The Singularity:
http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Global/Singularity/singul.txt
For those that have never heard of the Singularity, it is in so many words the point in technology at which the human body becomes irrelevant. One of the things implicated is that man will be able to transfer consciousness into a purely non-biological form. Other implications are that AI will become more advanced than human brains, and will decide that it would be better to exterminate man than perpetuate the frail species, and that humanity will be powerless to prevent its' own extinction.
I don't pretend to have looked into this with much scholarly rigor, but I have thought about the Singularity with a little bit of fantasy. I do know that we are working to repair or replicate the neurotransmitters or cells in the brain:
http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/01.28/brain.html
http://www.lsblog.org/blog1/?p=3
http://www.articopia.com/science/neuromorphic-chips-to-replace-brain-cells.html
which would mean, essentially, that we do not have to die. Either we would be able to maintain our bodies forever, or would be able to abandon them entirely to become an entitiy of pure consciousness...or even a meta-consciousness of some kind.
I know that the link from now to then isn't a straight one, and that a causality is not certain. I know it's juvenile pseudo-science to try to philosophize about it. I do wish that it would happen, though.
I want out of my skin. I want to be noticed for my brain, not my body...this body is not who I am, and never has been. I'm not too crazy about the idea of dying just to leave this body, though. I'm not so sure we start over somewhere else, as someone or something else.
When I think about the Singularity, I think about having eternity to engage in intellectual pursuits. Creativity would take on a whole new meaning. I suppose beauty would be different, because it wouldn't need to be about tragedy or lust. It might be purely mathematical.
I know that probably doesn't appeal to you on the surface. It wouldn't to me, either, but I have thought about it a lot. I have some shortcomings and faults (we all do), and one of mine is jealousy of beauty. I see beautiful things and compare myself to them, physically. It's vain, vain, VAIN of me to have this jealousy, this insidious longing in my soul to be something other than what I am.
How small, how petty, how sad.
Mathematics, though, are about truth, as far as I can tell. I am interested in quantum mechanics because of the attempt to explain by mathematical means chaos. For those who don't know, I am extensively trained in music theory. While I am not a talented performer (at all), I am quite good at understanding music. When I do see it, though, I look at it from a mathematical perspective.
Just as we as humans ( I think it is this way around the world) think of mathematics as a series of problems with a basis in the numbers 0-9, I think of music as a series of problems with a basis in the harmonic scale. Just how 5 wants to get to 10, the dominant wants to get to the tonic. Everything inbetween is about creating a conflict to resolve it.
Words are, apparently, the same way. Poetry, prose, lyrics, and everything else are separated from gibberish by their ability to represent to our brain something other than a sound in the air or a mark on a piece of paper. Words are more complicated than music, mainly because we have in our little human ways created more letters and words and verbal concepts than musical ones.
Visual art can probably be thought of in the same way, it is just a little more abstract. 'Abstract' when referring to visual art, in the sense that I mean it, may be an incorrect term. I don't really mean it as the opposite of 'representative' art, I guess. What I mean is that the resolution involved with visual art is not something that can be as easily categorized as beautiful in a quantitative sense as musical notes or words put in a certain order.
Is this our humanity? The constant search to define the limits of conflict and resolution? It seems that way to me. Higher mathematics are nowhere near as simple as algebra and geometry and division and subtraction, and seem to involve a lot of study by a lot of people with very thick glasses. It seems to me that this pursuit is every bit as wonderful and magical as any other intellectual or philosophical or artistic pursuit...I really don't see the difference.
Back to the Singularity, and the possible implications...maybe this shedding of the body will make mathematics the ultimate form of expression. Maybe all consciousness will gravitate towards some grand unifying theme, and that the true Singularity will resolve the conflict between the analog and the digital. Maybe then, there need be no more strife.
Science and art are usually percieved to be at odds. In sci-fi/fantasy, a theme that is just as prevalent as good vs. evil is law vs. entropy. Michael Moorcock in particular, as I recall, wrote quite a bit about the eternal conflict between order and chaos. His Chaos Lords were at turns beautiful and disgusting, and they were usually evil. His heroes were not necessarily wonderful, either; nor were they necessarily willing players in their fate.
With the Singularity, will there even be evil? Will there be corruption or something like power? Will there be evolution at an ever quickening pace, so that we hurtle faster and faster toward the end of the universe...and will that end be destruction, or eternity...?
