Re: The Singularity

Gerhard Kessell-Haak (gerhard_kessell-haak@mail.tait.co.nz)
Thu, 23 Jul 1998 09:46:42 +1200

>>> Eugene Leitl <eugene@liposome.genebee.msu.su> 23/July/1998 04:29am >>>
Gerhard Kessell-Haak (Gerhard Kessell-Haak) writes:

> I've always thought that a superior analogy would be between
humanity
> and "chimpanity" - chimpanzee's have relatively complex social [...]

You're missing the point. The posthumanity's complexity deltas to us _could_ be a lot more than between Feynman and a rhabdovirus. Comparison with insects are weak enough, and comparisons with apes/hominids can cut it even less.

'gene

>>

Fair enough. However, what iteration of post-humanity are we talking about here? Assuming increasing abilities in reasoning and 'extropy' for each iteration, this argument begins to depend heavily on which iteration one is talking about. I find it difficult to believe that the difference between humanity and the first iteration of transhumanity (or iteration-set, if there is a bifurcation into many different forms of transhumanity) will be as large as that between humanity and insects.

The second iteration, though, I'm not so sure about.