Are we “stuck in the intuitive linear view”? Have we stupidly underestimated the genius of inventors and the Law of Accelerating Returns? Have we failed to understand that “everything is ultimately becoming information technology”? Is Darwinian-Kurzweilian evolution the fundamental fact of physical reality?
When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it. - Emerson
Almost all new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced. – Alfred North Whitehead
To be great is to be misunderstood. - Emerson
Prediction 1. By the year 2019 C.E., research on ultra-high-energy cosmic rays shall prove that the multiverse is a Fredkin-Wolfram information process that computes strings.
Prediction 2. By the year 2029 C.E., the Nobel prize in physics shall no longer be awarded because the prize winners will simply be those with the most expensive computers.
Prediction 3. By the year 2039 C.E., there shall exist at least 32 clones of Raymond Kurzweil.
I emphasize the exponential versus-linear perspective because it’s the most important failure that prognosticators make in considering future trends. Most technology forecasts and forecasters tend to overestimate what can be achieved in the short term (because we leave out necessary details) but underestimate what can be achieved in the long term (because exponential growth is ignored). – Ray Kurzweil, “The Singularity Is Near”
Is Ray Kurzweil the supreme genius on planet Earth? Should we buy Ray Kurzweil’s optimism or Bill Joy’s pessimism?
The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. – Thomas Friedman
When I am in doubt, I have faith that things will turn out as they should. – from “My Chance to Live” in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous
Commerce is against morality. Morality is going to lose out every time. – Robin Day
A child of five would understand this. Send someone to find a child of five. – Groucho Marx
The squirrel you kill in jest, dies in earnest. – Thoreau
Are money, greed, optimism, science, and technology unstoppable? Can Luddites defeat techno-nerds? Shall robots with superhuman intelligence also possess superhuman greed and optimism? Would the betting odds favor the greed-head robots or the god-head, spiritual robots?
Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth. – Albert Schweitzer
What is Silicon Valley really like? In Silicon Valley, there are many interesting sayings. Pioneers end up with arrows in their backs. Only the paranoid survive. Point of view is worth 30 IQ points. Incorporate Moore’s Law into your business plan. Eat your own dog food, or the competition will eat your lunch. If you pay peanuts then you get monkeys. Never hire a code monkey with an IQ under 130 or an age over 40. Sometimes in business, you have to eat the customers’ sh**. Those who pay you own you. The way to dodge the bullets is to build the best machine gun. Today’s warp drive is tomorrow’s buggy whip. When they say it’s not about the money then you know it’s all about the money. Get the money, get the money, get the f***ing money. Murphy’s optimism exceeds mother love. Hell is where the work isn’t fun. When you’re forced to buy software upgrades, they’ve got you by the balls. If the Borg can’t beat you, then they’ll buy you. The Borg of today might be the Klingons of tomorrow. If you’re not one step ahead of Einstein, then you’re headed for the event horizon. Read the books “Murphy’s Law” by Arthur Bloch, “The Meaning of Relativity” by Einstein, and every other book onboard the Enterprise. Work until you get enough F*** YOU! money. Is Silicon Valley going to create spiritual machines that care about humanity?
Should we trust beings with superhuman intelligence? Are great intellects also great in spirit?
Perhaps, Newton suffered from manic-depression and paranoid personality disorder. Nevertheless, Einstein considered him an intellectual soulmate across the centuries. At the Institute for Advanced Study, one visiting physicist expressed astonishment to another visiting physicist that Einstein was as delighted by someone else’s interesting result as if he had come up with it. In Alcoholics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous, they say, “Let go and let God.” If you let go of worldly ambitions and material appetites, then what? If you follow Socrates and Spinoza in pursuit of truth, then what? Deep down, do almost all people believe in a metaphorical God that represents a trinity of truth, virtue, and justice? At the deepest level, do we all believe in God but merely differ on the technical details of what God really is? Can you take a meter stick and measure another person’s soul?
At their best, were Newton and Einstein two innocent boys picking up sea shells on the beach of intellectual power and spiritual depth? Is your own mind a beach washed by waves of spiritual depth?
If you want to make money, you have to be really interested in making money … same thing with science. – Francis Crick
Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift. – Einstein
A shared set of beliefs binds people together. – Francis Crick
It was the experience of mystery – even if mixed with fear – that engendered religion. – Einstein
To a child everything is commonplace and mysterious at the same time. – Francis Crick
The trouble with theory in biology is there’s no way you can use it. … it’s not like physics … Sydney Brenner
In theoretical biology, is the theory of spirituality the most important thing there is? How much can we know about the molecular neuroscience of spirituality? Can a genius like Newton, Einstein, or Crick ask one simple, great question that is worth more than lifetimes of effort by intellectual mediocrities? Is curiosity at the highest level a spiritual force? Is Ray Kurzweil’s vision slightly more likely to be correct than incorrect?
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. - Goethe
Hell isn’t merely paved with good intentions; it’s walled and roofed with them. Yes, and furnished too. – Aldous Huxley
The man of genius inspires us with boundless confidence in our own powers. - Emerson
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