[ExI] Fw: Warren Ellis gives singularity whackjobs both barrels

[Terry Colvin]

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>< http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=5993 >
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>The IEEE Spectrum "special report" on The Singularity makes for
>interesting reading, but I'd like you to try something as you click
>through it. When you read these essays and interviews, every time you
>see the word "Singularity," I want you to replace it in your head with
>the term "Flying Spaghetti Monster."
>
>(My personal favourite right now is "The Flying Spaghetti Monster
>represents the end of the supremacy of Homo sapiens as the dominant
>species on planet Earth.")
>
>The Singularity is the last trench of the religious impulse in the
>technocratic community. The Singularity has been denigrated as "The
>Rapture For Nerds," and not without cause. It's pretty much
>indivisible from the religious faith in describing the desire to be
>saved by something that isn't there (or even the desire to be
>destroyed by something that isn't there) and throws off no evidence of
>its ever intending to exist. It's a new faith for people who think
>they're otherwise much too evolved to believe in the Flying Spaghetti
>Monster or any other idiot back-brain cult you care to suggest.
>
>Vernor Vinge, the originator of the term, is a scientist and novelist,
>and occupies an almost unique space. After all, the only other sf
>writer I can think of who invented a religion that is also a
>science-fiction fantasy is L Ron Hubbard.


Terry W. Colvin
Sierra Vista, Arizona