I was first attracted to the idea of the Technological Singularity because I was a recovering pseudoscience freak and immersed in learning all about a mass medium called the World Wide Web. The year was 1997. I was back in Oregon after a disastrous first attempt at college in Rochester, New York; my arms were in pain from a word processing job I had just quit; and I was living off of cashed-out retirement funds that would only last a few months. For 16+ hours every day I browsed the web, learned HTML and CSS, wrote and critiqued fiction, and watched television.
One day I read Vernor Vinge’s “The Coming Technological Singularity“. The first two sentence piqued my interest immediately:
Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.
Vinge was a well-regarded computer science professor and science fiction author and he had presented this essay at, of all places, the VISION-21 Symposium held March 30 and 31, 1993 and “sponsored by NASA Lewis Research Center and the Ohio Aerospace Institute.” Was this concept by an apparently well-respected academic pseudoscience, or was it a perceptive observation about just where technology was heading?
It is Vinge’s version of the Singularity that grabbed my attention, but it is Ray Kurzweil’s version that held me. In his version, all technologies, not only artificial intelligence, are progressing at an exponential rate, merging into each other during the Information Age, and eventually leading to a massive discontinuity in human history when everything we know becomes obsolete overnight. Today, there is a debate about which version should be called the “Technological Singularity”. I tend to stick with Vinge’s definition, while secretly harboring Kurzweil’s vision. I cannot help it; when I came across Kurzweil I was also tabulating data about technological progress in spreadsheets and creating graphs. The exponential growth was obvious to me: technologies follow s-curve growth patterns but new technologies arriving just in time to replace plateauing old technologies. I was also becoming fluent in the analogies, concepts, and word and phrase choices used to describe the Internet, web, and other emerging technologies: Moore’s Law, spider’s webs, threads, evolution, gardens, convergence, etc.
Twelve years after first reading about the concept, I have a deeper understanding of Vinge’s Technological Singularity and a deeper appreciation for the progress of all technologies, not just artificial intelligence. However, the concept remains a fringe idea between science and pseudoscience. The Technological Singularity might today enjoy more mainstream popularity and business interest by notable corporations like Google and Intel, but it remains a fact that ideas in this purgatory demand compelling evidence to push them toward further legitimate research and development.
To critically evaluate a concept like the Technological Singularity, reading popular fare like Kurzweil’s books and singularitarian commentary, or attending events like the Singularity Summit is not enough. My own previous vocal exuberance must be tempered by quiet learning and contemplation. That is why I am studying, for example, the impact of mass media on education through history and reading Patterns of Technological Innovation by Devendra Sahal to learn what “technology”, “innovation”, and “technological progress” actually mean.
H+ Magazine Website Shines
Websites related to transhumanism come and go, and they often fail to keep up with the latest web technologies and design trends. For almost a decade, the official website of transhumanism was a relic of the 1990′s where text was heavy, typography was light, and graphics were small, annoying, or both. This movement embracing emerging technologies seemed strangely resistant to updating its own websites.
WTA website - screen capture 5-28-2009
In my short time at Humanity+ earlier this year, we worked on the finishing touches of a new website with the design firm they had hired. Certainly this new site is a step up from the previous website, and hopefully there will be other steps forward to take advantage of technologies and trends available today. There are some flaws with the new site, though, including the faint shadow of a runner (from an image previously removed) blemishing the top graphic. I am surprised this detail was missed prior to launch, and I am surprised at the quiet nature of the launch.
Humanity+ website - screen capture 5-28-2009
My opinion about the Humanity+ website is of course colored by experience and, more importantly, the arrival earlier this year of the awesome h+ Magazine website. Modern, colorful, dynamic, frequently updated, and accompanied by a community portal making use of the Ning platform, the h+ Magazine website is the first transhumanism-related website to take good advantage of current web technologies and design trends.
H+ Magazine website - screen capture 5-28-2009
Not many websites related to transhumanism have been a regular part of my daily web browsing. H+ Magazine is different. Not only is content updated on a regular basis – surprising, for a digital magazine that only comes out quarterly – but the content is often fun, engaging, and/or unique. I notice myself enjoying certain voices, thanks to the great team of writers the website has gathered. The latest posts are often even relevant to current events and pop culture; for example, the release of Terminator Salvation in movie theaters last week was the occasion for a flurry of engaging articles.
Edited by R. U. Sirius, h+ Magazine was originally published by Humanity+ but spun off earlier this year to Betterhumans owner and former Humanity+ Executive Director James Clement. The spin off appears to have been the occasion for rapid development and deployment, and I hope this continues. With HTML 5 and CSS 3 on the way, pending semantic and “intelligent web” technologies, the rapid growth in online video consumption, and the quick uptake of smartphones like the iPhone, h+ Magazine has the potential to become the dynamic center of transhumanism on the web. I know from experience that keeping up with web technologies and design trends is very hard to do, but with the team h+ Magazine has gathered, I am hopeful they will avoid the fate of so many transhumanism-related websites before them. It would also be awesome if h+ Magazine develops some of those technologies and trends itself!
Check out the h+ Magazine website because it is great-looking, informative, frequently updated, and home to a growing community of transhumanists and other people interested in following the latest trends in emerging technologies!