You predict we’ll reach a point with artificial intelligence that you call the singularity. How will that affect us?

By the time we get to the 2040s, we’ll be able to multiply human intelligence a billionfold. That will be a profound change that’s singular in nature. Computers are going to keep getting smaller and smaller. Ultimately, they will go inside our bodies and brains and make us healthier, make us smarter. We’ll be online all the time. Search engines won’t wait to be asked.

Probably nothing new here for those well-versed in Kurzweil’s ideas, but it’s still neat to see transhumanist ideas being published in a magazine with as wide a circulation as TIME.

In this article from AlterNet, a writer discusses the “Bizarre Libertarian Plan of Uploading Brains into Robots to Escape Society.” Setting aside his mistaken presumption that all transhumanists share a libertarian political persuasion (although several prominent voices do), he describes several advanced technologies and concepts central to transhumanist thought and comes to the following conclusion:

No one wants to die, but the thought of living forever among narcissistic libertarian cyborgs makes death’s cold embrace seem more like a squishy hug from the Easter Bunny.

Now AlterNet is a “liberal” blog, but I think this post would have been far more interesting had it compared the approach to transhuman concepts from both a libertarian viewpoint and a democratic transhumanist viewpoint as espoused by thinkers like Dr. James Hughes or George Dvorsky.

Politics aside, though, this article does illustrate how most people view transhumanism. First, these technologies are so radical it’s difficult for most people to wrap their minds around them As a result, transhumanist thinkers get labeled as, at best, idealists, and at worst, cranks. Second, even if you convince people that these technologies are feasible and are on their way, it’s a challenge to convince them that they’re desirable. I’m still amazed more people aren’t enthusiastic about the concept that they might never have to die a natural death.

Transhumanism’s struggle in the near future will be portraying itself in ways that aren’t scary, weird or off-putting. Even so, as transhumanist technologies advance I expect a much larger (and organized) backlash. Good, proactive PR can go a long way toward helping to mitigate negative sentiment.

If I were attending the H+ Summit at Harvard this weekend (and oh how I wish I were), I’d be sure to take in Hyena’s lecture on “Global TransHumanism: An Analysis of the Top H+ Nations. Praising Their Achievements and Goals.“

He also provides his opinion on who is helping bring about this potential future:

Ok, so who is working towards this eventuality? Well, if it happens this way, pretty much everybody in the NBIC fields – everybody working on nanotech and biotech and AI and brain science, whether as citizen scientists in a collaborationist project or working for a corporation, or those wacky surrealists at DARPA – they’re all pushing this potentiality forward. Of course, we may have to “hijack the singularity” from them eventually – or even now (think gene patent v. open source bio). But mainly, I think all the people who are engaging in open source collaborationist tinkering and culture, the citizen scientists – particularly the more sophisticated and educated young people that are choosing to invest themselves in “garage” projects – I think they all may be taking us there.

I also think the best, smartest critics and skeptics and SF writers and creators are helping – by problematizing these scenarios in advance, by giving us arguments and narratives that remind us about human behaviors and emotions and political and economic and scientific realities. Brilliant fiction adds to our foresight… our pattern recognition… by playing out dramatic, difficult, dark, challenging, ambiguous or dystopian scenarios based on similar technological possibilities.

Like all of R.U. Sirius’ writings, it’s well worth reading.

One of the great things about TED is that, while the conferences are fairly exclusive, they put up video from their presentations online for all of us to benefit. While there are many presentations worth watching out of the 600+ videos that can be found on the TED site, here are my favorite five talks on transhumanist topics:

Aimee Mullins on running (February 1998)

Aimee Mullins garnered attention as a record-setting runner who also happens to be a double amputee. She successfully competed against able-bodied athletes while at Georgetown University on carbon fiber legs that were modeled after those of a cheetah. At TED1998 she spoke about her experiences running in college and at the paralympics, and the challenges she experienced using her then-revolutionary prosthetics.

Rodney Brooks says robots will invade our lives (February 2003)

Roboticist Rodney Brooks, Director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, spoke in 2003 about how robots would be increasingly integrated into our lives. While advancements in robotics have come a long way since Brooks gave this presentation, a lot of this is still very applicable today, especially his demonstration on how we will provide direction to robots on how to perform complex tasks.

Nick Bostrom on our biggest problems (July 2005)

Philosopher Nick Bostrom, founder of the World Transhumanist Association (Now Humanity+) and current director of Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute, presented on humanity’s three biggest problems, including death, existential risk and that “life isn’t usually as wonderful as it could be.” He talks through how humans would need to change, as well as how we would have to change the world around us, to address these issues.

Ray Kurzweil on how technology will transform us (February 2005)

At TED2005, Ray Kurzweil provided an overview of his Law of Accelerating Returns and how it will affect the development of nanotechnology, the growth of computing, and how we will eventually merge with our technology. This is a great overview of many of Kurzweil’s thoughts that he addresses in his books, particularly The Singularity is Near.

