h+ Magazine

Singularity Institute’s Executive Director Luke Muehlhauser interviews AGI researcher (and Humanity+ Magazine Chief Editor, and Humanity+ Vice Chairman) Ben Goertzel on the nature and risks of AGI.

Ben Goertzel interviews Adam Ford about the upcoming Humanity+ @Melbourne (May 5-6 2012), which will feature Aubrey de Grey, Natasha Vita-More, Stelarc and many more inspiring speakers.

Schwann Cybershaman, an h+ magazine writer and filmmaker, has been compiling a video series of lectures by the late Terence McKenna, the psychedelic philosopher and proto-transhumanist. Whether or not you agree with McKenna’s specific views, his breadth of knowledge and the boldness of theorizing will have you thinking about life, the universe, and everything in novel ways.

For 3 days in late February, Russian businessman Dmitry Itskov gathered 500+ futurists in Moscow for a “Global Future 2045 Congress” – the latest manifestation of his “Russia 2045” movement. The Congress featured an impressive roster of Russian scientists, engineers and visionaries, along with American futurist leaders like Ray Kurzweil, Randal Koene and John Smart.

The Singularity to me seems to be a little bit too ‘singular’. It seems to assume that all these different technologies converge and take off all at the same pace. Whereas in my view, we’re more likely to see a Surge which might trail off, might slow down—in fact, maybe a series of surges.

Ordinary people, and even older and more educated ones, disbelieve in a technological Singularity for three major reasons.

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.

Singularity is one of those wonderful words, like democracy or virtue, which are sort of like the old ditty about the pelican, “whose beak can contain more than his belly can.” That is, these words contain within themselves an extraordinary amount of meaning, far more than even their fiercest partisans (or critics) are aware.

The first person to introduce the concept of Future Shock was Alvin Toffler in his 1970 book, Future Shock. The main argument is that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a “super-industrial society”. This change will overwhelm people, the accelerated rate of technological and social change will leave them disconnected, suffering from “shattering stress and disorientation” – future shocked.

Ben Goertzel converses with Hugo de Garis on his transhumanist argument for the reality of a Creator.