Our body politic it will tear
Dinosaurs roamed the earth
Against them, was their speed and girth
Arise, awake, singularity is here!
The world ahead is bound to seem queer
Bionic beings will be the norm
Taking our world by storm
Beware, take care, singularity is here
You will be more than 'you' in the future
Synthetic cortex, exo-skeletons and avatars
Benign extensions, or predators?
Learn, understand and singularity you won't fear
Indeed, you may hold it dear and near
A time when technology overtakes human
And we transcend the neighborhood of our sun
Ask, inquire singularity is here
How do the future and past compare?
Imagine a time before Google
And ask, if Google is just an early struggle?
Enjoy, experience singularity is here
Driverless cars, delivery drones and the bio-engineered
Our time freed and jobs wholly new
We will look back and say, 'great... whew!'
Imagine, leap! Singularity is here
Don't be left behind by the emerging culture
The learning is not from today's schools
Knowing one thing for life, is for fools!
Deep into singularity, you should peer
Vault past our mental barrier
Soon will be born the bionic man
And (s)he will, the universe span!
Notes:
1. Arise, awake, stop not till the goal is reached is a refrain from Katha Upanishad composed in ~ 4th century BC. Ralph Waldo Emerson used the central story from this Upanishad in his essay Immortality
2. Ray Kurzweil, currently CTO of Google, predicts Singularity will occur in 2045. Singularity, is a hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence will have progressed to the point of a greater-than-human intelligence, radically changing civilization, and perhaps human nature
3. A modern day Dinosaur example includes Kodak when it missed capitalizing on the digital camera that it invented in its shop! Any doubt that General Motors is a dinosaur directly in front of our eyes?
4. Synthetic cortex - Nanocarbon modeling may be the next step toward emulating human brain function. That's the focus of a "synthetic cortex" currently under development.
5. Bionic Man - it is worth watching this TED talk performance, where a dancer hurt in last year's Boston marathon bombing has been helped by MIT to recover and dance again with a bionic leg
https://www.ted.com/talks/hugh_herr_the_new_bionics_that_let_us_run_climb_and_dance
6. Is our schooling adequate anymore for the next generation to navigate this new world? Is gaining a degree set you for life?
7. Imagine a day (in the near future), when our electronic holographic avatar lands on Saturn's moon and allows us to see, touch, smell it from earth?!
8. A most prescient convocation speech by Martin Luther King Jr - 'Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution' - where he exhorts us not to be Rip Van Winkle and discusses technological change, social change and the need for new laws to deal with a revolutions underway. Could not be more appropriate as we think about Singularity!
http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/BlackHistoryMonth/MLK/CommAddress.html
6 comments:
Wow! This is fantastic! Thank you for sharing....
Cool. (And a little unnerving...!)
The MLK Jr speeches in your notes section is one of the greatest speeches.
To begin with, King apologized for being late on account of head winds that slowed his flight from Chicago to Iowa. And he apologized for having to leave early: he had to finish a jail term in Alabama. He used the story of Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle as the metaphor for his "sermon" as he called it, as well as a passage from Revelation that I forget. I do remember Van Winkle because I have always liked the idea of that tale.
In case you have not read it Van Winkle is put to sleep for 20 years by a group of gnomes in the Catskills who persuade him to drink what turns out to be a magic potion that puts him peacefully out for 2 decades. Here's the key: When he walked up the mountain he saw a sign that had a picture of George III; when he walked down the picture was of George Washington. The reader understands even if Van Winkle does not that Winkle has actually slept through a revolution.
King's assertion is that too many of us in 1967 - and I believe the same is true today - are sleeping through a revolution. King describes the revolution in three parts: technology changes, the shrinking of the earth, and our attitude towards race. With technology he uses a great example of being able to fly from Tokyo on Saturday arrive in California on Sunday so that when people ask you when you left you can answer: Tomorrow !
With technology he emphasizes something very important: Taking care that the technological means do not overwhelm the cultural, moral, and social ends. Technology is changing so fast, he says, that we are unable to keep up with understanding where it is taking us.
With a shrinking world he emphasizes that distant places (Vietnam and India were his examples) are becoming part of our neighborhood. However true that was in 1967 it has become even more true today. The killings in Isla Vista seem like they happened right down the street. The terror in Iraq could be happening just across the Hudson.
With race he emphasizes how our attitudes do get shaped by law. He makes a great response to those who say correctly that you cannot legislate morality by claiming correctly that the law can change our habits.
Pretty good but, clearly, "singularity" is the hardest word ever to with which to do ditties!
Wow,.Brilliant !! ...Liked the graph-plot !!
Thanks for sharing the singularity poem. Some great reflections.
I am watching Her as I write this. If you want to get an idea of what life with a conscious computer might be like, its a good one to explore.
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