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fandaalIf the Singularity can not be prevented or confined, just how bad
could the Posthuman era be? Well . . . pretty bad. The physical
extinction of the human race is one possibility. (Or, as Eric Drexler put
it of nanotechnology: given all that such technology can do, perhaps
governments would simply decide that they no longer need citizens.) Yet
physical extinction may not be the scariest possibility. Think of the
different ways we relate to animals. A Posthuman world would still have
plenty of niches where human-equivalent automation would be desirable:
embedded systems in autonomous devices, self-aware daemons in the lower
functioning of larger sentients. (A strongly superhuman intelligence would
likely be a Society of Mind8 with some very competent components.) Some of
these human equivalents might be used for nothing more than digital signal
processing. Others might be very humanlike, yet with a onesidedness, a
dedication that would put them in a mental hospital in our era. Though
none of these creatures mi ght be flesh-and-blood humans, they might be the
closest things in the new environment to what we call human now.
could the Posthuman era be? Well . . . pretty bad. The physical
extinction of the human race is one possibility. (Or, as Eric Drexler put
it of nanotechnology: given all that such technology can do, perhaps
governments would simply decide that they no longer need citizens.) Yet
physical extinction may not be the scariest possibility. Think of the
different ways we relate to animals. A Posthuman world would still have
plenty of niches where human-equivalent automation would be desirable:
embedded systems in autonomous devices, self-aware daemons in the lower
functioning of larger sentients. (A strongly superhuman intelligence would
likely be a Society of Mind8 with some very competent components.) Some of
these human equivalents might be used for nothing more than digital signal
processing. Others might be very humanlike, yet with a onesidedness, a
dedication that would put them in a mental hospital in our era. Though
none of these creatures mi ght be flesh-and-blood humans, they might be the
closest things in the new environment to what we call human now.
