Originally Posted by Virgil K. Saari

This all sounds like a secular version of Dispensationalism of the progressive Protestants of the Darby school. Is the Singularity the Rapture in a white lab coat?

Originally Posted by Mr. Ian Pearson, 21st Century Dispensationalist, er -- head of the futurology unit at BT

If you draw the timelines, realistically by 2050 we would expect to be able to download your mind into a machine, so when you die it's not a major career problem.

He admits his prophecies are both 'very exciting' and 'very scary'.


I hope those lab coat sleeves can be securely tied at the back. :arrow: :arrow: :arrow:

Virgil,

"Smart yoghurt" is one concept that has escaped me. Thanks. This article is just what I would expect to see as Virtual Afterlife comes into focus. 2050? I don't know. But I suspect it's inevitable.

However, there is one troublesome thing about an immortality machine: it will take forever to test it.

John,

Thanks for the hula girls feature. Now I'm getting excited. Where's my Arthur Godfrey ukulele?

And what do you think of Virgil's post? Pretty cool, ay? Would smart yoghurt qualify as Singularity #1 or Singularity #2?

BTW: If you had a mind to, John, could you differentiate "form" from "function" for me in a way that covers both computers and biological life.

--Richard/Croakmore

Dear Richard,

Originally Posted by Croakmore

> BTW: If you had a mind to, John, could you differentiate "form"
> from "function" for me in a way that covers both computers and
> biological life.

The best way to do that is to illustrate how intelligent computers
are changing:



The Turk - a chess-playing computer from the late 1700s



Roomba - a housecleaning computer from today



Robots from the future

See the difference between form and function?

Sincerely,

John

John J. Xenakis
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com

Well, John, this is very nice, but it is a bit too subjective for me to grasp. If what you are glorifying is the power of subjective persuasion then I can understand your explanation in terms of a California Reality, but not in terms of my own. Please, if you will, show me where the form is objectively different from the function.

In my realilty the two are universes apart. But before I tell you what they are, please bring forward your literal definitions. They may be the same as mine.

--Richard

To all:

As we head toward a world where super-intelligent computers do all
kinds of things on their own, it's important to keep track of all the
important little advances along the way.

In the spirit of science and discovery, I offer you an important new
development in robots. This isn't an intelligent robot, but it is a
robot performing an important job.

And it's heartwarming to know that a student at Michigan State
University has been willing to devote his time and energy to such an
important project.

So here is a picture of this very important new robot:



And here's the story of this important breakthrough:

The remote-controlled robot arm - directed from across the room in
this instance - prepares to examine simulated breast tissue (Image:
Kurt Stepnitz, Michigan State University)

Life-saving breast examinations could soon be performed by a robotic
hand that combines ultrasound with an artificial sense of touch.

The robotic breast examiner was devised by researchers at Michigan
State University in the US. They say it will enable a medical
specialist to examine women from a remote location, perhaps even from
the other side of the world.

"Just because you’re located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or
even Botswana, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a sophisticated
diagnostic or therapeutic procedure," says Carol Slomski, a surgeon at
Michigan State University, who helped design the system.

The robot hand is remotely controlled by means of a haptic "glove", in
which each finger is connected to a motion-sensing device. The
operator's hand movements are then measured and sent via a computer to
the artificial hand, which almost instantly mimics the operator's
moves.

Hand-in-glove

The robotic grasper also measures the consistency of objects in its
grasp by means of feedback to its motors. And this tactile information
is fee back to the mechanical glove giving the wearer an artificial
sensation of touch.

The arm also incorporates an ultrasound sensor as well as three video
cameras, to give the expert a good view of the procedure.

"Having the capability of ultrasound and palpation simultaneously is a
major advantage," adds Ranjan Mukherjee, another member of the
Michigan team. "Often the ultrasound and exam are done separately. But
if the physician can look at the image and feel what he or she is
seeing, that’s another huge advantage."

Data delay

Mukherjee says the next stage is to conduct clinical trials, which
should show how reliable the system is. But he believes it could be
five years before the system becomes commercially available.

“It is a realistic thing to try to do,” says computer interaction
expert Stephen Brewster, at the University of Glasgow, UK. “Lots of
telesurgery work is for the military so it is nice to see something
coming into the standard medical domain.”

But Brewster adds that the system would need to match a doctor’s
bedside manner when dealing with patients. “There are of course issues
with powerful robots coming into direct contact with people,” he told
New Scientist. “It would have to be very carefully designed and tested
to make sure that it could not exert inappropriate forces and so cause
harm.”

