singularity utopia

Singularity Defined and Refined

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The meanings of words change. Meanings evolve. Definitions of words are not set in stone, they aren’t unalterable commandments from God. Words are merely concepts humans have invented. The original definition of “awful” was apparently full of awe, worthy of respect.

Anyone can invent a word. Successful inventions enter common usage. All inventions are typically refined. The invention of words isn’t immune to refinement.

Misunderstanding often occurs regarding the word Singularity because this word is being refined, which is more common for new concepts. I think the Singularity is a colossal intelligence explosion, limitless intelligence, which creates utopia. It is not about mind-uploading or unpredictability.

Post-Scarcity is a clearer way to define the Singularity. Scarce intelligence is the source of all scarcity. Lifespan-scarcity, food-scarcity, or spaceship-scarcity all highlight how intellectual insufficiency is the obstacle to utopia. A resource called “intelligence” is the source of all technology. Technology is essentially intelligence, which means explosive intelligence is an explosion of resources.

singularity
Image by the artist Hugh C Fathers. All rights reserved ©

Our brainpower has been essential for our progress. Our minds erode scarcity. James Miller in his book Singularity Rising wrote: “Economic prosperity comes from human intelligence.” Ramez Naam also highlights the power of our brains in his book The Infinite Resource, thus regarding innovation he stated on his website: “Throughout human history we have learned to overcome scarcity and adversity through the application of innovation — the only resource that is expanded, not depleted, the more we use it.”

You could say we’re approaching an explosion of innovation. Technology conquers scarcity, technology liberates us from scarcity, but the power of technology (intelligence) is currently limited, scarce. We are suffering from a scarcity of ultra-sophisticated technology (intelligence) thus all resources are somewhat scarce. Human-level AI is extremely scarce, it is non-existent in the year 2013. When human-level AI is created we will start quickly eradicating all forms of scarcity, we will be rapidly approaching a colossal explosion of intelligence – the Singularity. [I was inspired to write about the definition of the Singularity after a G+ post by Mark Bruce. Mark wrote about the meaning of egregious, and wondered why the meaning had changed.]

The word egregious immediately caused me to think about the word gregarious, which is a logical connection to make. Both words are based on the Latin grex, gregis, which means “flock.” Gregarious means sociable, companionable; being part of the flock. Currently egregious means outstandingly bad, but the original meaning was merely outstanding, a shining example of awesomeness. Egregious is all about standing out from the flock, but interpretations could differ because standing out from the crowd can be good or bad. Farmers for example might not appreciate rebellious sheep.

The concept of the “black sheep” is a notorious idiom regarding non-conformity (standing out from the flock). Mark Bruce thought the meaning of egregious could have changed due to sarcasm but I think it’s merely a change based on obedience and conformity. The evolution of civilization has temporarily led to greater regimentation, mediocrity has been valued because it maintains social equilibrium, which I suspect is the reason why egregious (outstanding illustriousness) became bad. Blending into the flock became desirable while nonconformity became shockingly wrong. During the early stages of civilization, when populations were small thus less draining on resources, authoritarian control was less obvious or less needed, which could be why egregious originally described a valuable nonconformist trait of being “outstanding.”

Dealing with extremes can cause a switch between the two poles thus intense love can easily become intense hate if you are betrayed by a lover. Lovers can also become irrationally jealous, vengeful. Perhaps this is why the Singularity can either be utopia or dystopia, or perhaps it is why Snowden is either a hero or a traitor. Maybe it all depends on your viewpoint?

Insufficient intelligence causes humans to misunderstand situations. Fights over scarce resources occur, which causes civilization to emphasize the authoritarian disharmony of scarcity. Intelligent people via their foresight will think Snowden is a hero because they understand technology is eroding scarcity. Conversely Snowden has been deemed a traitor based on unawareness of the future. Snowden’s leaks represent decreasing scarcity but unawareness means people wrongly assume his actions threaten civilization.

