Main description:

This volume contains a selection of authoritative essays exploring the

central questions raised by the conjectured technological singularity.

In informed yet jargon-free contributions written by active research

scientists, philosophers and sociologists, it goes beyond philosophical

discussion to provide a detailed account of the risks that the singularity

poses to human society and, perhaps most usefully, the possible actions

that society and technologists can take to manage the journey to any

singularity in a way that ensures a positive rather than a negative

impact on society. The discussions provide perspectives that cover technological,

political and business issues. The aim is to bring clarity and rigor

to the debate in a way that will inform and stimulate both experts and

interested general readers.

Contents:

Introduction.- Type of Singularity.- Theories of the future.- A New Kind of Intelligence.- Limits in understanding AI.- The Energy Singularity.- What Could The Singularity Be?.- The Methuselarity.- Nature and Timing of the Singularity.- Transhumanism and Posthumanism.- The Technology of the Singularity.- Embodied and distributed cognition.- Singularity Architectures.- Quantum Computing as a mechanism for human intelligence.- An ambient singularity.- The Singularity - More Than Technology.- Transhuman ethics.- Communication with Super-Intelligence.- The Singularity morality.- The Singularity business.- Leon - Emotional or rational beings?.- Psychoanalysis post singularity.- Would Super-AIs be Conscious? Ethical? Social?.