January 16, 2006

So.

Should I be reading about the Singularity, or will it just make my head hurt?

I think I'll wait until someone puts out a graphic novel about it. That sounds less threatening.

Posted by Attila Girl at January 16, 2006 12:32 AM | TrackBack
Comments

First off, if you're going to talk about 'Singularity' it would be helpful to define it--or one would think. I felt as if it were another "World's best blond joke" circle 'jerk'..."The Singularity is an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today—the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity...Ray Kurzweil book site"

That said, I think it has already happened, so not to worry. We are already "talking" using our computer brains with more supporting data at our fingertips than we ever imagined. And naughty pictures. Let's not forget naughty pictures. We've already transcended the biological limitations of even the most advanced perv of the pre-1980's era.

Posted by: Darrell at January 16, 2006 09:04 AM


Sorry! I wasn't sure I was even in a position to define it, not having read the book.

And the advances in porn are indeed impressive.

Posted by: Attila Girl at January 16, 2006 12:04 PM


I wasn't criticizing you, dear girl! Mr. Dean talked about the subject at length without ever defining what-in-the-heck he was talking about! I assume he thinks everyone should know. Or anyone that counts. Your summary was quite appropriate--indeed what I've come to expect from you. I was a little disappointed the link was NOT broken, however. I know you do that on purpose! I'm beginning to think you don't care! Sniff!

Posted by: Darrell at January 16, 2006 01:26 PM


Sometime soon, I'll serve up a whole bouquet of broken links, and you, Jeff of BA, and Desert Cat can tease me mercilessly about it ;)

Posted by: Attila Girl at January 16, 2006 02:43 PM


Should I be reading about the Singularity, or will it just make my head hurt? I think I'll wait until someone puts out a graphic novel about it. That sounds less threatening.

Oh please! Enough with the gender stereotypes already. ;P

Posted by: Desert Cat at January 16, 2006 07:49 PM


Okay--I'll be literal-minded for a moment, here, because I have been accused of playing the dumb bimbo when it suits me:

I'm a proofreader, so I spend a lot of time reading boring stuff just looking for typos and other irregularities.

So when I look at the kind of close reading that other bloggers do of certain passages, I just throw up my hands in disgust. It's not that I couldn't do it: it's that I have a life. I'm not earning lawyer-money, so I don't have to put up with lawyer-bullshit.

(Also, as you know I'm so arrogant that I feel I've got nothing to prove ;) )

Posted by: Attila Girl at January 17, 2006 12:19 AM


I kid! I kid!

I'm sure it's not what you meant, but y'know, reading it literally...

On the topic, it certainly sounds interesting, but likewise, I'm not *sufficiently* interested to read the book.

(offhand dismissal)
In all likelihood the author had a point he wanted to make, and found sufficient data to make the point.
(/offhand dismissal)

Posted by: Desert Cat at January 17, 2006 03:54 PM


My favorite example of "way too much book to support its thesis"? Guns, Germs and Steel. I gave him a few chapters to get into the meat of his discussion, but he kept talking around it.

So I went away ;)

Posted by: Attila Girl at January 17, 2006 05:10 PM


I'll wait and read about the Singularity on the newsblogs, 'cause if I read about things that haven't happened yet I'll just end up disappointed. Like my flying car. Where the flip is my flying car!?

Posted by: McGehee at January 18, 2006 05:43 PM


I know. There they were on the Jetsons, big as life. And we were supposed to have had them like, decades ago.

Posted by: Attila Girl at January 18, 2006 08:20 PM


I'm going to go into full-on Asperger's Syndrome mode here, and ignore the jokes for a literal answer.

Sure, read about it. Kurzweil's stuff is probably the best, since he chewed the idea most and first. I personally have a hard time with a thesis that reminds me a bit too much of 2010's "Something's going to happen... something wonderful," but that's probably just me being old and cranky.

If you want a more reasonable singularity, try this one on:

Doctors announce a treatment that will extend productive, vigorous human life by 100 years. It costs $75,000,000 per person, and it will be decades before it comes down significantly.
Posted by: Christophe at January 18, 2006 10:23 PM


Tempting, but like most, I can't afford it. And I'm afraid I'd get bored.

