Well...I'se at a loss fer words--an thas' rare as ya'll knows!
A couple of new books is out, and they's waxin' lyrical fer the future of machine-man.
The Singularity is Near:When Humans Transcend Biology is writtten by some fuzz-brain inventor who cuddles up ter machines more'n man and thinks man'll be better once he transcends to machine state--no sic-fi, chillens', this fer real. Kurzweil (author) thinks man will merge wif' his own inventions so as to better hisself into the ultimate machine. The "Singularity" will be a "rupture in the fabric of history" when we'uns give up our biological bodies and brains.
Then, LO! We'uns will "live" in incredible virtual worlds, moving our machine minds out into ether capacious where we makes a pattern of the great void. Eventually, pets, this fantasy inventor thinks we'uns will become a mass of minds coagulated one mind of the universe --which then will spend its time in contemplation of itself. The universe as one vast mind-space. Uh-huh.
Now, ya'll probably wonder, "What's dat fella been smokin'? But, more likely he has been readin' Teilhard and is jes' updatin' de Chardin wif' bells and whistles.
Now the other fella, Simon Young, wrote Designer Evolution: Transhumanist MAnifesto. Here the idea is nano-tech and genetic tinkerin' will somr'sault us all past the need fer eatin' or sleepin' (and nothin' else so pleasurable to us embodied humans)...the transfer of the human mind into a machine (BMW will make the prototype, so gitcha some stock right now! Honda will make a lesser model, mindful of comapssion fer the wannabes) Simon even wants to persuade us'uns to voluntarily git on over ter the BEST Center (Bio Enhancement Self-design Technologies) nearest by. Won't be no need fer "assisted" THuicide (transhumanizin') since we's all gonna be elbowin' each other outa line so we's can "design" our own best selves.
'Course, cybernetics is somthin' mah brother has been yammerin' 'bout for a decade now--it sounds so advanced an' all. Well, if ya' been waitin' on it, here is is, "homo-cyberneticus".
Aunty Belle is jes' a puzzlin' over this heah idea--why, pets,I doan know why folks buys pigs in a poke? Ever notice that ever'thang FAKE is named ter sound real good? Like "Splenda" or "Promise" a fake butter that promises to ruin yer gut wif' chemicals ya' body doan know nothin' about. All these fake foods is ruinin' the adrenal glands-- well tha's off topic...but I mean ter say we done messed up the regular body wif fake food, and implants and plugged hair... so now maybe it doan matter if we jes' substitute the whole dern thang?
Doan ANYbody like the "real thang" anymore??
An' then there is the ever lurkin' question of what do it all mean? Looky, we cain't even solve our current issues of ethics and values (Ain't no technology fer that!)--we shur ain't ready fer trans-human values, is we? Machine Wars of the 23rd Century?
Fer git it, chickens. C'mon, and gitcha' some lemonade wif real sugar and a bite of mah Daddy's "most fattenin' pie".....while ya' can.
6.09.2006
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2 comments:
now,now ab - seems you weren't for a loss of words at all. haha!
did you read reviews or the books themselves?
either way, doesn't sound good to me, but i'll have to at least browse 'em and see. (though frankly, i'm into reading poetry right now and don't want to bother with nonfiction).
i'll pass on a virtual world (though when you think about it - the blogosphere is virtual - how real are all of us? merely personas? how real are the "relationships" that form? how real is this community?)
mass of minds - one mind? can you imagine that? it'd be a psychotic mind for sure - with mulitple personalities. hellpig and i would both go mad - hahahaha!
future's looking bleak.
think i'll take a REAL walk using my flesh and blood legs - but only after i finish my REAl strawberries just purchased from the farmer's market - these berries are red and sweet and impossible to replicate - never to be had again. yum!
ya' gots it chile'. yep, yep...real is best, even if flawed heah and theah.
Funny what ya' say 'bout what's real in blogworld--is we merely "personas"?
Mostly--since we got birds and dawgs and pigs...hee hee. I'd be bettin' a container load of Pork Rinds that if this virtual community got together in a real barnyard we'd be stuned at who was who --or what.
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