[ExI] Inevitability of the Singularity (was Re: To Max, re Natasha and Extropy (Kevin Haskell)

[Kelly Anderson]

On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 5:05 AM, Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2011/6/26 Kevin Haskell <kgh1kgh2 at gmail.com>
> - There is a sense other than "free-willing" where the word
> "voluntarist" comes into play. That is, many rapture- or doom-mongers,
> including those of the most benign versions, insist on the
> "inevitability" of a singularity, or at least its "inevitability
> unless". Voluntarism here also means that paradigm-shifting changes,
> far from taking place automagically, happen because of a literally
> "superhuman" collective will to this end, and the presence of such a
> will in our age and culture should really not be taken for granted.
> Rather the opposite, in fact.

What if the Singularity can only be avoided if human beings and
corporations and countries stop acting in self-interested ways as
modeled by economists?

It seems to me that something like a singularity can't be avoided
without changing human nature, corporate nature and national
interests. This does not seem likely to me, so I think progress will
continue to march forward unabated until it all collapses into anarchy
or explodes into utopia (at least for some).

To me, suspecting that humans will remain human-like up to the
Singularity is not automagickal.

-Kelly