Ramez Naam of Singularity University explains why, despite the trillionsfold increase in computational power over the last half century, a hard-takeoff technological singularity remains distant due to the intractability of the Schrödinger equation, which would bar an artificial consciousness from recursive self improvement. Likewise, Naam says, we shouldnt count on a soft-takeoff singularity, either, because the glacial advancement of nondestructive neuroimaging means wed have to wait centuries to achieve cognitive substrate independence, and although Ken Hayworth of the Brain Preservation Foundation can now destructively image individual neurons and scan the human brain at extreme detail via an ion beam ablating millions of 5nm-thick brain slices, even then, we cant be certain all the details essential to consciousness are preserved, as we continue to discover ever more complexity in the brain. For instance, the conventional wisdom that glial cells serve only in a support role has been overturned and we now know they play a direct role in cognition. Also, very recently, evidence of asynaptic signalling has surfaced - neurons can affect each other without synaptic connections, through electrical fields alone. To be sure, extreme complexity should not be confused with Irreducible complexity, and I concur with Naam that substrate independence and mind uploading are definitely possible and will be achieved at some point in humanitys development, but must regrettably reject as fantastical all the sparkly-eyed, breathless Kurzweilian Singularitarian optimism which so pervades contemporary transhumanism.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 19:26:48 +0000
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