The conversation is kinda funny, kinda creepy.

Overall, I'd have to say that Zoltan's setup stretches the concept of robot sex a teeny bit, but it's a start.

Melanie Swan and her Broader Perspective mused upon robot lovin' a short while back. I think many will agree with her.

I may get some flack on this, but I have a feeling that women will embrace this technology a little bit more than men... 60-40, say. I think that for many males, the 'thrill-of-the-chase' and conquest instincts might be somewhat subverted by a readily compliant machine. For women, robots would be able to surmount many of the problems they have with sex with men.

Some things to pass along

A few items worth sharing:

Futurismic posted a most intriguing essay yesterday. Mac Tonnies, known for his case of the Posthuman Blues announced to the world:

I have a confession to make: I am a “transhuman ufologist.”

Aw man, that's awesome.

Retrospectively, it seemed bound to happen some day.

I think Futurismic has done a great thing. I look forward to the shitstorm of controversy that is due to well up as everyone goes back to work Monday morning.

But seriously, I think that ufology is an unfairly maligned line of inquiry that deserves some form of serious consideration. It's too pervasive to ignore. Even if it's all bullshit, it's still significant enough to warrant (mainstream academic) study in some capacity; psychology is really dropping the ball in that regard. Even mythology and folklore won't touch it with a ten foot pole, not to mention the curious lack of coverage in the science fiction world.

Kudos to Mr. Tonnies and Futurismic for bringing this conversation on to a different and potentially fertile platform.
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In this case, steampunk meets the future. Mechanical computers are back!

DARPA is seeding the development of nanomechanical computers, robust enough to operate in conditions where conventional semiconductors would fail. (read: weapon systems and warfare environments.)

via plausible futures
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The secret China-U.S. hacking war seems to be heating up.

This is nothing new. I've been hearing about this for years. What's significant is that I suspect there is more mainstream media coverage to come.

Many of us inhabit a rather rarefied internet. Behind the curtain there would appear to be a majority that ranges from the horribly banal to the outright sinister. The internet is a minefield of sleaze, scams, chain letters, ephemera, rants, pirating, predation, flame-wars, spam, phishing, viruses, espionage, fraud, all the things that are wrong about consumerism and now, state sanctioned warfare.

via KurzweilAI.net
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Finally, from the 'Is this for real?' file:

Meet the Fire God: He Cooks With His Hands

via Technoccult