h+ Magazine

In an h+ magazine exclusive, Paul Raven asks Eric Drexler some questions following his Inaugural Lecture for the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology.

In the second half of 2011, I started taking opinion polls on the subject of a potential impending Artilect War. This essay reports on the results of two such polls.

Over the past twenty years several hundred DNA and RNA-based molecular diagnostic tests have been introduced that help physicians provide better care for their patients. Many tests predict individual risk for specific diseases, such as BRCA1 and -2 gene mutations for breast and ovarian cancer risk and CFTR gene mutation analysis for cystic fibrosis.

Who stop at femtotech? Physics also allows attotechnology and beyond to zeptotechnology. These “X-Tech” possibilities provide a potential solution to the Fermi Paradox (“where are all the nonhuman civilizations?”). We may need a paradigm shift from SETI to SIPI — the Search for Infra Particle Intelligence!

FLAUNT Magazine, LA’s international high-glossy cultural magazine is featuring Natasha Vita-More in the article “Post-Human Are People, Too”. The article captures Vita-More’s historical work in the arts, film, video and theoretical approach to transhumanism and the posthuman future.

It might be possible to build a femtocomputer along lines vaguely similar to current DNA computers…

I believe that the overwhelming reason why politicians (and, to a lesser extent, companies) have not heard this message is not because they fail to understand it but because they dispute the premise. There is a profoundly deep-seated belief that aging is untreatable. This has been reinforced, I am afraid to say, by the short-sighted protestations of past gerontologists who mistakenly claimed “aging is not a disease.”

Most of us don’t claim to know the future. Even futurists say they are predicting “futures,” not “the future.” Those who give definite predictions are just entertainers. But we are all forced to make predictions about the future when we decide whether and how to save and invest. You can’t avoid it: Whether you save or spend your monthly salary, whether you buy stocks or put money in a savings account, your decisions today will affect your life in years to come.

Let’s be clear about what the Singularity is; we are talking about a colossal event that would radically transform life as we know it. The Singularity is enormously powerful – there is nothing tiny about it. Picture a truly astronomical event of totally mind-blowing proportions; this is what the Singularity is. But “the use and abuse of the term ‘Singularity’ is rapidly proliferating”, and according to some pundits almost everything these days is a Singularity.

24 talks from the recent Singularity Summit conference in New York City are online at the SingularitySummits YouTube channel. Topics include robotics, economics, technology, artificial intelligence, and more.