Intelligent design? Ray Kurzweil’s AI-driven Singularity would make the whole universe intelligent

If computers got that smart. At the COSM meet, Ray Kurzweil will offer, by video link, a glimpse of his foreseen Singularity where we merge with superintelligent computers:

He believes that the merger will eventually make the whole universe intelligent. Kurzweil’s critics believe that the superintelligent computers he needs can’t exist. If the critics are correct, we have misread the AI revolution.

Even Kurzweil’s friend George Gilder questions the underlying basis of the transhumanist vision and points out that information is precisely what is not determined by a machine and is therefore the source of creativity.

Kurzweil has little use for such quibbles. He responds that “the entire universe will become saturated with our intelligence. This is the destiny of the universe.” As Marks notes, “His predictions are often so far in the future that they escape any immediate scrutiny.”

That doesn’t mean that such predictions do not answer a need. The definite religious undertones attract seekers. Nearly as many young Americans believe in ET as in God, religion prof Diana Pasulka reports, from her research. In a recent interview with Sean Illing at Vox, she tells him, “Technology defines our world and culture; it’s our new god…”

With what consequences, we shall see.

“Will we become mere apps of our smart machines?” at Mind Matters News

See also: Tales of an invented god

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