My grandmother always said she didn't want to live after she could no longer drive. In my case, it's reading and writing. My singularity: on day x, I'm too old to log on to the internet. On day X + 1, I'm dead.

Easy peasy.

Posted by: Attila Girl at January 18, 2006 11:23 PM




Share photos on twitter with Twitpic "Let the issues be the issue.

About Joy W. McCann: I've been interviewed for Le Monde and mentioned on Fox News. I once did a segment for CNN on "Women and Guns," and this blog is periodically featured on the New York Times' blog list. My writing here has been quoted in California Lawyer. I've appeared on The Glenn and Helen Show. Oh—and Tammy Bruce once bought me breakfast.
My writing has appeared in
The Noise, Handguns, Sports Afield, The American Spectator, and (it's a long story) L.A. Parent. This is my main blog, though I'm also an alumnus of Dean's World, and I help out on the weekends at Right Wing News.
My political philosophy is quite simple: I'm a classical liberal. In our Orwellian times, that makes me a conservative, though one of a decidedly libertarian bent.


8843.jpg An American Carol rawks!
Main AAC site (Warning: sound-enabled;
trailer starts automatically.)


button01.gif
Buy Blogads from the
Conservative
Network here.



AttilaInLCF.JPG
This is one of the last pix
we took before we left
the house in La Cañada.
I think it's very flattering
to Bathsheba the .357.

"The women of this country learned long ago,
those without swords can still die upon them.
I fear neither death nor pain." —Eowyn, Tolkien's
Lord of the Rings


KhawHeadShot.jpg Free Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani!
See Jane Novak's "Yemeni Watch" blog,
Armies of Liberation.
Free journalists and dissident bloggers, worldwide!

Some of My Homegirls— ERROR: http://rpc.blogrolling.com/display_raw.php?r=59e4b55f70f50de810150859b200a635 is currently inaccessible



My Amazon.com Wish List


ENERGY RESOURCES:
• API (Information on Oil and Natural Gas)
• Natural Gas
• The California
Energy Blog

• The Alternative Energy Blog
(Solar, Wind, Geothermal, etc.)
• The Energy Revolution Blog
• Gas 2.0 Blog
• Popular Mechanics'
"Drive Green"



MOVIES & TELEVISION:
Criticism—
• Libertas
(now on hiatus, but they'll be back!) • Pajiba

Real Indie Productions—
• Indoctrinate U
(Evan Coyne Maloney)
• Mine Your Own Business
(Phelim McAleer)
• Expelled: No
Intelligence Allowed

(Ben Stein, Logan Craft,
Walt Ruloff, and John
Sullivan)

Real Indie Production
and Distibution
Companies—

• Moving Picture Institute


THE SAGA OF LIFE IN
THE R.H. HYMERS, JR., CULT:

• First Installment: The Basic Story
• Hymers' History of Violence

• How Fun Is It To
Be Recruited Into Hymer's
Offbeat Church? Not Very.
• How I Lost My Virginity


THE LITTLE MISS
ATTILA SAMPLER:


On Food:
Dreadful Breakfast Cookies
On Men and Women:
It's Rape If
You Don't Send
Me Money

Women Talk Too Much;
I'll Date Dolphins

Heterosexual
Men Are Kinky

Hot Cars,
Hot Girls

On Animation:
Freakazoid!
—the Commentary
Freakazoid!
DVD

On Religion:
Athiests and
Christians Talking
To Each Other



TESTIMONIALS:
"Good grammar, and better gin."
—CalTech Girl
"I enjoy Little Miss Attila's essays."
—Venomous Kate
"Joy is good at catching flies with honey."
—Beth C
"Your position is ludicrous, and worthy of ridicule."
—Ace of Spades
"Sexy."
—RightGirl
"Old-school."
—Suburban Blight

HAWT LYNX:

