Parting thoughts on "The Singularity is Near"
I've finished up Kurzweil's book.
- If you need convincing that the pace of scientific progress is accelerating, this book is for you. It contributes to that position the idea that soon the pace will become so fast that it will become impossible to describe the impact (hence the term singularity) -- and according to Kurzweil, that time is in the not to distant future.
The first part of the book makes the point, and the second part discusses the ramifications. The former was, imho, much stronger than the latter. I found the second half unsatisfying. The ramifications of the "singularity" with respect to questions of meaning and purpose in human life are far more significant, far more challenging in every way, than the glazing Kurzweil delivers.
Further, I've not found what I'd call an insightful discussion of the subject anywhere yet. Everything I've seen so far seems eyebrow deep in presentism. David Brin contributes a fabulous example of presentism errors in a paper he contributed to the subject posted on one of Kurzweil's sites called Singularities and Nightmares.
I know it's easy to criticize, and much harder to actually contribute. However, I'm really not prepared to say anything just yet. I'm still working through the basics. I will offer this, if we think of ourselves as durable patterns of information persisting upon a biological substrate, then postulating nearly infinite expansion of those patterns in all directions, including the nature of the substrate, makes me wonder about the future of baseball.