Transhumanism and the technological singularity or death

[zzz919]

Billionaires and large corporations are actively trying to kill EVERYONE on planet Earth ...... This is the TRUTH ...... Billionaires and large corporations are watching everyone DIE right before their eyes ...... This is the TRUTH ...... Billionaires and large corporations will NEVER stop trying to kill YOU and ME ...... Until ...... We KILL the Billionaires and large corporations ...... This is the TRUTH ...... Billionaires and large corporations are too comfortable ...... Billionaires and large corporations should NOT feel safe walking around in public ...... Just this week ...... United States Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was chased out of a restaurant in Washington, DC ...... We need MORE of that ...... TRUTH ...... When God saw Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) being chase out of that restaurant ...... The same way Jesus Christ chased the money changers from the temple ...... God was Proud ...... TRUTH.

 

[Slacker]

it is likely that it is possible to make a payment to a terrorist.

I actually meant that a politican would never humiliate himself that much. Raputation is more important than all of their money. A destroyed reputation is like death to them. Beeing hatet for not doing something and beeing an asshole is better than loosing your pride and the respect of the people.

And paying large amounts of money to terrorists will never happen officially to deter potential copycats.

So officially "we do not negotiate with terrorists"

 

[2CropcircleUNeedHelp]

I actually meant that a politican would never humiliate himself that much. Raputation is more important than all of their money. A destroyed reputation is like death to them. Beeing hatet for not doing something and beeing an asshole is better than loosing your pride and the respect of the people.

And paying large amounts of money to terrorists will never happen officially to deter potential copycats.

So officially "we do not negotiate with terrorists"

Yes I agree. Reputation, hated, being, politician

 

[RM5998]

I don't think it's possible for us to avoid death. At some point, the heat death of the universe will come, and we will all be dead. That might seem like a long way off, but it's still a finite amount of time away. At the very least, there is only a finite amount of time before there are no usable heat source/sink combinations left to sustain conscious existence.

Death cannot be evaded. It may change its form, but it will always come. All we can do is accept it.

 

[throwaway123]

Like worldexplorer and RM5998 said. Rich assholes will ruin it. Death isn't going away. The heat death of the universe most certainly won't go away so what's the point of existing another billion years? Why live at all when you can be at peace in the eternal void of nothingness?

Btw I'm actually quite suprised to see someone mention this here. Few are aware of the transformational changes in society that are going to occur in the future. Especially in regards to biological death. People will have to make a choice whether they want to die or not. I can imagine a pro-choice movement becoming popular as humans approach the lifespan of several hundreds of years.

Don't be so rosy about the future. It is hard to forecast if not impossible. I really doubt that life will get any better. As for ASI, there are dozens of misconceptions about it. Scientists don't even agree on what exactly intelligence is let alone consciousness. Physical laws apply to ASI aswell so don't expect artifical sentient beings to take over the world anytime soon. Humans have an enormous craving for power and control and they'll never give up on that. I can see humanity being enhanced by advanced algorithms but not much more.

I never understood why you'd want to create another life-form. Why not just enhance yourself? After all if you're capable of creating life you could upload a human beings onto a cloud and form a hive mind(this is exactly the direction it is heading to). Intelligence is hard to define.

I view this as another fanatic belief. It's like a technological religion.
People like Kurzweil often speak of millions of times more advanced beings as if they're Gods waiting to be made. Fear mongering by Elon Musk who has zero expertise in the field doesn't make it any better.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not claiming to be an expert but if you actually start talking to experts you'll start to realize that this is just an overhyped wet dream of a bunch of college nerds in Silicon Valley.
Darwin will never go away.

 

[Circles]

Wasn't the first episode of Black Mirror fourth season where the robots take control and end up trapping the guys consciousness forever? Yea fuck that big time. Just be nice to robots I guess.

 

[Escape Humanity]

Like worldexplorer and RM5998 said. Rich assholes will ruin it. Death isn't going away. The heat death of the universe most certainly won't go away so what's the point of existing another billion years? Why live at all when you can be at peace in the eternal void of nothingness?

Btw I'm actually quite suprised to see someone mention this here. Few are aware of the transformational changes in society that are going to occur in the future. Especially in regards to biological death. People will have to make a choice whether they want to die or not. I can imagine a pro-choice movement becoming popular as humans approach the lifespan of several hundreds of years.

Don't be so rosy about the future. It is hard to forecast if not impossible. I really doubt that life will get any better. As for ASI, there are dozens of misconceptions about it. Scientists don't even agree on what exactly intelligence is let alone consciousness. Physical laws apply to ASI aswell so don't expect artifical sentient beings to take over the world anytime soon. Humans have an enormous craving for power and control and they'll never give up on that. I can see humanity being enhanced by advanced algorithms but not much more.

I never understood why you'd want to create another life-form. Why not just enhance yourself? After all if you're capable of creating life you could upload a human beings onto a cloud and form a hive mind(this is exactly the direction it is heading to). Intelligence is hard to define.

I view this as another fanatic belief. It's like a technological religion.
People like Kurzweil often speak of millions of times more advanced beings as if they're Gods waiting to be made. Fear mongering by Elon Musk who has zero expertise in the field doesn't make it any better.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not claiming to be an expert but if you actually start talking to experts you'll start to realize that this is just an overhyped wet dream of a bunch of college nerds in Silicon Valley.
Darwin will never go away.

If you were to visit an online forum about transhumanism or the technological singularity, you would definitely find a lot of people that are obsessed with the idea of radical life extension. You will also find a lot of atheist / agnostics with some type of background in science, engineering, and mathematics. So the majority of the members would be familiar with things like heat death or the other ways that the universe could end. Some of the members that are obsessed with the idea of radical life extension may regularly use the word "immortality" in their posts, but it usually isn't because they believe in the idea of immortality. The concept of immortality is a fantasy that's derived from religious doctrine. And any ideology or story that's prevalent in a society can effect the way a person thinks and speaks. It usually doesn't matter if the person believes the religious doctrine or not. I say the words "oh my god" on a regular basis, but I'm still an atheist.

I was never comfortable with people regularly using the word immortality when they're having discussions about transhumanism, because it makes the futuristic idea seem like a new age pseudoscientific religious fantasy. I can't even say that I really care about radical life extension. Extended lifespans would be a part of the future that I want, but what I really care about is transcending the human condition, and preserving information (digital or organic). I dream about a future where humans or other life forms could have a completely different perception of death and self-awareness because of hive minds and the ability to send information from one neural network to another. Humans would be born with memories, and death as we know it wouldn't be something to fear, because the society would think about humanoid bodies in the same way that we currently think about motor vehicles.

As I said before, I'm not making any predictions about the future. I'm hoping for the best and expecting the worst. And seeing as how reality is mostly in the mind of the beholder, some of the so-called "rosy" ideas that I have would definitely be hellish or dystopian from the perspective of a socially conservative person that would rather preserve the current human condition.