Thankfully, despite the teething troubles of civilization, our collective intelligence is increasing thus there is less need to blend into the flock, although we do remain locked into scarcity-based battles. Sometime around year 2030 I think the authoritarian controls of civilization will be significantly abolished, but until then perhaps technology will be awful. Theoretically we could improve civilization much sooner but humans do suffer from scarce intelligence, which means it is difficult to be aware of the future.

The Singularity is a theory not an unalterable prophecy. The Singularity isn’t comparable to the biblical word of God, which warns against change: “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

If intelligence is the focus of the Singularity then it is vital to refine our understanding of the theory, we need to improve how we define it. We need to consider what the purpose of intelligence is. Is it smart to become more intelligent? Is colossal intelligence really intelligent if it fails to create utopia? Is colossal intelligence painfully slow or is it defined via a emancipatory quickness? Michael Anissimov has stated we should stick to the “original documents” (3m 29s) regarding the Singularity but I think unyielding closure contradicts the openness of intelligence.

In addition to Michael’s biblical immutability, which focuses on the “original documents,” there is an issue with the way that Singularity University defines the meaning of the intelligence explosion. I often encounter people who think the Singularity has already happened. This kind of misunderstanding seems perpetuated by Singularity University because they suggest the Singularity is merely “dramatic technological change.”

If we are merely considering dramatic technological change then it is understandable for people to think the iPhone or Google Glass is the Singularity. Corruption of meanings can be frustrating, very confusing, but restricting our ability to change meanings isn’t the solution. The solution is openness whereby all meanings can be debated without any one individual or organisation imposing their authority to create absolute definitions.

Ray Kurzweil and Vernor Vinge have influenced my thinking but from my viewpoint they don’t fully comprehend the Singularity. Their biggest mistake is to think the Singularity is unknowable, unpredictable, beyond human comprehension. There is no rational reason to assume advanced intelligence would be unfathomable, in fact unfathomableness is decidedly unintelligent thus more appropriate for a censorious religion than explosive intelligence. Explosive intelligence should logically increase comprehension for everyone instead of decreasing comprehension.

A naked singularity, which has no event horizon, is a better analogy than standard gravitational singularities for describing our technological Singularity. Naked singularities are theoretically more powerful than standard black holes, they are more singular, thus metaphorically better descriptors of colossal intelligence. Standard singularities are comparatively boring.

Note also how instead of obscurantism recent black-hole research suggests that physics-ending singularities vanish, thereby creating bridges to alternate universes. This means that with the help of loop quantum gravity we might be able to deny the claim that the laws of physics break down in standard black-holes.

The black hole information paradox is a fascinating paradox. Perhaps information is not lost. Whatever the situation is regarding gravitational singularities, whether information is hidden or revealed, it should be noted obscurantism is not a facet of intelligence. [Although the CIA objecting to Snowden’s openness will probably disagree.] If gravitational singularities entail obscured information, if they are unfathomable or unknowable, then the metaphor is wrong because true intelligence is or should be opposed to [cosmic] censorship. Obscurantism is antithetical to intelligence.

Please note that despite the Singularity inevitably leading to widespread extrasolar, extragalactic and perhaps even multiverse colonisation, it is not a cosmological phenomenon. The Singularity is “only” metaphorically a stellar event.

Similar to how “egregious” had a different meaning at a different point in history, I think changing awareness will let people comprehend how the Singularity is opposed to obscurantism. In the future there will be no elitist restrictions and everyone will easily access explosive intelligence.

Maybe in year 2045 there will need to be Singularity whistle-blowers leaking classified intelligence from the core of the intelligence explosion? Obviously I jest when I state the intelligence explosion would need whistle-blowers. All restrictions upon knowledge will be explosively obliterated. The Singularity will be understood by everyone.

