X-Message-Number: 18988 From: "Mark Plus" <> Subject: Re: Slipping singularity Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 13:28:09 -0700 Progress doesn't happen automatically. It requires considerable social construction and initiative to sustain. And as John Horgan, Alan Cromer and others have pointed out, the kind of thinking involved in science is hard to master and only relatively few people have a talent for it. Horgan in _The End of Science_ quotes one's physicist's opinion that anyone who really understands modern physics has to be some sort of freak. Bio-engineering right now is especially vulnerable to social sabotage and restriction in part because of popular beliefs that life derives from the "supernatural," whatever that means. Nobody believes that the locally prominent deity makes computers and software, by contrast. That's why bio-engineering, especially of human materials, is often denounced as "playing god," while computer engineering is still socially acceptable. However, there's an outside chance that some outspoken Singularity enthusiasts, like the hyperactive Ray Kurzweil (doesn't he have a company to run or something?), might break through the crank barrier into public credibility. They might inadvertently spook some key politicians into restricting progress in computing much like President Bush's efforts to relinquish cloning research. If that were to happen, even is a Singularity is possible, it might be postponed indefinitely. For example, talk of using biotech and Borg-like implants to create people with "superhero" powers (apart from Rush Limbaugh) might not go over well as public relations for Transhumanist ideas in the current cultural environment, as for example in this article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50958-2002Apr25.html And, of course, Hollywood has to muddy the memetic environment with movies about "clone wars" and sequels to the "Matrix" and "Terminator" films. Mark Plus _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18988