Transhumanists/Singularitards

[DykesDykesChina]

What if the evangelical concept of "rapture" was redesigned for computer nerds?

The answer is Transhumanism.

The basic idea is that because of Moore's Law (computing power per Dollar / gram of matter / cm^2 chip surface / etc. growing exponentially) computers will gain sentience in the near future (an event called The Singularity) and this will lead to paradise on earth, because then humans will merge with the intelligent computers and be able to live in a virtual perfect world ever after.

In a broader context, Transhumanists strive to improve the human condition radically through technology. This is basically a noble aim, and there are some interesting ideas in Transhumanism, but the trouble is that these get mixed with concepts that are unscientific, lulzy, improbable or just plain dumb. To begin with, it is rather unlikely that computers will achieve sentience in the near future. Transhumanists will point to Moore's Law, but fail to understand that to simulate intelligence, you need more than mere raw computing power, you'd need an algorithm of intelligence. But let these little things not get in the way of the Singularity, which will finally deliver us from our pathetic lives in our parent's basements and allow us to have sex with virtual pornstars. Because a computer can simulate anything, the universe must be a computer, and thus a computer can simulate anything, including the brain.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this set of beliefs is widespread among computer scientists, who have come to believe that the other (lesser) sciences are just applications of computer science, because a computer can simulate anything.

The king of Transhumanists is probably Ray Kurzweil, an accomplished computer scientists in his own right, who is extremely afraid of death, and takes large doses of vitamins to prolong his life. Said vitamins get paid for by Kurzweil traveling around and holding seminars in which there are a lot of exponential function curves and the promise that the Singularity will occur no later than 2029.

Transhumanism got picked up by a number of other lolherds, among them most famously Randroids and a certain breed of feminists. While the former pray that laissez-faire capitalism plus the Singularity will bring out the Übermensch under their greasy pallid nerd shells, the latter hope that though uploading humanity in a supercomputer, gender issues will finally be resolved.

This set of belief is rather popular in the German Pirate Party (a lolherd in itself). A "cyberfeminist" girl of theirs actually thinks that after the Singularity and uploading, we will have paradise on earth because all the darn sex and romanticism will be moot and instead everyone will live happily as a sexless entity in a computer simulation for eternity...How will we spend this eternity? Probably by watching "My little Pony - Friendship is Magic", Star Trek reruns and "The big bang theory". But that's how Pirate Party members spend their time right now, so no need to upload methinks...

Bizarrely, many Transhumanists are also anti-nuclear ecotards, but this may be a German idiosyncrasy.

Some nifty links:
Dresden Codak- Transhumanist/Randroid comic with admittedly quality artwork which prominently features the nerdy spergy heroine's bewbs and ass in a grand number of panels.
Transhumanism at RationalWiki

 

[KatsuKitty]

I wouldn't call it too far-fetched. I've done the read-up on this and it's legit and entirely plausible. If anything, their radical embrace of altering human nature is concerning, to say the least. In the coming decades, the ethical implications of "enhancement" will certainly be a contentious one.

 

[Totally Awesome]

Are you out of your fucking mind?

I am a transhumanist, and I feel that your post is ridiculous. I always hoped that people could invent some way to stop disease and aging, so everybody could eventually live forever using transhumanism technology. This is a great idea, and shouldn't be mocked by intolerant people like yourself.

 

[Surtur]

Are you out of your fucking mind?

I am a transhumanist, and I feel that your post is ridiculous. I always hoped that people could invent some way to stop disease and aging, so everybody could eventually live forever using transhumanism technology. This is a great idea, and shouldn't be mocked by intolerant people like yourself.

Not sure if serious...

 

[Judge Holden]

Look, if you want to get defensive about whatever fandom you happen to be part of, be polite about it. We tolerate plenty of groups who get shit on the wider internets (bronies, furries, etc) simply because their members here do not throw tantrums when someone disrespects their fandom.

 

[DykesDykesChina]

As I already said in my above post, some ideas of Transhumanism are interesting and worthy of further research.
But the more extreme ideas are IMO extremely implausible: Computers are most likely not going to become sentient in the course of a few decades. There isn't a technology in sight which will allow the uploading of a human brain on a USB stick. I don't want to rule out that this may become practical some day, but not in the near future.
Also, all this "Singularity/uploading/paradise on a chip" stuff seems more like a religion than like science to me. It's very similar to the evangelical Christians' rapture thing, but with computers instead of God.

And trying to cure society's ills just through the application of technology seems very naive. New technologies can help remedy human problems, but in themselves they are insufficient.

 

[Bgheff]

And trying to cure society's ills just through the application of technology seems very naive. New technologies can help remedy human problems, but in themselves they are insufficient.

When we are slaves to our robot overlords, most of are current social ills will likely be gone.

in all seriousness, the base concept is interesting. 30 years ago I don't we could have imagined we'd be where were are now with computing technology. I think it's just as pointless now to predict what 30 years into our future will be like, since we don't know how and what we'll be doing using computers by then.

 

[Niachu]

Not entirely sure why this topic is here. Attacking a philosophical/spiritual/technological movement doesn't really have a place in the Lolcow Forum. If you want to argue that the ideas floating around it are illogical that's cool but in the section of the forums where everyone giggles at the antics of the internet class clowns? Really? You could focus on the bizarre figures involved in the movement themselves but not the entire concept.

 

[Totally Awesome]

Don't get me wrong. I'm not angry or throwing a tantrum. My mind is just blown that OP would post something so retarded saying that advanced future technology is going to suck because of My Little Pony fantards or whatever. I bet this was all troll bait, and I fell for it.

 

[Surtur]

Not entirely sure why this topic is here. Attacking a philosophical/spiritual/technological movement doesn't really have a place in the Lolcow Forum. If you want to argue that the ideas floating around it are illogical that's cool but in the section of the forums where everyone giggles at the antics of the internet class clowns? Really? You could focus on the bizarre figures involved in the movement themselves but not the entire concept.

After mulling it over a bit, I agree with Nia. Im not a fan of Transhumanism but its too broad a group to be Lolcows. Perhaps certain individuals, but not all of them. Even with certain atheists and fundies, we may have general threads but they focus on lulzy individuals in those groups, like TJ or Ray Comfort. So I am going to lock this thread, if you wish to debate the merits of the idea, post it in Deep Thoughts. If an individual is particularly lulzy, they should have their own thread.