Incorrect definitions of the Singularity are mainly based on unawareness of how scarcity currently shapes our lives. Faulty predictions of the future fail to see how scarcity will be eradicated. The ramifications of scarcity ending are not appreciated. There is a failure to comprehend what the end of scarcity actually entails, namely how it relates to technology and/or information. Based on current circumstances people therefore envisage a future of scarce understanding – a future of restricted information where knowledge is limited to a minority of specialists. This entails incorrectly envisioned scenarios where the future is utterly unfathomable or robots kill humans then destroy the Earth: “…the risks of machines outwitting humans in battles for resources and self-preservation cannot simply be dismissed.”

Finally, the Singularity is capitalized because it is a unique event distinct from gravitational singularities. It is similar to how the Big Bang, the Mesozoic Era, or the Industrial Revolution is capitalized.

 

About the Author:

Singularity Utopia writes for Singularity-2045, a Post-Scarcity orientated website dedicated to increasing awareness regarding the coming technological utopia. The goal is to make the Singularity happen sooner instead of later.

 

 

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Is The Singularity Happening Now?

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Digital-Black-HolePeople have grossly misunderstood the Singularity if they think it is already happening or has happened. The Singularity is not a seamless merging of humans and technology, neither is it about mind-uploading. The Singularity is an intelligence explosion, we are considering utterly colossal intelligence.

I was inspired to clarify what the Singularity is because wearable computing pioneer Thad Starner, who is also the technical manager of Google Glass, recently stated:

“I would argue that we’re currently living the singularity, where the tool stops and the mind begins will start becoming blurry.”

Yes humans and technology will merge, in fact we are merging, but a merger of humans and technology is not the Singularity. The reason why we don’t yet have the Singularity can be demonstrated by several points:

  • 1. Our lack of immortality shows how our medical technology is not very proficient. The fact that people die in various ways despite our general desire to stay alive shows how medical technology is not very smart, in fact our level of intelligence regarding medical technology is positively dumb. Considering how stem cell applications will likely develop over the next 20 or 30 years (2033 – 2043), you can see our current life-extending medical tech is very non-Singular. While people are unavoidably mortal we do not have the Singularity. The Singularity however is more than mere medical immortality, hence these additional points:
  • 2. Our enslavement via resource-scarcity is another marker regarding deficient intelligence and deficient technology. Resource-scarcity clearly marks the absence of the intelligence explosion. Deficiency of technology entailing a necessity to work so that you can survive, the necessity to provide food and shelter, it is a necessity arising from a primitive level of technology, it is a pre-Singularity level of technology. The restrictiveness of scarcity controlling your life isn’t a smart way to live, it isn’t a smart way to utilise your existence. When brute survival dominates your life there is no freedom to truly explore your mind. Resource-scarcity shapes our lives in a very unintelligent manner, scarcity is unintelligent, which means crimes exist, money exists, and jobs exist. When the Singularity happens there will be no need to work, everything will be automated, there will be no money; everything will be free in a libertarian and financial sense. Constraints upon liberty only happen to ensure populations are subjugated, a subjugation which ensures compliance with wealth inequality. Deficient freedom depends upon wealth imbalance regarding a minority of people being very rich while the majority are poor. Freedom is restricted thereby forcing people to accept wealth inequality. Freedom is restricted to ensure people do not rebel against wealth inequality, which means financial liberty and existential liberty are inextricably interlinked. Furthermore, in a scarcity situation, stupidity is socio-politically enhanced because unintelligent people are less likely to question wealth inequality, which is an emphasis of stupidity exacerbating the non-existence of the intelligence explosion. When the Singularity happens there will be no scarcity of any valuable item you desire, thus no need to dominate the populace regarding compliance with wealth inequality, there will be no need for socio-economic engineering of stupidity. There will be total freedom.
  • 3. Post-Scarcity, which is addressed in point number 2, is an alternate name for the Singularity, but similar to the Singularity people sometimes say we already have Post-Scarcity, they wrongly think Post-Scarcity has already happened but it isn’t evenly distributed. The meaning of Post-Scarcity must therefore be clarified. Post-Scarcity is an alternate viewpoint of the Singularity akin to differing views of a person’s head, for example the back of a person’s head compared to the face view. Both views reveal a head but different viewpoints present different pictures. Post-Scarcity is LIMITLESSNESS, it is not merely about better management of abundant resources, thereby entailing everything is free. Post-Scarcity is a level of limitless so pronounced, so deeply entrenched, it would be utterly impossible to restrict the resource availability. The abundance is so SUPER that no management or distribution of resources whatsoever is needed. The Singularity (Post-Scarcity) is a state of limitlessness regarding any resource, with the principle focus on limitless intelligence because all resources flow from intelligence.
  • 4. Finally to summarise the meaning of the Singularity, here is a list of points, in no particular order, which all need to be fulfilled for the Singularity to be happening:

