[ExI] extropy-chat Digest, Vol 130, Issue 25

[Keith Henson]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 10:55 AM,  Brian Manning Delaney
<listsb at infinitefaculty.org> wrote:

> El 2014-05-31 01:05, Anders Sandberg escribi?:
>
> [...]
>
>> This would have been amusing, except I actually encounter people who get
>> terribly upset when I mention climate change is unlikely to be an
>> existential risk. Just check out some of the reactions in the comments:
>> https://theconversation.com/the-five-biggest-threats-to-human-existence-27053

I sampled a few pages of them.  Sad.

> Was at a get-together with some philosophers here in Stockholm -- a
> mixture of (so-called...) analytic philosophers from Stockholm
> University and Continental philosophers from S?dert?rn University, and
> lo and behold, a heated discussion of Anders' just-(re-)published
> Guardian article arose. Good to see academic types -- esp. those who
> typically focus on Hegel and Heidegger & co. -- taking up these issues.
> The article seemed deftly designed to pose the important questions
> without getting into realms, or using terms (like "singularity"), that
> can come across as flaky.

It mentioned both AI and nanotechnology.  Those are the two essential
elements of the singularity.

Anders, I have given some thought to "the great filter."

http://hplusmagazine.com/2012/04/12/transhumanism-and-the-human-expansion-into-space-a-conflict-with-physics/

Unless we find a way around the speed of light, then the granular
nature of matter tells us we can put computational elements into a
volume based on r^3. (Because of cooling, it may be closer to r^2.)
But a brain based on such elements will have a thinking rate no better
than the time it takes light to cross the diameter of 2 r.

I suspect that if humans were magically transported to a planet where
an intelligent species arose, what we might find is the uploaded lot
of them sunk in a deep cold ocean and thinking at a million times the
rate of biological creatures.  But if the cosmic filter is 100%
effective, we will never go there.

Such a future would profoundly change us, but it would not necessarily
be the end of the race, though a 100% upload would leave no breeding
population.

Keith