But some experts are more doubtful that such a system would work in
practice. "Tele-operated robots have a big problem with delay," says
William Harwin, at the University of Reading in the UK, and the
sensitivity of touch is not as good.

He suggests a better way to perform remote examinations is to perform
the data gathering and expert analysis one after the other. "A more
realistic model in principal is to gather data from the remote site,
under direction from the clinical base," he explains, and then
transfer it the remote expert, who could then use virtual reality
tools to interpret it.

* 15:41 05 July 2005
* NewScientist.com news service
* Will Knight
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7630

As if child birthing and peeing standing up isn't enough, here is yet more reason why I am glad I am a man. These poor girls, some of them my grandma's age now get to get felt up by a robot.

Wooohooo LOL ROTFLMAO

Oh man the world is a funny place.

Originally Posted by mgibbons19 (71)

As if child birthing and peeing standing up isn't enough, here is yet more reason why I am glad I am a man. These poor girls, some of them my grandma's age now get to get felt up by a robot.

Wooohooo LOL ROTFLMAO

Oh man the world is a funny place.

Who knows, we may have robots for prostate exams, so don't go feeling relieved yet.

Dear Andy,

Originally Posted by Andy '85

Originally Posted by mgibbons19 (71)

As if child birthing and peeing standing up isn't enough, here is yet more reason why I am glad I am a man. These poor girls, some of them my grandma's age now get to get felt up by a robot.

Wooohooo LOL ROTFLMAO

Oh man the world is a funny place.

Who knows, we may have robots for prostate exams, so don't go feeling relieved yet.

Exactly!!!!!

John

Hold up now, I'm sitll only thirty four. I have at least a few more years of (imagined) dignity left.

Instead of a rubber glove, they could probably just use Trojan on the thing. Gives a whole new meaning to:

"Those effing machines"

And then the anchor lady on news25 can remind everyoboyd on the 19th to call up their "prostate pal" and remind them to self examine.

How can you give yourself an exam when you'd be too busy laughing at the prospect? At least I would :lol: Especially if it's on the Evening News.

Hey when do I get my Cherry 2000?

For you older folks.... Where's my Stepford Wife?

This thread has gone anal with The Singularity. I'm expecting posts from Lucky Pierre and Ben Dover anytime now.

--Croak

" Uh..... huhuhuhuh....You said Anal"

Originally Posted by spudzill

" Uh..... huhuhuhuh....You said Anal"

spudsill, that's beautifully generational, as I am supposing you were playing off the Beavis & Butthead isomorph.

--Croakmore

Yep! :lol:

You said Anal and we're discussing a big, black,hole. God, this gets sicker by the minute.

Please get this thread back on track.

What's to say? If this singularity exists at some time in the future there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. Either they will wipe out humanity or they won't we won't be able to affect the outcome in any way.

Back on track:

From my POV as a biologist this Singularity will entail some form of artificial life with an intelligence that is digital, virtual, and non-analogous (i.e., not morphological like a muscle but instead of digital like a gene). AI may even require quantum computers, but it will be digital nevertheless. At lot of fuss is now being made over this so-called "digital biology." Some of DB referes to artistic portrials, but the stuff that interests me is moving toward non-analogous interpretations of life. To me, this suggests that a virtual afterlife will be possible for individual humans, which will reset the calendar as a measure of its magnitude of importance.

It will be hard to suppress the social implications of technological immortality.

I think the Singularity Project is well on its way, but in the direction of this thing called digital biology. Here's a tool kit with which to mess around and go exploring.

I take notice that at lot of what is going on in DB is going on in Germany...Hmmm, are we dabling in "eugenics" again, or is that just an inevitable consequence of DB?

Just in case the notion of digital genes seems strange, consider the fact that a gene is "pure digital information, information that can be encoded, recorded and decoded, without any degradation or change of meaning" (Richard Dawkins). As such, a gene is like a sentence -- literally and linearly arranged words made from digital letters.

--Croakmore

Hmmm.. can I do anything about it? The Singularity I mean? And DB is way new so by the time it's available to create immortalty I'll be too old too want it and too poor to afford it.

Originally Posted by spudzill

Hmmm.. can I do anything about it? The Singularity I mean? And DB is way new so by the time it's available to create immortalty I'll be too old too want it and too poor to afford it.

Well, that's an egocentric attitude for you. Why then even bother with The Future thread?

What? Throwing a monkey wrench into the works isn't valid?

What? Throwing a monkey wrench into the works isn't valid?

Besides I'm an Xer. We don't as a rule believe in the future, or at least that it is a romotely good thing. We're Reactives after all.