● All crime and violence are abolished because crime and violence depend wholly on scarcity for their existence. All governments have ceased to exist. No governance is required regarding the abolition of violence and crime because Post-Scarcity simply cuts off, at the source, the impetus for anti-social tendencies. Scarcity is the source of all anti-social tendencies thus by abolishing scarcity you abolish everything which exists due to scarcity, thus governments will cease to exist because governments exist wholly to manage scarcity, governments manage the social dysfunction arising from scarcity, governments ensure great wealth for a minority of people in a scarcity situation, whereas in a Post-Scarcity situation everyone can have limitless wealth.

● Everything is free, nobody needs to work, anyone can have anything they want.

● Everyone is immortal if they want to be. Furthermore access to medical immortality is no more difficult than clicking your fingers or blinking.

● Everything desirable is limitless, thus there are no limits on computation, no limits on intelligence, no limits on travel, which means anyone could easily print a super-intelligent spaceship then travel to the end-edge (if there is one) of the universe, whereupon they will easily create a new universe if they want to. Perhaps limitlessness regarding universe-creation is the best way to describe the Singularity because currently we don’t even know how to 3D-print one planet or one duplicate universe. When the Singularity happens it will be easy to create limitless universes, thus if you are mortal and if you cannot print a universe then it is safe to say the intelligence explosion has not happened.

The Singularity is Post-Scarcity, it’s the point where intelligence ceases to be scarce, it’s a technological explosion of intelligence to end all aspects of scarcity, which should happen no later than year 2045. Technology continually allows us to do more for less. The Singularity is about a mind-bending amount of utterly astronomical ultra-efficient technology, which entails extreme super-power at essentially zero cost. The Singularity was definitely not happening in the year 2013. It is extremely unlikely the Singularity will happen before year 2025. I think the Singularity will actually happen very close to 2045.

About the Author:

Singularity Utopia writes for Singularity-2045, a Post-Scarcity orientated website dedicated to increasing awareness regarding the coming technological utopia. The goal is to make the Singularity happen sooner instead of later.

 

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Utopia is Inevitable!

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I feel that Steve Morris’ criticism of utopia in his recent article Utopia?! Get Real! demands a response.

For starters let’s consider the following quote from the article: “It’s all too obvious that humans simply aren’t equipped to build a Utopia or even to live in one.”

Yes humans do have lots of failings. A big failing is the inability of some humans to see the almost certainty of utopia, which we’re approaching. Technology creating utopia is essentially inescapable. The logic for utopia is compelling. The likelihood of technology not creating utopia is so implausible we can state utopia is inevitable.

Typical human flaws are a brilliant reason why humans are being redefined via terms such as “H+” or “Transhuman.” The point is we are leaving behind the outdated human baggage regarding racism, homophobia, idiocy or any other human failings. We are becoming more than human. The Singularity is all about Transhumanism, it is about transcending limits. We are transcending human flaws, or more precisely we’re surpassing inhuman flaws, we are enhancing our humanity, we’re becoming more civilized, thus H+ is a common term within futurism circles.

