I have only a vague idea of the concept of the Singularity (and it is that artifical intelligence will one day eclipse human intelligence), but does anyone know if Dr. Kurzweil & Co. have considered the possibility that by that time, genetic engineering will almost certainly have given humans the ability to boost their children's intelligence to astronomic levels? An Einstein in every household, literally. Thus, the Singularity prediction as it stands would be one that assumes that human intelligence is stationary.
In fact, it may well be the case that the first AI more intelligent than current human intelligence is crafted only because that generation of humans are mega-intelligent compared to us and it is child's play to them to craft such wily code! :-) Thus the stationary version of the Singularity prediction will come true, but in relative terms, organic intelligence may still be ahead of machine intelligence (in ways that dumb ol me can only imagine).
But the question that bugs me personally is : will we evolve enough along the moral, ethical, spiritual, and wisdom axes to survive that long? :-(
I am most interested in the set of genes that make each person more ethical and sympathetic to the other's POV. The Golden Rule Gene.
The "transhumanist" movement advocates that in order to keep up with technological progress in the future (and stay ahead of a singularity) we'll have to augment our brains with cybernetics. And when that happens the lines between human and machine start to blur. I'm convinced that this future, good or bad, may be inevitable.
In fact, it may well be the case that the first AI more intelligent than current human intelligence is crafted only because that generation of humans are mega-intelligent compared to us and it is child's play to them to craft such wily code! :-) Thus the stationary version of the Singularity prediction will come true, but in relative terms, organic intelligence may still be ahead of machine intelligence (in ways that dumb ol me can only imagine).
But the question that bugs me personally is : will we evolve enough along the moral, ethical, spiritual, and wisdom axes to survive that long? :-(
I am most interested in the set of genes that make each person more ethical and sympathetic to the other's POV. The Golden Rule Gene.