Teh Funny—
• Dave Burge
Interesting News Items

Civics Lessons—
Taranto on How a Bill Becomes Law

Editorial Resources—
• Better Editor
• Web on the Web
• Me me me me me! (miss.attila --AT-- gmail --dot-- com)
Cigars—
Cigar Jack

Science—
David Linden/
The Accidental Mind

Cognitive Daily

Rive Gauche—
Hip Nerd's Blog
K's Quest
Mr. Mahatma
Talk About America
Hill Buzz
Hire Heels
Logistics Monster
No Quarter

Food & Booze—
Just One Plate (L.A.)
Food Goat
A Full Belly
Salt Shaker
Serious Eats
Slashfood

Travel—
Things You Should Do
(In the West)

Just One Plate (L.A.)

Cars—
• Jalopnik
The Truth About Cars

SoCal News—
Foothill Cities

Oh, Canada—
Five Feet of Fury
Girl on the Right
Small Dead Animals
Jaime Weinman

Audio—
Mary McCann,
The Bone Mama

(formerly in Phoenix, AZ;
now in Seattle, WA;
eclectic music)

Mike Church,
King Dude

(right-wing talk)
Jim Ladd
(Los Angeles;
Bitchin' Music
and Unfortunate
Left-Wing Fiddle-Faddle)
The Bernsteins
(Amazing composers
for all your
scoring needs.
Heh. I said,
"scoring needs.")

Iran, from an Islamic Point of View
and written in beautiful English—

Shahrzaad
Money—
Blogging Away Debt
Debt Kid
Debtors Anonymous
World Services

The Tightwad Gazette

Sex—
Gentleman Pornographer

More o' Dat
Pop Culture—

Danny Barer
(Animation News) • Something Old,
Nothing New

(And yet more
Animation News)
Sam Plenty
(Cool New
Animation Site!)
The Bernsteins
(Wait. Did I mention
the Bernsteins
already? They're
legendary.)

Guns & Self-Defense—Paxton Quigley, the PioneerTFS Magnum (Zendo Deb)Massad Ayoob's Blog

THE BLOGOSPHERE ACCORDING TO
ATTILA GIRL:


The American Mind
Aces, Flopping
Ace of Spades
Argghhh!!!
Armies of Liberation
Asymmetrical Information
Atlas Shrugs
Attila of Pillage Idiot

Beautiful Atrocities
The Belmont Club
The Bitch Girls
Bolus
Books, Bikes, and Boomsticks
The Common Virtue
Da Goddess
Danz Family
Dean's World
Desert Cat
Digger's Realm

Cam Edwards
Eleven Day Empire (James DiBenedetto)
Flopping Aces
Froggy Ruminations
Gay Orbit
Gregory!
Jeff Goldstein

Mary Katherine Ham
At the D.C. Examiner
Hugh Hewitt
Hi. I'm Black.
Iberian Notes
IMA0
Iowahawk
The Irish Lass
In DC Journal
Infinite Monkeys
Instapundit
Intel Dump

Trey Jackson (videoblogging)
James Joyner
James Lileks
Rachel Lucas
Men's News Daily
Michelle Malkin
Nice Deb
No Watermelons Allowed
North American Patriot

On Tap
On the Fritz
On the Third Hand
Outside the Beltway
Oxblog

Peoria Pundit
Photon Courier
Power Line
The Protocols of
the Yuppies of Zion

Protein Wisdom

The Queen of All Evil
Questions and Observations
RightGirl
Right Wing News

Scrappleface
Donald Sensing
Rusty Shackleford
The Shape of Days

Sharp as a Marble
Sheila A-Stray
Laurence Simon

Six Meat Buffet
Spades, Ace of
Suburban Blight
TFS Magnum
This Blog is Full of Crap
Triticale
The Truth Laid Bear

Venomous Kate
VodkaPundit
The Volokh Conspiracy

Where is Raed?
Wizbang
Write Enough
You Big Mouth, You!


milblogsicon.jpg

Support our troops; read the Milblogs!

LinkGrotto
Support a Blogger
at the LinkGrotto.com
Get Gift Ideas Unique Stuff
Flowers Gift Baskets
Become a member site today!