Ray Kurzweil on NPR


Ray Kurzweil was the guest on Science Friday with Ira Flatow, on 12/29/2005. He discussed some of his ideas, which I will presently take apart.

Things to check up on/write about:
•exponential increase, "doubling every year" -- is this accurate?
•his bizarre health claims.. what to make of it?
•avoiding the subject of the singularity, despite his book being called "The Singularity"
•philosophical topics brought up by immortality

First impression: to say that Kurzweil is just a hankerer after immortality, that beneath his fanciful ideas lies nothing more exotic than the all-too-human fear of death. While apparently true, this does not refute the idea that a technological singularity may come; if not in our lifetimes, then at least in the next millenium or two. We should be taking the idea seriously, just as we take seriously the idea that we may be wiped out by an asteroid in the distant future.

•Immortality: although it is hard to imagine what one would do with a greatly increased lifespan, wanting immortality is simply the logical continuation of this idea: right now you want to live for, say, at least 5 more years; and are also reasonably confident that at any time within the next 5 years, you would also say that you want to live for at least 5 more years. There's no a priori end to this, yet at the same time it's not clear to me that anyone would really want to live for ten thousand years, let alone ten billion. I suggest re-thinking the idea of an "I" that can live that long and remain "I".

•A caller proclaimed that Kurzweil's theories supported "intelligent design". Kurzweil did not berate the man but instead changed the subject.

•If we are grossly disturbed by the actions of people who are not afraid to die, what are we to do with people who think they will never die? Actually, mightn't Kurzweil's kind of transhumanism, even if mistaken in its reasons, be a force for good in the world?

Posted: Tue - January 3, 2006 at 08:03 PM | | | |

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