What is forever?
http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Global/Singularity/singul.txt
For those that have never heard of the Singularity, it is in so many words the point in technology at which the human body becomes irrelevant. One of the things implicated is that man will be able to transfer consciousness into a purely non-biological form. Other implications are that AI will become more advanced than human brains, and will decide that it would be better to exterminate man than perpetuate the frail species, and that humanity will be powerless to prevent its' own extinction.
I don't pretend to have looked into this with much scholarly rigor, but I have thought about the Singularity with a little bit of fantasy. I do know that we are working to repair or replicate the neurotransmitters or cells in the brain:
http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/01.28/brain.html
http://www.lsblog.org/blog1/?p=3
http://www.articopia.com/science/neuromorphic-chips-to-replace-brain-cells.html
which would mean, essentially, that we do not have to die. Either we would be able to maintain our bodies forever, or would be able to abandon them entirely to become an entitiy of pure consciousness...or even a meta-consciousness of some kind.
I know that the link from now to then isn't a straight one, and that a causality is not certain. I know it's juvenile pseudo-science to try to philosophize about it. I do wish that it would happen, though.
I want out of my skin. I want to be noticed for my brain, not my body...this body is not who I am, and never has been. I'm not too crazy about the idea of dying just to leave this body, though. I'm not so sure we start over somewhere else, as someone or something else.
When I think about the Singularity, I think about having eternity to engage in intellectual pursuits. Creativity would take on a whole new meaning. I suppose beauty would be different, because it wouldn't need to be about tragedy or lust. It might be purely mathematical.
I know that probably doesn't appeal to you on the surface. It wouldn't to me, either, but I have thought about it a lot. I have some shortcomings and faults (we all do), and one of mine is jealousy of beauty. I see beautiful things and compare myself to them, physically. It's vain, vain, VAIN of me to have this jealousy, this insidious longing in my soul to be something other than what I am.
How small, how petty, how sad.
Mathematics, though, are about truth, as far as I can tell. I am interested in quantum mechanics because of the attempt to explain by mathematical means chaos. For those who don't know, I am extensively trained in music theory. While I am not a talented performer (at all), I am quite good at understanding music. When I do see it, though, I look at it from a mathematical perspective.
Just as we as humans ( I think it is this way around the world) think of mathematics as a series of problems with a basis in the numbers 0-9, I think of music as a series of problems with a basis in the harmonic scale. Just how 5 wants to get to 10, the dominant wants to get to the tonic. Everything inbetween is about creating a conflict to resolve it.
Words are, apparently, the same way. Poetry, prose, lyrics, and everything else are separated from gibberish by their ability to represent to our brain something other than a sound in the air or a mark on a piece of paper. Words are more complicated than music, mainly because we have in our little human ways created more letters and words and verbal concepts than musical ones.
Visual art can probably be thought of in the same way, it is just a little more abstract. 'Abstract' when referring to visual art, in the sense that I mean it, may be an incorrect term. I don't really mean it as the opposite of 'representative' art, I guess. What I mean is that the resolution involved with visual art is not something that can be as easily categorized as beautiful in a quantitative sense as musical notes or words put in a certain order.
Is this our humanity? The constant search to define the limits of conflict and resolution? It seems that way to me. Higher mathematics are nowhere near as simple as algebra and geometry and division and subtraction, and seem to involve a lot of study by a lot of people with very thick glasses. It seems to me that this pursuit is every bit as wonderful and magical as any other intellectual or philosophical or artistic pursuit...I really don't see the difference.
Back to the Singularity, and the possible implications...maybe this shedding of the body will make mathematics the ultimate form of expression. Maybe all consciousness will gravitate towards some grand unifying theme, and that the true Singularity will resolve the conflict between the analog and the digital. Maybe then, there need be no more strife.
Science and art are usually percieved to be at odds. In sci-fi/fantasy, a theme that is just as prevalent as good vs. evil is law vs. entropy. Michael Moorcock in particular, as I recall, wrote quite a bit about the eternal conflict between order and chaos. His Chaos Lords were at turns beautiful and disgusting, and they were usually evil. His heroes were not necessarily wonderful, either; nor were they necessarily willing players in their fate.
With the Singularity, will there even be evil? Will there be corruption or something like power? Will there be evolution at an ever quickening pace, so that we hurtle faster and faster toward the end of the universe...and will that end be destruction, or eternity...?
What is forever?