Steve Morris is correct when he states humans aren’t equipped to build or live in utopia, likewise we must note humans aren’t naturally equipped to communicate instantly with anyone around the world. My point is one of augmentation. From phones to the internet, or aeroplanes to Space-stations, or reading-glasses to microscopes, humans utilize technology to become more than human. Artificial Intelligence will soon represent a truly explosive augmentation. Certainly it’s clear many humans aren’t equipped to contemplate utopia, but technology will solve this via augmenting humans who are otherwise ill-equipped to do so on their own. Our future is not one where humans are ill-equipped, it is a future where Transhumans are perfectly equipped to tackle any problem. The wonders of nanotechnology, synthetic biology, or Stem Cells clearly demonstrate our progress towards becoming more than human. I do recognize there is a long way to go, but I also note how the speed of progress is accelerating.

It is also pertinent to note how intelligence is a relatively new phenomenon for the human race. The idea of civilization is not very old. The Stone Age only ended sometime between 4,500 BC and 2,000 BC. Humans in our current form evolved no earlier than 200,000 BC. We are a young species. It is only recently humans have largely abolished slavery, or given equal rights to women. The mistakes humans have made and continue to make are purely due to our intellectually immature state. We are mere children, we are learning. Metaphorically regarding our intellects we stumble when trying to walk. Initially we could only crawl. Now we are learning how to walk therefore we often fall thus grazing our knees, but we are progressing. One day we will walk without stumbling and then we will run; shortly afterwards our intellectual capacity will become supersonic. It is a mistake to think the current culture of humans is the sole representation of intelligent civilization forever. We are changing, we are evolving, intelligence is increasing.

Steve Morris presents a typical argument about people disagreeing regarding the definition of utopia, thus he states: “Even if we had a Utopia, it wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste.” This is a common fallacy, the idea of people not agreeing about what actually constitutes utopia, it is based upon a failure to understand how scarcity causes all wars and violence. Every crime, every form of dysfunctional behavior, every disagreement, and every religion is based on scarcity. Technology relentlessly pushes us towards a Post-Scarcity situation. All forms of scarcity will be eradicated thus everyone will be perfectly satisfied. Logic in the future will be utterly dominant, all irrationality will be obsolete. The Singularity is about intelligence millions of times greater than human intelligence, we are contemplating at least 20,000 years of progress (based on the rate of progress in year 2001) condensed into only one hundred years. It is a future where everything is free, nobody dies, everybody is eternally young, all governments are abolished, crimes are abolished, and everyone is utterly self-sufficient therefore free to zoom off independently into Space, whereupon people will create strange worlds according to the desires of each individual.

If the preposterously insane situation of people disagreeing about utopia does occur in the future (it really won’t but let’s consider it), then it will be very easy to create a new universe, for each individual, therefore you can escape into infinity. It will be possible in the future for anyone to be utterly separate from anyone who possibly disagrees with you. The level of intelligence we are contemplating is utterly awesome thus we will leave childish worries very far behind.

Finally we should note there is a difference between Utopia the novel or place (capitalised) and utopia the concept (lower-case). The concept refers to a perfect system, a perfect way of life. When I state “perfect” I mean utterly flawless for all people. This is not fiction we are dealing with.

About the Author:

Singularity Utopia writes for Singularity-2045, a Post-Scarcity orientated website dedicated to increasing awareness regarding the coming technological utopia. The goal is to make the Singularity happen sooner instead of later.

 

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Utopia?! Get real!

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For centuries or even millennia, people have dreamed of Utopia. It’s understandable of course. Who wouldn’t want a better life for themselves and others?

The technological singularity seems to hold out a tantalizing possibility of a Utopia here on Earth sometime in the twenty-first century. But hold on a minute. Get real!

