[ExI] Fw: upon pondering your next million years

[Dagon Gmail]

>
> No need for polite modesty Damien; The Spike is a far better book than is
> Kurzwiel's TSIN.  The Spike is to other books as the classic Beatles
> Sargeant Pepper's is to other albums.  In the Spike and Sgt Pepper, the
> whole is greater than a collection of songs, or cool chapters and ideas.
> Rather it has an overall theme, a direction and flow, a shape.  It
> accelerates.  The Spike makes one struggle to read faster and faster, in
> order to devour it all before it is too late.  It feels like one is rushing
> towards the singularity.
>
> Compare with works on the same general topic, Arthur C Clarke's 1962
> classic
> Profiles of the Future, which is excellent but outdated, James Gleick's
> Faster (which isn't) and Kurzweil's TSIN which has plenty of cool stuff in
> it but somehow makes the reader feel the singularity is far.  The Spike
> just
> has that exponential feel to it.
>
> Damien you have singlehandedly written the book version of Sargeant
> Pepper's
> Lonely Hearts Club Band.  May you sell a trillion copies and be constantly
> surrounded by adoring fans eager to do anything for you that Barbara will
> allow.
>

Yes, I concur. Ray's book is great, informative, historical and it'll get
him a nobel prize,
but it didn't inspire me. The sing/spike is all about hope for me, that most
of what is is
largely crap - and what is to come is potentially a good deal better. It's
who I am, and
the Spike reflects that vision in a handy format.
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