[ExI] invisible singularity and SU
BillK
pharos at gmail.com
Fri Sep 17 14:22:21 UTC 2010
On 9/17/10, Keith Henson wrote:
> Re Singularity Utopia, our big objection seems to be that she (female
> 47) is not rooted in physical reality.
>
Now, don't start believing the stuff you read on MySpace and Facebook! :)
Remember that most of the dolly young blonds that have 'Friended' you
there are really FBI agents. At least, that's the case in my
experience. ;)
Her writing style did suggest female to me, so I'd believe that. But
if I was 47, I don't think I would get wildly exuberant about a
Singularity in 2045 - when I would be 82 - if I made it that far. I'd
guess that the 47 claim might be to avoid harassment from males.
> Couple of weeks ago I went to the graduation of the Singularity University.
>
> Oy Vey! talk about disconnected from reality.
> Not *one* of the presentations would have stood up to a physics based
> reality check.
>
> The one on food, for example, didn't even have a clue about the number
> of square meters it takes to grow food for one person. For a human
> density like that found in cities it is *impossible* to grow enough
> food for the people who live there.
>
>
Living Towers are already being designed.
<http://www.verticalfarm.com/>
Among the benefits claimed is:
Year-round crop production; 1 indoor acre is equivalent to 4-6
outdoor acres or more, depending upon the crop (e.g., strawberries: 1
indoor acre = 30 outdoor acres)
Although I did read that the SU projects were more of a 'wish-list'
than actual well-thought out plans, Kurzweil is expecting exponential
improvements in all technologies, not just computers. So maybe
optimistic projects are allowed?
Besides if you can raise a few million venture capital from the
listening financiers to play with these concepts, it's worth
stretching the truth a bit. Something good might turn up from the
millions spent and you'd have a fun time as well.
(It's bad PR to keep pointing out the flaws - take the money and enjoy!).
BillK
More information about the extropy-chat
mailing list