It’s all too obvious that humans simply aren’t equipped to build a Utopia or even to live in one. We just can’t handle perfection. We’ve evolved to live in an imperfect world – one that’s not really suited to our needs. When you’re made out of dirt, perfection is always going to remain out of reach.

Humans do manage to achieve greatness from time to time. But then we mess it up.

We discover how to split the atom, then spend the next 60 years pointing nuclear missiles at each other and shouting “You’re an idiot!” – “No, you’re an idiot!” We launch the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit but have to patch it up with duct tape to get it working properly. We build a global computer network that enables instant communications and then devote half of it to advertising Viagra and the other half to showing Gangnam Style videos.

If humans were invited to a meeting of intergalactic intelligences, then we’d turn up late in a used spaceship, borrow someone else’s pencil to take notes, then blow a raspberry at a crucial moment in the discussion. Everything about human society is cobbled together at the last minute and held together with sticking plasters.

Even if we had a Utopia, it wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste. Someone would still be writing rude words over the walls. After all, one person’s Utopia is another’s Dystopic nightmare.

In my opinion, it’s time for us to grow up as a species and admit that Utopia is never going to happen. Even if the Singularity arrives as predicted it’s going to create just as many problems as it solves. Every opportunity brings a new problem and every silver lining has a cloud, if you look hard enough. And with increased leisure time and longer, healthier lives, there’s going to be plenty of time for looking.

We could have abundance, immortality and super-intelligence and still wish for things to be different. The truth is that being human (or transhuman) means spending the rest of eternity blundering in the dark, cobbling together and muddling through. Personally, I wouldn’t swap it for anything.

About the author:

Steve Morris is looking forward to the coming Singularity, but can’t help wondering if lawsuits, patent disputes and health & safety legislation are also accelerating exponentially to a point at which they will negate any technological advancement. When not worrying about this, he reviews tech products at S21 and rambles aimlessly at Blog Blogger Bloggest.

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Visual Culture and Transhumanism

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‘Visual Culture’ has to do with the creation, transmission and perpetuation of ideas in culture by visual means. Imagery, including shapes, colors, logos, fonts, apparel, and more broadly, ‘styles’, become symbols acting to carry and transmit meaning in a particular culture, and communicate ideology. A culture’s symbols can originate in that culture, or be a combination of new and borrowed ideas and meaning from others. For instance ‘tie-dye’, although dating back to ~500 AD, in the West is seen primarily as a symbol of hippie culture, communicating a particular set of social, political, and lifestyle beliefs.

What can we identify in the Singularity and Transhumanist community as playing this particular role, and what ideology does some of the present visual culture communicate?

Transhumanist visual culture can be characterized broadly as forward looking imagery that captures Transhumanist concepts, such as augmented sensory experiences, redesigned bodies, indefinite lifespans, and so on. There is a long history of art in the Transhumanist movement, dating back to the late 1970s/early 1980s with the work of Natasha Vita-More, who named the Transhumanist art movement and wrote the Transhumanist Art Statement and Extropic Art Manifesto, as well as many other papers and presentations promoting and addressing this topic. Transhumanism, however, is now more an intellectual movement than anything else, being markedly less aesthetic than related movements such as the cyberpunk, psychedelic and industrial movements. And so unfortunately, the visual aspect of Transhumanist culture is not well known by many Transhumanists today, and at present does not hold a lot of significance for them. However, there are some rich visual elements abound, and from all corners of Transhumanist thought.

One prominent visual element of Transhumanist culture right now comes out of the work of Rachel Haywire, lead of Experiment Haywire, pioneer of machineKUNT records, founder of the multi-media arts and science festival Extreme Futurist Fest (EFF), and most recently, the Human 2.0 Council. Haywire is thought to be a major force contributing to cross pollination of Transhumanist and Industrial visual culture.

