The “Singularity” What the Hell is it? … and, why I despise it!

I am an avid reader of Life Extension articles on the net and invariably the subject of the “Singularity” comes up.

What is a Singularity you ask ? My definition…..Singularity: The ultimate virtual bullshit life for the ultimate agoraphobic nerd in you. But seriously folks, it is the idea that all knowledge we possess in our brains will be up loaded to a computer and will no longer need our inconvenient “biological” bodies with its terrible short comings, such as its need for sex and food for example. They, ” the Sigularitists” hope that in the end all humans will be part of the collective and all problems will be null and void. In this dream world we will live forever. Haven’t these ding dongs seen Terminator. It all sounds to good to be true and it is. There are so many problems with this idea that it hurts my brain to think about it. First, your Self or individuality, and most importantly your body will be annihilated. Your body and soul will become “redundant” and out dated. I find this repugnant. What sort of short sighted, self loathing bull shit is that? only an asshole would give up real life for a promise for a virtual after life….humm smells like a Religion.

Below I posted this comment on a ” Singularity” Blog.

“I have been a Life Extensionist for more than 30 years. I understand the ramification of the ongoing technology boom. But, on the other hand the Idea of a singularity seems the ultimate annihilation of individuality, in other words, DEATH. The individuals evolved to increases our chances of survival as a species and a individual. Also, it gives a venue for competitions ,which tests ideas and designs against each other in a harsh environment. The lack of competition and new ideas would render our species extinct. It would also doom thier beloved “Singularity” to a diservedly protracted and lonely death. The lack of opposing Ideas alone would open up the Singularity to certain death when contacted by another biologic or technical species. Another option of the singularity w ould be to create a virtual world where individuals compete against each other to see which Ideas and designs work and which ones do not. Hey, wait a minute, that sounds like real life as we know it.

I am all for technology which makes individuals more efficient but, I stop at networking our, especially my, consciousness to a central computer; this is the ultimate form of communism. Who decides which ideas work and which ones don’t? The Singularity? The singularity is only as good as the programmer who designed it. It doesn’t matter if it is self learning, how will it determine what is an idea worth knowing and doing and which are not? How would the Singularity decides on what criteria is useful? WHY WOULD IT CARE IF IT HAD ZERO COMPETITION? Unless the singularity could test ideas in double-blind manner in a harsh environment (again sounds like real life) the knowledge gained would be pure folly.

So be careful what you wish for! It just might kill us all including the coveted “Singularity.” The possible applications of a super intelligent computer would be in testing scenarios and designing machines and many, many other things to numerous to mention but, the knowledge gained, would need to be real world tested.
One last thing, I sorta , kinda like my biological body and individuality. I do not want to upload or download my consciousness or unconsciousness for some thing or government to do as IT pleases with it.

A Singularity is not immortality it is death of the individual plain and simple.”

This Utopian society called a “Singularity ” where all is known and no one dies is quite dreamy if your life sucks and ,you can’t compete, then all the pain will go away and, all the pleasure too. If your individuality is preserved than, which it can’tbe in a pure singularity, you’ll be floating around in a virtual life programed by someone who never left his computer and never lived a real (actual) non-virtual life. ..Sounds boring ..where can I sign up? Imagine a world , no reproduction, no sex, no fear, no joy. You get the picture, or do you? So all of you Utopian, virtual, hive-mind nerds out there in internet Borg land try this… Get up.. back away from the computer… put the mouse down… Now go climb a real mountain.. Even better, heaven forbid, leave your house and find an non-virtual girl to have real sex with! Maybe just maybe then you’ll change your mind. For me, I’ll take the real thing.