[ExI] how would Transhumanists cope, if the Singularity did nothappen in their lifetime?
Stathis Papaioannou
stathisp at gmail.com
Tue May 22 23:20:25 UTC 2007
On 23/05/07, John K Clark <jonkc at att.net> wrote:
> The singularity prediction is a fallacy, based upon static projection,
> > essentially the same mistake Thomas Maltus made when claiming Great
> > Britain would collapse under a massive population explosion by 1850.
>
> The same mistake?! Malthus assumed that the rate of food production (and
> that is dependent on technological progress) would only increase in a
> arithmetic manner when it actually turned out to be increased in a
> geometric
> manner. Singularity enthusiasts assume the exact opposite of what Malthus
> did.
>
> And Malthus did not even mention another technological invention much less
> its improvements, birth control.
>
He couldn't predict stuff that hadn't happened yet. That's the problem with
prediction.
--
Stathis Papaioannou
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