Haywire’s most explicitly Transhumanist projects, for instance, EFF and Human 2.0, deliberately incorporate industrial imagery. Why the crossover? Well for one, the ideology of the two movements in many ways coincides. For instance, Transhumanist’s share with industrial culture a belief in DIY biology/biohacking, which goes alongside tattoos and piercings for Industrialists. Pioneers in mixing Transhumanist and Industrial media are bands Front 242 and Front Line Assembly. Newer enthusiasts in this vein include Trimetrick, UCNX, Chris Coreline and Johan Ess. And industrial artists like Aunia Kahn readily incorporate Transhumanism into their art.

In discussing the motivations of the groups she leads and identifies with, Haywire writes “Transhumanism is not just a field of science for us. It is a lifestyle and an aesthetic. We are real life mutants and the soundtrack to our generation.” And the imagery for her projects is meant to express that. I would add that industrial imagery offers a different dimension from which to view Transhumanist concepts, often in a darker, more aggressive, more urgent, and in some ways more radical light – evoking a strong aesthetic response to the future.

Another source of visual culture in the Transhumanist movement comes from the logos of its institutions. One notable, although perhaps often over-looked logo, is that of the ‘Future of Humanity Institute’, which features the image of a black diamond.

The logo’s symbolism evokes thought on the existential risks faced by humanity via technology, in particular the possibility of a near future Great Filter. It is thought by some futurists that the greatest threats to human survival lay immediately ahead, as we approach the invention of technologies with the power to wipe out all of mankind.

The black diamond symbol is more widely associated with the ski and snowboard industry to mean ‘most difficult’, connoting ‘danger’. In search of a logo, Anders Sandberg explains how Nick Bostrom “saw the ski logo during a holiday and it clicked”. It’s not all doom and gloom, however, the Future of Humanity Institute also identifies with a lesser-known meaning behind the black diamond symbol related to logic. Sandberg writes: “The symbol also has a meaning in some branches of logic, representing “possibility”. Sandberg goes on to recount “I also liked it because it is a dynamic square: something solid, but potentially tipping over in one direction or another.”

The most original and arguably most optimistic visual culture elements associated with Transhumanism today are the work of Singularity Utopia. Her art is meant to affect, at times subconsciously, our views and behavior towards the future, as well as broaden the conceptual reach of Transhumanist ideas. She writes:

“My ‘Singularity ART’ is designed to open minds. Art is often recondite (esoteric) but hopefully the obscurity in my art is not excessive. Via my images I allude to intelligence exploding, thus upon this theme of explosiveness my images typically exhibit an overloaded celebratory aspect. My images represent a very exciting event. I want to capture the excessive abundance of supreme intelligence thus ‘excess’ is a feature of my images.

I want the explosiveness to be accessible to everyone, but for the vast majority of humans I realize extreme intelligence is currently inaccessible. Complexity and simplicity are the two balancing poles in my art. There is dichotomy between excess and minimalism. The concept of intelligence is simple but manifestations of intelligence appear complex for stupid people. Intelligence exploding is a simple concept, which people can theoretically imagine, but in practice many people simply do not have substantial imaginations thus they cannot visualize revolutionary new concepts.

I am influenced by Minimalism, Conceptual Art, and Dada. My Singularity ART is an explanation of massive intelligence for stupid people, therefore due to the mainstream stupidity of humans I hint at Dadaism. Intelligence is conceptually very Anti-Establishment, thus you see the rationale for my Dadaistic hints. Principally I focus on the ‘concept’ in my images because I don’t want people to become sidetracked by surface details, thus via minimal rendering I artistically present my ideas. The Singularity is very strange and powerful but it’s also very simple. I simply want people to comprehend the awesome utopian power of the Singularity, thus via a jolt from my art I try to open human minds. The Singularity is bursting-out, breaking free. Dependent upon the level of intelligence in the viewer, my art will operate on subconscious or conscious levels.”

