Saturday - Singularity, Economics and Metaphysics

Today I attended two back-to-back lectures on the Singularity. For those scratching their heads, this is the proposed idea that, at some point in the future, the technology will be available to be able either to upload the human mind into a machine or that machines will be as intelligent as us, if not more.

The first lecture was by an American, Robin Hanson, examining the economic implications of "emulation", as he called it. He was doing quite well, discussing the idea that the uploaded would replace knowledge workers with copies of themselves. Then it went all a bit silly when he came up with the idea that because there would be a drive to think quicker and quicker amongst the uploaded, they would try to live in smaller and smaller bodies, eventually becoming microscopic. The obvious thing here is that uploaded minds wouldn't need bodies at all, and there's no reason they would want smaller bodies any more than larger ones. This was a shame, really, as he then went on to discuss legal implications of copying (the copies would be grouped into "clans" and held responsible for actions of the individuals) and, although he didn't realise it, talked about version control. Software, like Soylent Green, will become people, or the other way around.

Mind you, if this singularity does occur, economics may well go the way of theosophy. Theosophy might be more useful? If your mind lives in a virtual reality, you can be anything you want: a star ship captain; a courtesan at the time of Louis XIV; an elven warrior in Lord of the Rings; a P.I. in 1940's Los Angeles. You'd be a god, of a kind, and God doesn't need economics. More to the point, why would you ever want to come out of the simulation to be part of the real world? Why would you want to stop being a god?

The second lecture, by Jann Tallinn, was about the metaphysics of the singularity and talked about multiple worlds. It was a bit heavy going, probably as that kind of subject wasn't easily digested at the best of times, and less so after another heavy subject.