Musings on The Singularity

2017-10-06

Musings on The Singularity

There is a concept called "The Singularity" whereby humanity becomes fused with technology such that we essentially are rendered cyborgs and those enhancements give us abilities we do not presently know.

This has been batted around in jokes uttered by Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory and other quasi science venues in entertainment and a few pure science venues in technology.

Now, Professor Brian Cox is saying that the approaching ability to upload human brains to machines will allow humans to attain immortality — and much sooner than we might otherwise realize.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the stuff of science fiction is said to be rapidly approaching fact and there is big fundage and keen interest by various technophiles such as Mr Musk and Mr Levandowski.

The current proposal includes transference of the content of those cerebral storage mechanisms to an electronic medium replete with i/o devices such that the essence of the human being remains.

That symbiosis of man and technology is quite the feat to attain and the mere utterance of approaching ability toward that end gives me shivers up my spine into my immense melon.

My humble inadequacy of comprehension only leaves me to think that the essence of the individual is somehow more than the sum total of it's parts. This synergism is what I construe that final challenge to entail. For if we are left with a bunch of data and even though it may be perfectly accessible — even though the feat is astounding ... the person will not have been uploaded entirely.

Let us hope the modeling proposed is as similar between the biological and electromechanical aspects as the proponents apparently envision. It's truly a profound possibility on the horizon. One I don't expect to realize in my lifetime ... but have great abiding respect for nonetheless.