Philosophy – marjorie kaye's Babylon Dreams

Posted on: February 3, 2011 9:40 AM, by PZ Myers

I forgot to mention that I did attend the local screening of The Nature of Existence, the new movie from Roger Nygard in which he traveled the world asking various people grand questions about the meaning of life, etc. It was entertaining, and it is subtly subversive of religious views, so I will recommend it. But I do have a few reservations that I was also able to bring up in the Q&A after the movie.

One thing that was alarmingly obvious when watching it is that almost all the gurus and authorities and religious figures that he interviewed were male. There were exceptions — the 12 year old daughter of his neighbor (who was an unrepentant atheist, and I thought the most sensible voice in the whole movie), a lesbian priest, the wife of a pastor — but otherwise, this show is one long sausage-fest. When I pointed this out, Nygard was apologetic and recognized that this is a significant omission, but explained that he simply hadn’t noticed when he was filming the material. Isn’t that the whole problem, that we’re oblivious to these omissions of half the population of the planet? Article: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/02/the_nature_of_existence.php

Posted on: February 3, 2011 9:40 AM, by PZ Myers

Does it bother you, Miranda–not being real?

Define “real.”

In this case “real” means to be born and then to make your way–to fight in order to continue existing, and to procreate.

No, Gunter, it does not bother me because I see no advantage in being “real.”

p. 264

Buzzle. Com:

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Man

By Earl Hunsinger

Technology is a ubiquitous part of our daily life. Some feel that, through nanotechnology, it will soon be a part of us. They also believe that computers with artificial intelligence will be able to out-think us.

How fast is technology changing? According to many experts, faster than the majority of us think or are prepared for. According to one futurist, Ray Kurzweil, “we will have both the hardware and the software to achieve human level artificial intelligence with the broad suppleness of human intelligence including our emotional intelligence by 2029.” If that sounds like something from a scary movie (“Terminator” may come to mind), Mr. Kurzweil says not to worry, such super machines will also have morals and respect us as their creators (the people in scary movies rarely think that anything bad will happen to them either). He also believes that humans themselves will be smarter, healthier, and more capable in the near future by merging with our technology. For example, tiny robots implanted in our brains will work directly with our neurons to make us smarter (this may call to mind some other movies).

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/artificial-intelligence-and-the-future-of-man.html