Aubrey de Grey says we can avoid aging (July 2005)

Aubrey de Grey, gerontologist and author of Ending Aging, presented in 2005 on why defeating aging is desirable, why we need to begin serious discussions of radical longevity, feasibility of radical longevity, why humans accept aging, and how we can actually begin to significantly extend lifespans.

EDIT 3/23/10: I clarified some language in the blurb about Aubrey de Grey’s presentation.

The lineup of guest speakers is equally impressive, including Alex Lightman, Natasha Vita-More, Aubrey de Grey, and many, many more.

If I was a Rutgers student, I would be all over this.

• Lunar mining
• Medical miniaturization
• 3-D printing
• Smarter smart phones
• Cloud computing
• Nanotechnology
• Flying on algae (algae-based fuels)
• Living forever
• Biotechnology
• Alternative energies

We’re already seeing most of these in practice and over the next ten years we will certainly see significant advances. I’m skeptical of the suggestion that we’ll be setting up mining operations on the Moon anytime soon, however. To make mining helium-3 on the Moon profitable, we first need to develop practical nuclear fusion on Earth, and that is a *big* stumbling block. Second, we’d need to develop mining equipment that functions in the lunar environment, and build the means for workers to live on the moon. All massively expensive and very complicated.

Otherwise, I thought this was a neat list. It’s interesting to see additional mainstream coverage of these issues – particularly acknowledgement that humans may develop the means to effectively live forever (or at least reach “actuarial escape velocity“) in the next decade or so. No mention of robotics or artificial intelligence advances, however, which might be a big hole when we start looking back at these predictions in 2020.

Rise of the Smartphone

While people have had access to smartphones for some time, 2009 saw an explosion in the popularity and level of adoption of these devices as nearly every mobile carrier focused on promoting these phones and their accompanying unlimited data plans. While top-of-the-line smartphones used to cost hundreds of dollars, these devices can be found at very affordable price points today, and the creation of “app stores” has given customers new ways to customize their mobile experience. Our smartphones now serve as our “exobrains” and enable us to store and access vast amounts of information, navigate unfamiliar areas and communicate with the world. In addition, improved processing power, always-on Internet connections, GPS capability and cameras have also led to practical and useful applications of augmented reality. That leads to…

Useful Augmented Reality

While there may have been demonstrations of AR prior to 2009, this was the year that finally got the technology into people’s hands and made it useful. Applications like Yelp and Google Goggles use the capabilities of the latest smartphones to access reviews of businesses around users and perform searches using pictures, not words. Marketers also discovered how AR could enhance their products, and we saw innovations like AR-enhanced baseball cards and toys that provide additional levels of interactivity.

Transhuman Films Hit the Festival Circuit

Like him or not, inventor and author Ray Kurzweil has been perhaps the most visible and prolific singularitarian/ transhumanist thinker, and has been a great influence on many, including yours truly. Kurzweil has raised awareness of radical longevity, the singularity, and the technologies that will bring them about, including nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and gene therapy. Given his influence, it is perhaps unsurprising that someone would create a film exploring his ideas. That happened this year with the unveiling of a Kurzweil biopic, Transcendent Man, on the festival circuit. Next year we’ll see the theatrical debut of The Singularity is Near, written by Kurzweil himself.

Progress in Advanced Prosthetics

For too long, progress in designing prosthetic limbs has been slow, forcing injured soldiers to rely on 50+ year old technology to replace missing limbs. Driven at least in part by the number of soldiers maimed in combat, development of advanced prosthetic limbs, especially arms and hands, saw massive progress in 2009. We’ve seen arms that, for the first time, approximate the use of the original limb they are trying to replace – complete with the ability to be controlled by the user’s mind and provide tactile feedback in lieu of actual touch. We’ve also seen prosthetic legs that arguably give disabled runners an advantage over their nondisabled competitors.

To be continued…

Your exobrain will even prompt you on social niceties, noticing before you do that a person has lost weight, or changed hairstyles, or (based on Facebook) taken a trip to Cabo. When you get cornered by a bore at a party, your exobrain will recognize that you aren’t doing any of the talking, and place a discreet call to your wing man or woman across the room for a rescue mission.

If you want your exobrain to show you an image, such as a web page, just hold up a blank piece of paper and its pico projector will display the image in front of you. (That’s from TED again.) In a pinch, just hold up the palm of your hand and project on that. By then the exobrain will have image stabilization software, so you can project a movie on a blank wall and it won’t be affected by your fidgeting. Any time you are near a computer screen, it will ask if you want it to accept images from your exobrain.

Although these devices aren’t physically attached to us, we do keep them on our person 24 hours a day – my phone is literally never out of my reach, constantly providing me with enhanced abilities and access to an incredible amount of knowledge. Even if you don’t accept the fact that external devices make us “cyborgs,” it’s not so difficult to realize a day very soon where implanted gadgets mimic the functionality of modern-day smartphones complete with contacts with overlay displays for displaying data along with implanted microphones and in-ear speakers for two-way communication.

To accurately claim to be a “cyborg,” must one merge physically with non-biological technology, or does Adams have a point in that auxiliary devices already make us so?