I sincerely believe that we will soon be witnesses to
an event of the same order of magnitude as the rise of life on Earth or the rise of consciousness among the primates. At this point, as the rosy glow of the dawn tints our skies, we refer to it as
nanotechnology,
genetic engineering, or the
technology singularity. I think these labels go only so far. The defining characteristic of
the singularity is that prediction fails. So let me briefly entertain you with only the very
beginning of what such a transformation may imply (in roughly chronological order):
-
End world hunger
- Obliterate all pollution
- Safely destroy all nuclear weapons, biological weapons, chemical weapons since they're pointless against a universal defense system
- Digitize all human knowledge and make it public domain (that includes your DNA, your data, even your thoughts)
- Make everyone rich so wealth loses all meaning
- Cure death
- Cure all psychological disorder
- Program your own physical body (want to be a bird? want to be a dolphin?)
- Upload your consciousness into the data space (want to know everything?)
- Ascend into light
I have a tendency to sound over the top. I try to do this only to give you the sense that this is beyond belief, the culminating moment of all human history. Would you rather be alive any other time? A lot of people see science and religion as going opposite directions on the spectrum of epistemology. I offer an alternative description: if both are sincere, valid methods of searching for truth in the universe, then they will meet somewhere along the line. I say that moment is about to arrive.
I highly recommend Vernor Vinge on the Singularity