ashnistrike: (Default)
[personal profile] ashnistrike
This is sheer, unadulterated procrastination, but possibly it will help. Because I have a pile of transhumanist and anti-transhumanist books on my desk, and I want to smack the authors of all of them.

Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near.

Posited: "Evolution" can be charted on a graph of state changes, starting with the emergence of life and including major technological developments. Humans are a step above non-sapient animals. Strong AI will be a step above us.

Conclusion: The AIs we create will be intensely grateful to us and devoted to our well-being.

Unstated assumption required for this chain of logic to work: Humans have been utterly devoted to the well-being of our evolutionary predecessors.

SMACK!


Michael Crichton, Prey. (Skip to the next SMACK, if you don't want the whole plot spoiled.)

Set-up: A new military camera is created, using a swarm of flying nanobots. Their movements are based on an artificial life program, in turn based on the movements, but not the actual motivations or hunting behavior, of a population of generic predators. An evolutionary programming algorithm, not entirely in control of the programmers, is used to produce swarms that don't blow apart in a strong wind.

Result: The swarms develop A) the ability to not blow apart in a strong wind, B) a method of drawing energy by eating meat (note, need not be human--they just happen to be carnivores), C) sapience (strong AI), and D) the ability to create utility fog (highly advanced nanotech, capable of eliminating poverty and reliance on non-renewable resources forever).

Conclusion: The only possible way to deal with a fellow sapient that speaks English, has already demonstrated a capacity for becoming fond of humans, and knows that you basically have a gun to its head... is to destroy it entirely, without getting records of how it developed technologies that could save millions of lives.

Bonus Assumption: A developmental psychologist, given the opportunity for first contact with a non-human intelligence, would have to be out of her mind to want to test its mental capacities.

SMACK!


Bill McKibben, Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age.

Posited: "Just because I'm writing an anti-technological screed doesn't mean I'm a luddite."

In Support: Overview of several upcoming genetic technologies, described in such a way as to get the maximum possible kneejerk negative reaction. Use of rhetorical questions about "Is this a good idea?" to which the reader is obviously supposed to answer "No," but to which my answer is, "Well, maybe."

SMACK!


Martin Rees, Our Final Hour.

I haven't picked this one up yet, but it came out in 2003. Perhaps he ought to change the title.

Date: 2006-07-31 10:55 pm (UTC)
ext_3690: Ianto Jones says, "Won't somebody please think of the children?!?" (Default)
From: [identity profile] robling-t.livejournal.com
I remember having two very strong reactions to the Kurzweil book: One, this man does not knit (or produce anything tangible with his hands), and two, he has a very tiny penis. :) I really can't stand the whole strain of transhumanist thought that seems to find absolutely nothing worthwhile about the flesh we're currently incarnated in...

Date: 2006-07-31 11:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ashnistrike.livejournal.com
I wonder how well that psychological conclusion would fit into my chapter? :)

I've got nothing against anyone who wants to upload themselves onto computer (although I'd be kind of insulted if I were sleeping with them). More room for the rest of us! But the assumption that any significant portion of people would want to makes me think that somebody needs to spend more time outside the lab.

Date: 2006-08-01 04:30 pm (UTC)
ext_3690: Ianto Jones says, "Won't somebody please think of the children?!?" (Default)
From: [identity profile] robling-t.livejournal.com
It's basically following-on from the age-old idea of mind/body dualism, which has also always gotten up my nose. I don't mind the "upgrade it" school of transhumanism as much, since I can certainly relate to what a fucked-up job of design a few bits of the standard-issue meat are (the lower back, for example, is the best evidence I can think of to refute the notion of "Intelligent Design"), but the whole "escape it" line of thought always comes off sounding like a thinly veiled ad for cootie shots. (And one can't help but wonder if there's some significance to the detail that "escape it", whether Kurzweil's buddies or some of the odder medieval Christian sects, is often being proselytized by men? Guess there's not much like turning into a bloated chocolate-seeking killing machine once a month to ground one in one's fleshly realities... :) )

Date: 2007-01-27 06:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ashnistrike.livejournal.com
I saw that. I'm guessing you followed the same link from Suzette's journal? In which case, if you scroll down, you'll see that I quoted your opinion on the matter. This is getting circular...

I think that "it sounded even better when I was on hallucinagens" should be a red flag for anyone.

wow!

Date: 2006-08-01 12:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dbang.livejournal.com
I feel another marriage proposal coming on.

Re: wow!

Date: 2006-08-01 02:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ashnistrike.livejournal.com
For being pissy at both Bill McKibben and Ray Kurzweil? It can't be that unusual, can it?

Re: wow!

Date: 2006-08-01 03:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dbang.livejournal.com
Pissy, pithy, witty and smart. My soul mate.

I love your writing!

Date: 2006-08-02 01:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rbdarkly.livejournal.com
I love your writing! Your reviews are good as your fiction, and funnier and wonderfully logical at the same time.

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