What is the Holodeck?

The Holodeck is a holographic environment simulator. In the Star Trek universe, it's place section in starships and star bases where people hangout to learn, have fun, have sex, and what not.

A holodeck on the Enterprise-D; the arch and exit are prominent.

A step towards...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/04/24/tongue.sight.ap/index.html

In their quest to create the super warrior of the future, some military researchers aren't focusing on organs like muscles or hearts. They're looking at tongues.

By routing signals from helmet-mounted cameras, sonar and other equipment through the tongue to the brain, they hope to give elite soldiers superhuman senses similar to owls, snakes and fish.

Re: A step towards...

thanks for sharing this Bill. interesting stuff. reminded me of Kurzwiel's Human Body Version 2.0 essay. so i created a new thread in The Holodeck board so we can discuss this topic in detail. i suggest that you repost you stuff in this thread:

Human Body 2.0

Re: A step towards...

Which model of the singularity do you tend towards?

There are times when I feel a “healthy” suspicion towards singularity models. They seem so 'literary', a retelling of the eschaton mythology of early christianity.

It seems just as likely to me that we might approach a singularity, then be thrown away from it as a reaction.

But I like to keep a hopeful mind.

Re: A step towards...

i tend to gear towards Kurzweil's version of Technological Singularity since his version (as i perceive it) is the most inclusive, most researched, and his model was the one that got me thinking about this stuff anyway :)

then i try to mash it up with Integral Theory and let the ideas between them flex-flow. i think this approach let me keep the “balance” on things.

if you have other models of Singularity, feel free share it within this pod because that's what this pod is all about.

Re: A step towards...

Well, a few singularity models off the top of ny head might be:

The nanotech singularity.

The biological immortality singularity.

The computers become conscious singularity.

The technological immortality singularity - uploading.

The consciousness singularity.

and, to add a humbling thought at the end…

The olduvai scenario singularity.

I can think of a few others, but, in the same way that some of the ones I mention above are connected (nano-S with uploading-S for instance), most of the others I could mention are just variations of the above themes.

Well, except for the aliens have landed singularity…

You read much Bucky Fuller? His thoughts on 'precession' and technological change? Along those lines, I think it's hard to predict what a singularity would actually look like, because of precession.
 

Re: A step towards...

well, most of the singularity models you mentioned above are covered under the umbrella of Kurzweil's singularity model. one look at KurzweilAi.net would prove this.

and oh, there's an upcoming Singularity Summit at Stanford that is open to the public for free.

With his new book, The Singularity Is Near, Ray Kurzweil has taken all the strands of the singularity meme circulating in the last decades and has united them into a single tome which he has nailed on our front door. I suspect this will be one of the most cited books of the decade. Like Paul Ehrlich's upsetting 1972 book Population Bomb, fan or foe, it's the wave at the epicenter you have to start with.

— Kevin Kelly

Senior Maverick, Wired

Re: A step towards...

Well, you can categorize them into basic groups, I guess.

Technological or information singularities.

Consciousness singularities.

Then a third class, let's call them 'wild singularities', in which something happens like jesus returning, or aliens visiting.

And I suppose you have to include a space for negative singularities, in which everything collapses.

The Kurzweil model is the first one, tech/info singularities.

Bucky Fuller's writings are pretty good. I think “Critical Path” is a good overview.

Fuller's idea of 'precession' is that technical advances create unintended side applications that are often larger than the original technical advance. As an example, we started developing transistors to improve radio, as a precession effect we lerned to make microprcessors, which you wouldn't likely have predicted from the first work on  transistors.

Re: A step towards...

“Fuller's idea of 'precession' is that technical advances create unintended side applications that are often larger than the original technical advance. As an example, we started developing transistors to improve radio, as a precession effect we lerned to make microprcessors, which you wouldn't likely have predicted from the first work on  transistors.”

in Kurzweil's model, this is explained in detail in the Law of Accelerating Returns wherein growth is exponential, which includes “unintended” side applications.

also, i'm still not sure how Ray Kurzweil approach the hard problems of consciousness, but in his model, Consciousness Singularity is also included. in fact, in The Six Epochs (PDF file) Kurzweil even goes as far as Epoch 6: The Universe Wakes Up. so there.

Re: A step towards...

Ahhh, my apologies then, I didn't mean to intrude on your presentation.

Re: A step towards...

huh?!

Re: A step towards...

you said “so there”. Doesn't that usually mean offense has been taken? I was just saying none was meant. I was only trying to place singularity talk in it's larger context.

I'd been talking to others into the 2012 singularity. It made me aware of the many different interpretations.

Re: A step towards...

“you said “so there”. Doesn't that usually mean offense has been taken? I was just saying none was meant. I was only trying to place singularity talk in it's larger context.”

hahaha. man, talk about misinterpretation. i say “so there” often as “an expression” to end a long-ass post. people who've read my blog for a while will notice this. no offense or defense were meant, at least on a conscious level. and besides, English is not my first language, maybe that's why. so there :)