The Singularity Is Near was one of the most life-changing books I've ever read. I mean I don't think the specific predictions are all that important but it did make me put change in perspective and realize how inconceivable the present would be to someone even 50-100 years ago. Why? Because that's how it will be to us. The main idea, though, is what Kurzweil calls the Law of Accelerating Returns. That concept seems logical enough. New technologies are built on faster and better new technologies. If Moore's Law continues (or the exponential growth in computing power, whatever medium we use), yes, by the 2030s or so, we will essentially have the power of gods, as a computer will be able to perform all of the history of human thought in something like a microsecond. The 2040s don't even make sense to think about. That "event horizon" is how I think of the singularity. Plenty of other people have made their own definitions, and I'm not that picky about it. I think the term 'transhumanism' says all that needs to be said. I'm for radical life extension and radical life expansion.
Kurzweil and the singularity is just the beginning of the futurism rabbit hole. I found home when I came to the writings of David Pearce, a transhumanist philosopher who writes about, roughly speaking, superhappiness. There is quite a lot of focus on superlongevity, and even more on superintelligence, but that third one is just barely beginning to get some attention. Sam Harris wrote The Moral Landscape about how we should strive to create a society that maximizes wellbeing. Pearce gets into specifics. He was one of the first biohackers, and a long time psychonaut who wrote a manifesto in 1996 called The Hedonistic Imperative. Nick Bostrom discovered it and then they cofounded the World Transhumanist Organization, which is now Humanity+.
![[Image: sasha-dave.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.david-pearce.com%2Fsasha-dave.jpg)
David Pearce and Sasha Shulgin
I got into Pearce when I stumbled upon his interview with "Socrates" on Singularity 1 on 1. At first I thought, "ew, this guy is a vegan? Sounds boring..." But then I listened to it and was rather surprised at what he said. I looked him up and found a critique he wrote of Brave New World and the rest was history. I drank the abolitionist koolaid. A few months later I had pretty much gone vegetarian myself, as Pearce's writing on anti-speciesism was impossible to argue against. My mind was changed. And my broader purpose in life became the wellbeing of the planet. That's what gets me out of bed every morning to this day, fighting to help the cause.
Other than that? Well, there is a lot to talk about. I don't think there will be an intelligence explosion. I don't even know if classical computers can be conscious at all. But I do think, Kurzweil believes, that we will continue to merge with our technology, and that the possibilities are probably endless.
Kurzweil and the singularity is just the beginning of the futurism rabbit hole. I found home when I came to the writings of David Pearce, a transhumanist philosopher who writes about, roughly speaking, superhappiness. There is quite a lot of focus on superlongevity, and even more on superintelligence, but that third one is just barely beginning to get some attention. Sam Harris wrote The Moral Landscape about how we should strive to create a society that maximizes wellbeing. Pearce gets into specifics. He was one of the first biohackers, and a long time psychonaut who wrote a manifesto in 1996 called The Hedonistic Imperative. Nick Bostrom discovered it and then they cofounded the World Transhumanist Organization, which is now Humanity+.
David Pearce and Sasha Shulgin
I got into Pearce when I stumbled upon his interview with "Socrates" on Singularity 1 on 1. At first I thought, "ew, this guy is a vegan? Sounds boring..." But then I listened to it and was rather surprised at what he said. I looked him up and found a critique he wrote of Brave New World and the rest was history. I drank the abolitionist koolaid. A few months later I had pretty much gone vegetarian myself, as Pearce's writing on anti-speciesism was impossible to argue against. My mind was changed. And my broader purpose in life became the wellbeing of the planet. That's what gets me out of bed every morning to this day, fighting to help the cause.
Other than that? Well, there is a lot to talk about. I don't think there will be an intelligence explosion. I don't even know if classical computers can be conscious at all. But I do think, Kurzweil believes, that we will continue to merge with our technology, and that the possibilities are probably endless.
