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--></style></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-ligatures:none'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-ligatures:none'> spike@rainier66.com <spike@rainier66.com> <br><br></span><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>>…Other Singularity thinkers, might we have been fooling ourselves? Do elaborate to exhaustion please. Ben? Adrian? John? Other Singularity hipsteers?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>And BillK of course, my apologies BillK, the one feller who uses “AI” better than any of us, along with any lasses who are here, who still tolerate us (how you do it I don’t know (insufferable bahstids we are)) how do we really know the Singularity is near? Do we really know that?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Reason I ask: the recent debate on “rare” earth elements is really all about the Singularity. If the Singularity really isn’t near, then the USA is OK: we are cranking up production of “rare” earths fast enough, no problem. The military has enough because it anticipated the need and stockpiled, the electronics industry has enough because it doesn’t need much, the wind turbine industry doesn’t have what it needs but it isn’t clear we need that industry.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>If we really are are two or three years from the cap S Singularity, our paltry efforts to get more wind power or whatever else, are not fast enough. The Chinese will get an advantage from slightly cheaper electric power which might (somehow) contribute to their getting AI before the good guys and might (somehow) be significant. But if we are not two or three years from the Singularity, then never mind, the slight delay in REEs resulting in slightly higher power cost is irrelevant. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>John? BillK? Adrian? Ben? Others? Are we really that close to the Singularity?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>