The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (125 page)

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Authors: Ray Kurzweil

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        impact of,
see
impacts, GNR

        information and, 84, 206–207, 210, 231, 245–246, 261

        intertwined benefits and dangers of, of, 396–400

        Joy’s concerns about, 391, 394–395

        peril vs. promise of, 391–426, 427, 594
n
–599
n

        relinquishment of, 12, 395, 406, 407–408, 410–416, 423

        synergy and, 73

        
wealth creation from, 13, 107, 338, 396–397, 410

        
see also
biotechnology; nanotechnology; robots, robotics; strong AI

goats, transgenic, 222

God, 15, 360, 375, 389–390, 474, 476, 477

        “playing,” 299

Goda, Yukiko, 176

Goddard, William A., III, 563
n

Gödel, Kurt, 453–454, 601
n

Godling’s Glossary
(Transend), 198

God parameters, 92

Goertzel, Ben, 279, 580
n
, 599
n

Golden Rice, 414–415

Goldman-Rakic, P. S., 543
n

Goldstein, C. D., 535
n

Golgi cells, 182, 545
n

Golub, T. R., 552
n

Gompers, Paul, 524
n

Good, Irving John, 22, 23

Goodall, Randall, 512
n

Google, 286

Gorbachev, Mikhail, 406

Gordon, Theodore J., 565
n

gorillas, 192

Gosney, John, 58
n

Gould, Stephen Jay, 487, 510
n
–511
n
, 602
n

Graham, S., 555
n

grandfather paradox, 140–141

grandmother hypothesis, 218–219, 302

granule cell,
180
, 181,
182
, 544
n

graphics programs, 46

gravitational constant, 499
n

gravity, 356, 362, 486

        body’s sensations of, 165

        event horizon and, 23, 363, 486, 503
n

        general relativity theory and, 520
n

        overcoming of, 364

        quantum, 14

gray dust scenario, 400

gray goo, 399–400, 416

gray lichens scenario, 400

gray plankton scenario, 400

Grayson, A., 584
n

Grayson, Richards, 564
n

Great Depression, 99, 102

“Great Principles of Computing” (Denning), 167

Greeks, ancient, 458

Greenpeace, 391, 414–415

Greten, T.F., 554
n

Grey, Aubrey D.N.J. de, 551
n
, 555
n

Grossberg, S., 545
n

gross domestic product (GDP), 65, 98,
98
, 99,
99

Grossman, Terry, 210–212, 217, 323, 550
n
–551
n
, 593
n

growth hormone,
see
human-growth hormone

Grutzendler, J., 542
n

Gulde, Stephan, 121, 531
n

Gulf War,
331

Gurdon, J.B., 556
n

Gustafsson, Marie, 538
n

Gutenberg, Johannes, 54

Hackett, John, 581
n

hacking, 406, 426, 594
n

Hahnlose, R. H., 540
n

hair cells, 165

Håkelien, Anne-Mari, 557
n

Haldane, J. B. S., 342

Hall, J. Storrs, 310, 506
n
, 516
n

halting (decision) problem, 453, 601
n

Hameroff, Stuart, 450–452, 600
n

Hammarström, Per, 550
n

hands,
see
fingers; thumbs

handwriting, 181, 269

haptic (tactile) interfaces, 105

Harcourt, Brace, and World, 497
n

hard drive, 115, 119

hardware, 259

        for artificial neural networks, 574
n
–575
n

        deflation and, 102

        to emulate human intelligence, 25, 126, 127, 145

        files installed on, 324–325

        self-organization in, 151

        software vs., 102, 428, 435, 438, 439, 445

        specialized, 275–276

        for strong AI, 261

Harper, Jack, 515
n

harpsichords, 53

Harrison, J.A., 563
n

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
(Rowling), 4–5

Hart, S., 586
n

Harvard University, 116, 162–163, 308, 471

Hauser, Marc D., 190, 548
n

Havenstein, Heather, 569
n

Hawking, Stephen, 309, 363–364, 487, 503
n
, 586
n
, 592
n

Hawking radiation, 363–364, 487, 503
n

HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol, 211, 217, 554
n

heart, replacement of, 223, 302, 306, 373

heart cells, 214, 220

heart disease, 212, 303

        
death from, 211, 217, 373, 413, 418

        reversal of, 210, 217

        
see also
atherosclerosis

heat generation:

        computational limits and, 129–132, 350, 351, 428, 434

        energy and, 245, 249, 566n

Hebb, Donald O., 156–157, 170–171, 176, 542n

Hebbian reverberatory memory, 156–157, 170–171

Heidmann, J., 502n

Heisele, Bernd, 547n

Heisenberg, Werner, 138

Heller, A., 565n

hemoglobin, 209

Henry, Thomas, 400

Hersam, C., 563n

Hess, K., 562n

heuristic methods, 454, 455

Hidden Order
(Holland), 509n

hippocampus, 171, 175, 176, 177, 188

history:

