Something for you to chew on while chewing on your Memorial Day ribs;
In futures studies,
a technological singularity represents an "event horizon" in the predictability of human
technological development past which present models of the future cease to give
reliable or accurate answers, following the creation of strong artificial intelligence or the amplification of human intelligence. Futurists predict that after the
Singularity, humans as they exist presently will cease to be the dominating
force in scientific and technological progress, replaced with posthumans, strong AI, or both,
and therefore all models of change based on past trends in human behavior will
be obsolete.
From Wikipedia: A posthuman or post-human is a hypothetical future being whose
capabilities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer human by current standards. A
posthuman can also be described as the creature that results from radical human enhancement.
In these ways, the difference between the posthuman and other hypothetical
sophisticated non-humans is that a posthuman was once a human, either in
its life time or in the life times of some or all of its direct ancestors. More here
Why should you care? Superweapons, that's why. Can American minds grasp the concept of post-nuclear weapons?
In 2003, the Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) assessed the
level of knowledge of-not of "super-higher mathematics," and not even that of
higher mathematics, but of ordinary mathematics for school pupils of 14, "near
the end of mandatory school education." Participating were about 250,000 school
pupils of 29 countries, including over 5,000 pupils in more than 250 U.S.
schools.
The best results were attained by 5 countries, including South Korea (a
non-Western country!) and the worst results by 5 countries, including the U.S.,
which took 24th place among 29 participating countries, which did not include
China, Russia, or Arab countries.
Is there a Super weapon?
Imagine the implications of a weapon that could knock out tanks, ships, and
planes as fast as the speed of light. The same technology, with modifications,
could disorient and even tranquilize military personnel, rendering them
virtually helpless in the battle zone.
For more than 50 years, the threat of nuclear war has riveted the world. With
the terror of assured mutual destruction, scientists have been searching for new
types of weapons that offer the promise of winning battles without the deadly
aftereffects of nuclear weapons. More here
But the very phrase "Mutual Assured Destruction," once widely used, has now
been forgotten in the West, and hence the forthcoming possession of nuclear
weapons in Iran has become a sufficient cause for a (nuclear) attack on Iran.
Let us recall the mathematical perception before the advent in the West of
the "higher mathematics" of Newton and others. Before, numbers had been added,
subtracted, multiplied and divided. That had been clear. But differentials or
integrals? What on earth were THOSE?
Bearden and Weeks think in terms of "higher geostrategy," which involves new
superweapons in China and Russia. But today's U.S. political and military
establishment does not understand these weapons – what on earth are they talking
about? Militarily and hence politically, the Western countries are becoming
backward – "underdeveloped" – while China, in alliance and in cooperation with
Russia, is regaining its position of the "Center of the World" ("Middle
Kingdom").
At the same time, the U.S. military establishment cannot stop the mouth of
its retired Lt. Col. Bearden on the plea that he is insane (of which Einstein
was also accused), since his U.S. military research background is impeccable.
Lt. Col. Thomas E. Bearden (U.S. Army, retired) is one of the two U.S. high
military officers (the other is Col. Byron Weeks, M.D., U.S. Army, retired) who
deal with today's "higher geostrategy," in contrast with the Pentagon, the U.S.
government, the CIA and the mainstream media,
all of which deal with a
fairytale. More here.
There is much I counter (his harsh take on Rumsfeld for example) but politics aside - the idea of genetics, nanotechnology, robotics entropy, information theory, and moving towards a technological
singularity creates a new future reality with frightening implications;
Bearden's book. Its three "final urgent commentaries" are:
The darkest days in the history of our republic lie immediately
ahead of us.
If we are to survive, we shall need the most strenuous and rapid effort in
our history, NOW.
God bless and keep America! We pray for its survival.
It is
clear that Bearden is not an intellectual anarchist, baiting the establishment.
He continues to do what he did in the U.S. Army: Defend America. But defending
America requires knowing what superweapons the enemy may have and understanding
today's "higher geostrategy."
You and I will have to look more deeply into this .............right now must dash with the kids to a Memorial Day BBQ where I won't be discussing this as the revelers will absolutely look at me as if I had two heads or more probably see me as something of a posthuman.
We cannot rely on trial-and-error approaches to deal with existential
risks... We need to vastly increase our investment in developing
specific defensive technologies... We are at the critical stage today
for biotechnology, and we will reach the stage where we need to
directly implement defensive technologies for nanotechnology during the
late teen years of this century... A self-replicating pathogen, whether
biological or nanotechnology based, could destroy our civilization in a
matter of days or weeks." - Ray Kurzweil ......More here
Ray Kurzweil justifies his belief in an imminent singularity by an analysis of history from which he concludes that technological progress follows a pattern of exponential growth. He calls this conclusion The Law of Accelerating Returns. He generalizes Moore's law,
which describes exponential growth in integrated semiconductor
complexity, to include technologies from far before the integrated
circuit.
I am sure Israel is all over this (this is so their bailiwick.) And while it all sounds terribly anti-religious - you can't believe in G-d if you're dead.
