Back in June, Charles Stross, my favorite SF author on the Singularity, posted to his blog a short essay titled “Three Arguments Against the Singularity.” It begins:
I periodically get email from folks who, having read “Accelerando”, assume I am some kind of fire-breathing extropian zealot who believes in the imminence of the singularity, the uploading of the libertarians, and the rapture of the nerds. I find this mildly distressing, and so I think it’s time to set the record straight and say what I really think.
Short version: Santa Claus doesn’t exist. [Read more.]
As preface, he assumes you’ve read:
- Vernor Vinge’s ” The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era,”
- Hans Moravec’s “Uploading‘” and
- Nick Bostrom’s “Are You Living In a Computer Simulation?“