        Dembski’s view of, 476–477

        human, rupture of, 9, 23

        “singularity” in, 486

HiTech, 275

Hitler, Adolf, 327

HIV virus, 74, 398, 402, 514n

Ho, Wilson, 561n, 562n, 564n

Hobbes, Thomas, 338, 590n

Hochberg, David, 356, 592n

Hodgkin, A. L., 154–155, 539n

Hodgkin’s disease, 552n

Hofstadter, Douglas R., 4, 169, 198, 497n, 498n, 568n, 582n, 600n

Hogan, Jenny, 560n

holism, criticism from, 431, 479–483

Holland, John, 509n

Holmes, Bob, 552n

Holocaust, 1, 2

holographic processes, 163, 325

        of brain, 148, 152

        memory retention and, 172

        of universe, 365–366, 486

hominids, 193

        evolution of,
17, 18, 20
, 39, 509n

        
see also
chimpanzees; humans

homocysteine, 211

Homo Faber
(Frisch), 341

Homo
genus,
17, 18
, 509n

Homo sapiens, 17, 18, 20
, 42, 47, 195

Honda Odyssey, 287

hormones,
see
endocrine (hormonal) system

Hornbeck, Larry J., 516n

Horowitz, B., 143, 537n

hospitals, intensive-care units in, 255, 413, 435, 456

House of Representatives, U.S., Science Committee of, 599n

“How Long Before Superintelligence?” (Bostrom), 259

H. pylori
, 282

H-scan test, 550n

Hubble distance, 354

Hubble Space Telescope, 590n

Hubel, D. H., 173, 542n

Huehn, Rebecca, 567n

Huffet, H., 512n

Hughes, James, 396

Human Genome Project, 510n

human-growth hormone, 212, 215

human intelligence, 264, 342, 407, 440

        Church-Turing thesis and, 429, 454–456

        complexity of, 482

        as emergent property, 151

        nonbiological portion of, 9, 28, 201–202, 296, 300, 310, 316, 317, 356

        personal computers’ emulating of, 25, 70, 125–126, 441–442, 533n

        plasticity of, 27, 203

        self-understanding and, 4, 198

        software of,
see
brain reverse engineering

        as suboptimal, 151–152

        supercomputers’ emulating of, 25, 70,
70
, 71,
71
, 125, 150, 196, 530n–533n

        technology merged with,
15
, 20–21

        
see also
biological intelligence

humanism, fundamentalist, 415, 471

humanity, 136, 476

        ascent vs. descent of, 387

        fear of loss of, 9, 310–311

        goal of, 373

human rights, 471

humans:

        brain of,
see
brain, human; cortex, cerebral

        chess playing of, 274–275, 277

        chimpanzees compared with, 5, 39, 192, 505n, 509n

        Church-Turing thesis and, 429, 454–456

        cloning of, 221–225, 556n

        complexity of rock compared with, 37, 508n

        divergence from great apes by, 509n

        duration of observation by, 48

        dysfunction of, 202

        enhanced, 200

        jaws of, 506n

        
migration and colonization patterns of, 352

        mirrors used by, 190

        order and, 90–91

        robotic searches for, 286

        as “second-class robots,” 205–206

        teams of, 261

        technology’s merger with, 374, 377

        uniqueness of, 4, 226, 311, 433

human somatic-cell engineering,
see
transdifferentiation

Humayun, M. S., 546n

hunger, overcoming, 224, 371, 406

Hunt, J. M., 595n

Huxley, A. F., 154–155, 539n

hydrocarbons, 252

hydroelectricity, 243

hydrogen, 119, 131, 210, 244–247, 251, 349, 365, 592n

        in fuel cells, 133, 230, 244, 246, 247, 306

        nuclear fusion of, 250, 567n

        storage capacity of, 134

hydrogen abstraction, 239–240, 563n

hydrogen bomb, 391, 401, 404, 408

Hypersonic Sound technology, 313

hypertension, pulmonary, 216

hypsithermal limit, 249, 566n

IBM, 114, 287

        autonomic computing and, 284, 437

        Blue Gene/L supercomputer of,
71
, 125, 482, 533n

        Blue Gene/P supercomputer of, 71,
71

        computer chess and, 275, 276, 441, 459

        nanotube fabrication at, 114, 527n

        self-assembling nanoscale circuits and, 116, 529n

IBM 360 Model 91, 2–3

IBM 1620 (“minicomputer”), 2

IBM 7000 series, 2

IBM 7094, 64–65

ICBM arsenals, 401

ideas, power of, 1–5, 497n–498n

identity, 142, 201, 315

        boundaries and, 387

        cloning and, 224–225

        copies and, 383–384, 389

        human longevity and, 325–326, 329

        “me” vs. “not me” and, 386

        Singularity and, 369, 382–387

If Aristotle Ran General Motors
(Morris), 485

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