Thoughts, ramblings and other stuff

The thing with the "Future" is that it's creeping so slowly upon us that we don't even notice a science fiction becomes everyday life. Maybe it's because we were taught to expect flying cars and jumpsuits. But I thing cyborgs are good enough.

Claudia Mitchell lost her left arm in a motorcycle accident and she was fitted with new robotic arm from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. This new arm is "myoelectric," which means it picks up electrical signals coming straight from her brain. Her nerves were surgically rerouted to the chest and the arm electrodes pick them up and send them to the prosthesis computer, which figures out which motion Mitchell is thinking about. The rerouting causes some weird sensations but she gets a pretty functional arm:


Cyborgs are among us.

I love the idea of Singularity (it works well at scaring Jehovah Witnesses away).
I hope to see at least some of it to come true (other will be there with flying cars - forever future).
I want sentient AIs (finally some intelligent life on Earth).

I think it's a great idea. It should be made more widely known.

This however doesn't mean one is allowed to present such ridiculously, made up thesis as a scientific theory.

I agree on every world of criticism of the Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near book and especially the diagram he presents there. Collecting random facts and putting them together in a way that fits your views is not science. It’s Intelligent Design. And this diagram has exactly the same flaws. So please don’t use evolution as a crutch for your fail.

Because what’s pissing me off most is the misuse and misunderstanding of evolution in this (especially today, on the eve of Darwin Day). This diagram makes it look like there was a goal, some plan of progress for world. This is the fallacy so many people fall into – “humans are pinnacle of evolution so it all happen just so we could’ve happened”.

It’s not like that. There is no “better” in evolution, no goal, no pinnacle, no end. For evolution loosing most of your organs and becoming a tapeworm is as good as getting a big brain as long as you survive. It’s only progress in the way that’s there is no going back – every time you have to make the same discoveries with new elements because old were lost along the way – like fish and dolphins. Can’t go back but can make similar design from new elements in your disposal. Evolution is a process that favors the best adapted to an environment they live in. It means that when the environment changes you can stop being well adapted and go from being best to worst (or at leas worse). Those who come next are not better. Claiming mammals are better then insects because of brains and steady body temperature is a subjective matter – after all there is so much more of them and they probably survive us.

Humans are neither the end of evolution nor its goal. If we destroy our planet the evolution will still go on for what is left – be it cockroaches or bacteria. And none that happened in these billions of years has been inevitable. Just because there came reptiles or primates didn’t mean that the humans had to happen. From it you cannot draw a conclusion that an AI is inevitable next. It’s just a possibility that may or may not come at any given moment. Not certainty. No to either when or even if it will come. Just like with everything on this diagram – you cannot know it will happen if you don’t already have it. And then you can put

All this doesn’t even touch the random selection of facts that make all history a straight line. It’s missing all the other branches and uses only those facts that support the theory (where are the tapeworms or axolotl?) and then distorting them. But that is in the article I linked so no need to repeat it.

I love to read books and articles about Singularity. Still things like this diagram can be only presented as a joke or fiction. If you want to make transhumanism a science keep it scientific. Otherwise you’re turning into religion. And world really doesn't need another scientology.