Just breaking onto the scene of mainstream Transhumanist consciousness has been the art work of Sniff Code, author of the science fiction book Clone. The work is highly provocative and imaginative, coupling imagery with short essays, creative works, and transhumanist poetry. And just announced, Sniff Code will be teaming up with Haywire in designing the website imagery for Extreme Futurist Fest.

So what’s next in this domain? As the popularity of Transhumanism increases we are sure to see it grow and fill out aesthetically—coming to have more of its own identifiable style perhaps, as well as more symbols in which memes can be communicated. Such an evolution is integral to the evolution of Transhumanists more generally, as Vita-More explains in the Transhumanism Art Statement:

As Transhumanist Arts come into focus
As more artists join our efforts
As more designs are produced
As more music is composed
As more stories are written
As the tools and ideas of our art continue to evolve,
So too shall we.

About the Author:

Nikki Olson is a writer/researcher working on an upcoming book about the Singularity with Dr. Kim Solez, as well as relevant educational material for the Lifeboat Foundation. She has a background in philosophy and sociology, and has been involved extensively in Singularity research for 3 years. You can reach Nikki via email at [email protected].

Singularity Utopia: Post Scarcity Awareness As An Antidote To Despair

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In the year 2011 we live a world based upon scarcity. So, what is Post-Scarcity?

Imagine if computers grew on trees, and the world was a gigantic forest, then in a monetary sense computers would be worthless. It would be impossible to sell computers if an extreme over-abundance of computers existed because people could easily acquire computers for free. Scarcity of oil, gas, electricity, food, or computers demands regulation of these limited supplies via monetary restrictions. The price of anything will increase directly in relation to increased scarcity of its supply. In the world of Post-Scarcity everything will be free.

How will a Post-Scarcity civilization arise?

Artificial Intelligence combined with molecular nanotechnology will allow available resources to be utilized with ultra-efficiency, therefore all resources will effectively be unlimited i.e. free.

The Technological Singularity is an explosion of intelligence. Upgrading a computer is much quicker than the slow evolution of biological humans, therefore when computers reach the level of human intelligence, sometime around year 2035, we will then be on the edge of an intelligence explosion: the Singularity.

In the year 2011 people know computers for the current year will be faster than the previous year’s computers. Unfortunately many people haven’t realized how Artificial Intelligence, sometime around year 2040, will be able to create food and other products almost out of thin air. Technology will become extremely sophisticated. Solar power and other forms of energy-reclamation will create free supplies of unlimited energy for everyone. We will effortlessly grow or print food and products (via 3D printing) within our own homes. Everything will be decentralized and everyone will be all powerful. In the future nothing will need to be repaired because molecular nanotechnology will ensure everything is self-repairing.

In this Post-Scarcity future, where everything is free, there will be no reason to feel unhappy; despair will be vanquished. We will enjoy this utopia forever because medical technology will stop people growing old and all illnesses will be curable.

Unfortunately many people in the year 2011 are unaware of how poverty-based-misery will soon end. People often throw their lives away because they are depressed by financial misery. People feel unhappy regarding financial corruption. Money and Governments only exist to regulate scarcity therefore if you are depressed regarding your lack of money, or the unfairness of your Government, you must understand there is a reason to hope; there is a reason why you shouldn’t give up hope.

Sadly some people do give up hope. Regarding the shootings in Arizona by Jared Lee Loughner on 8th January 2011, Jared complained in YouTube videos about Government mind-control and debt. Jared wanted to create a new currency but instead of a new currency there is a better option. We will soon see an era where there is no currency. I feel awareness of Post-Scarcity could have averted Jared’s despair therefore to make the world a happier place I have created some Post-Scarcity symbols for people to share. In the future everything will be free therefore our happiness will be limitless.

About the Author:

Singularity-2045 is a Post-Scarcity orientated website dedicated to increasing awareness regarding the coming technological utopia. The goal is to make the Singularity happen sooner instead of later.

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