Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015

Beware the singular dreams of lunatic science. Your children may end up as algorithms in a super-computer until the  power goes out. This post may seem old-fashioned, and luddite; to explain why it is not would require a book. There are four points to be made. First, there are scientists who really believe that the future of computing lies with merging human and machine intelligence and that it will be possible, in the near future, to achieve a kind of immortality as an algorithm in the mind of a super-computer. There are powerfully influential minds working on realising this as soon as possible, among them, Ray Kurzweil, Director of Engineering at Google. Second, as these pictures suggest the whole process is unbelievably complex; complexity favours fragility.  The picture above shows lines into a super computer; all must be perfectly aligned and assured of power. What happens when the plug is pulled? Third, who or what will maintain this stuff. Fourth, even if all the objections are overcome and a new generation of super-computers achieves both self-maintenance and mobility, who is to say that the new mechano-organism would care anything for the alogrithms stored in its brain. Fifth, who asked you or me about any of this?

The Singularity (the merging of mechanical and biological intelligence) is lunatic science driven by one argument only: We will do this because we can!