[extropy-chat] Transhumanism 666: The Mark of the Beast

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

The Economist on the End of the World, mentioning Kurzweil, Rael and
The Beast, whose mark is seen by Rapturists in implantable chips and
other human enhancement technologies.
"Noting an exponential acceleration in the pace of technological
change, futurologists like Hans Moravec and Ray Kurzweil think the
world inhabits the "knee of the curve" - a sort of last-days set of
circumstances in which, in the near future, the pace of technological
change runs quickly away towards an infinite "singularity" as
intelligent machines learn to build themselves. From this point,
thinks Mr Moravec, transformative "mind fire" will spread in a flash
across the cosmos. Britain's astronomer royal, Sir Martin Rees,
relegates Mr Kurzweil and those like him to the "visionary fringe".
But Mr Rees's own darkly apocalyptic book, "Our Final Hour", outdoes
the most colourful of America's televangelists in earthquakes, plagues
and other sorts of fire and brimstone."
"Furnished with apocalyptic tracts from the Bible, believers scour
news dispatches for clues that the Rapture is approaching. Some think
implantable chips are a sign. The Book of Revelation features a "mark"
that the Antichrist makes everybody wear "in their right hand, or in
their foreheads". Rapturists have more than a hobbyist's idle interest
in identifying this mark. Anyone who accepts it spends eternity
roasting in the sulphurs of hell. (And, incidentally, the European
Union may be "the matrix out of which the Antichrist's kingdom could
grow.")"
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3490697