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Trailer now available for Ray Kurzweil's movie, "Transcendent Man"

transcendentman.com

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Re: Trailer now available for Ray Kurzweil's movie, "Transcendent Man"

#31

Post by ivankirigin »

This doesn't look very good, as it focuses on Ray, and not on the issue. I'd rather hear what Kevin Kelly and others shown have to say about the tech. I don't care what they think about each other personally or politically.

I think Kelly is right by the way (he's the guy with white hair and a chin strap beard). There has been too much focus on this guy, and the hope he brings to people. It should motivate people, but only enough to learn or tech more engineering to get there faster with practical, immediate action.

Re: Trailer now available for Ray Kurzweil's movie, "Transcendent Man"

#32

Post by time_management »

ivankirigin wrote: post #30
brightscreamer wrote: post #17

Serious question--how does the struggling global economy factor into all of this? I'd think it would, at the very least, postpone a technological singularity.

Cycles of peaks and troughs in growth rates are normal.

Right, but let's consider the difference between a recession and a depression. A recession is a contraction in a healthy economy. It's normal, and probably necessary. A depression is something worse. We don't know yet if this is a recession or a depression.

Re: Trailer now available for Ray Kurzweil's movie, "Transcendent Man"

#33

Post by jodrellblank »

snowbird122 wrote: post #14
jodrellblank wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most compelling counter is one throwaway comment I saw here - that things are just going to get so complex we will be overwhelmed with complexity and leaky abstractions and progress will crash into a wall before intelligence amplification helps us pass said wall. I prefer the ideas of Aubrey De Gray, because while they require future-technology and future-developments, they don't require intelligence amplificatio…

Ray's argument against things getting complex would probably be something like: Why would things suddenly get "so complex" when the trend has been going on for millions of years. Douglas Hofstadler (Godel Escher Bach author) says that perhaps humans aren't smart enough to understand and recreate consciousness. Thanks for the Aubrey De Gray reference. Found a video interview of him here: http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlo…

Why would things suddenly get "so complex"

That's the nature of exponentials. It will look like we have a lot of headroom to spare, but in a couple of steps - wham.

Exponential doubling run backwards: 100% - full. 50% - one step earlier. 25% - two steps earlier.

Two doublings before the limit, you look around and see 75% room to grow into - why would there suddenly be a problem, there's so much room for manoeuvre, stop worrying.

Re: Trailer now available for Ray Kurzweil's movie, "Transcendent Man"

#34

Post by mixmax »

discojesus wrote: post #20

"[Kurzweil] says computers will have human consciousness in 25 years." Wait is this one of those 1980s AI-in-25-years predictions or is this a new 2009 We're Really Serious This Time, Guys prediction?

Personally I think it's one of those predictions.

I explain why here: http://www.maximise.dk/blog/2008/11/why-singularity-may-neve...

Re: Trailer now available for Ray Kurzweil's movie, "Transcendent Man"

#35

Post by jodrellblank »

endtime wrote: post #7
barredo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the film will be to spread the Singularity ideas and theory for the masses and get some news/press coverage similar to Michael Moore's films.

Yeah, I guess. A kind of intro to the Singularity for your mom. I suppose that's worth knowing about.

My mom is extremely unlikely to watch a film called "Transcendent Man". I doubt if the technical people I know would be interested. Even the people here at HN are skeptical.

This film has a feeling to me of a ... startup trying to launch on technical impressiveness. Only a few people will care, and they have probably already heard about it.

Re: Trailer now available for Ray Kurzweil's movie, "Transcendent Man"

#36

Post by peregrine »

The nice thing about being Ray Kurzweil is that he can keep making predictions on the most simple things and get them right. So much that if hes wrong on any he can easily push them aside.

Technology won't slow down, it can't, not even a depression could slow it down. The information is too available and the school numbers are still high.

Re: Trailer now available for Ray Kurzweil's movie, "Transcendent Man"

#37

Post by gord »

I found this just hilarious after having read Michael Lewis' book "The Future Just Happened".

On the one hand hes totally right.. on the other hand hes totally missing the point, completely obsessed with blatant self promotion. ugh.

Then we see Tony Robbins propping up Rays rep as a 'serious human being'.. omg, my arse hurts from laughing so much.

This and "W" {dubya} are my must sees for comedy movies of '09.

Re: Trailer now available for Ray Kurzweil's movie, "Transcendent Man"

#38

Post by gord »

thepanister wrote: post #16

Whatever this guy thinks he can do, I am sure he won't be able to make humans live forever, or even "get his father back to life". Maybe he can make a machine that lives forever, but he can't make a human to live forever. There are things that god forced in this world, and it will continue regardless if you believe in god or not. And I think that god forced humans to die, and this won't change in the future.

Well one can always ask just how long did god intend humans to live? Was it 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 or 180 yrs?

I think well see all of those as possible answers, given the advance of medicine and engineering.

If by god you mean "stochastic calculus".. then yes, I do believe in god, and he has mysterious ways indeed :]

Re: Trailer now available for Ray Kurzweil's movie, "Transcendent Man"

#39

Post by jksmith »

scott_s wrote: post #24
jksmith wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the universe is a closed system, but reaching the "Singularity" before we reach maximum entropy is probably more likely.

Our "plate" is probably not all of the known universe. We may never leave this solar system.

Which makes for another interesting issue. Some Packlid may be reading this and thinking, "What do you mean "we" human?" Kurzweil may still (already) be proven right, whether we make it happen or not. Just some whimsy for thought.

Re: Trailer now available for Ray Kurzweil's movie, "Transcendent Man"

#40

Post by gord »

Tichy wrote: post #6

It's horrible. I like Kurzweil and singularity doesn't seem so unlikely - just the trailer is unbearable for me, for too many reasons to count (like cutting from Captain Kirk to "The Singularity Is Near" lieing on a desk).

agreed.. but thankfully captain kirk gets to speak and thus his dignity is preserved.. as befits his stature as ambassador for all humanity.
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