Evolution is a process of creating patterns of increasing order....I believe that it's the evolution of patterns that constitutes the ultimate story of our world. Evolution works through indirection: each stage or epoch uses the information-processing methods of the previous epoch to create the next.

The most important thing is this: To be able at any moment ot sacrifice what we are for what we could become.

We currently understand the speed of light as a bounding factor on the transfer of information. Circumventing this limit has to be regarded as highly speculative, but ther are hints that this constraint may be able to be superseded. If there are even subtle deviations, we will ultimately harness this superliminal ability. Whether our civilization infuses the rest of the universe with its creativity and intelligence quickly or slowly depends on its immutability. In any even the "dumb" matter and machanisms of the universe will be transformed into exquisitely sublime forms of intelligence, which will constitute the sixth epoch [The Universe Wakes Up] in the evolution of patterns of information. This is the ultimate destiny of the Singularity and of the universe.

A Singularitarian is someone who understands the Singularity and has reflected on its meaning for his or her own life.

Being a Singularitarian has often been an alienating and lonely experience for me because most people I encounter do not share my outlook. Most "big thinkers" are totally unaware of this big thought. In a myriad of statements and comments people typically evidence the common wisdom that human life is short, that out physical and intellectual reach is limited, and that nothing fundamental will change in our lifetimes. I expect this narrow view to change as the implications of accelerating change become increasingly apparent, but having more people with whom to share my outlook is a major reason that I wrote this book.

We have the means right now to live long enough to live forever. Existing knowledge can be aggressively applied to dramatically slow down aging processes so we can still be in vital health when the more radical life extending therapies from biotechnology and nanotechnology become available. But most baby boomers won't make it because they are unaware of the accelerating aging process in their bodies and the opportunity to intervene.

The Singularity denotes an event that will take place in the material world, the inevitable next step in the evolutionary process that started with biological evolution and has extended through human-directed technological evolution. however, it is precisely in the world of matter and energy that we encounter transcendence, a principal connotation of what people refer to as spirituality.

Molly 2004: The boundary of myself is seeming less and less clear.

Ray: Well, just wait until we're predominantly nonbiological. Then we'll be able to merge our thoughts and thinking at will, so finding boundaries will be even more difficult.

Molly 2004: That actually sounds kind of appealing, You know, some Buddhist philosophies emphasize the extent to which there is inherently no boundary at all between us.

Ray: Sounds like they're talking about the Singularity

Evolution moves towards greater complexity, greater elegance, greater knowledge, greater intelligence, greater beauty, greater creativity, and greater levels of subtle attributes such as love. In every monotheistic tradition God is likewise described as all of these qualities, only without limitation: infinite knowledge, infinite intelligence, infinite beauty, infinite creativity, infinite love, and so on. Of course, even the accelerating growth of evolution never achieves an infinite level, but as it explodes exponentially it certainly moves rapidly in that direction. So evolution moves inexorably towards this conception of God, although never quite reaching this ideal. We can regard, therefore, the freeing of our thinking from the severe limitations of its biological form to be an essentially spiritual undertaking.

Molly 2004: So you don't acknowledge the existence of the universe?

Ray: No, I just said that I do believe that it exists, but I'm pointing out that it's a belief. That's my personal leap of faith.

Molly 2004: All right, but I asked whether you believe in God.

Ray: Again, "God" is a word by which people mean different things. For the sake of your question, we can consider God to be the universe, and I said that I believe in the existence of the universe.