Be skeptical of our own skepticism

Foreword to James Gardner's "The Intelligent Universe," by Ray Kurzweil by rjon on Mon 26 Feb 2007 02:26 PM PST Permanent Link

Ray Kurzweil wrote this article as the introduction to James Gardner's new book, The Intelligent Universe: AI, ET, and the Emerging Mind of the Cosmos. It's a good summary of Ray's latest thinking. Though its very techno-optimistic view is contrary to the post-modern skeptical flavor often presented on SCIY,

I've been following Ray's thinking for years and continue to be impressed with his erudite scholarship.. Bill Joy recounts his experience in a now well-known Wired Magazine article "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us," where he recounts expressing his skepticism to Ray at a break during a conference, and being blown away by Ray's incisive responses to each of his critiques. This conversation caused Joy to become a believer in the real possibility of Ray's projections, so much so that he dedicated the next few years of his life to campaigning for a voluntary "relinquishment" of AI research until humanity had evolved the moral wisdom to deal with what he believed were the inherent dangers of super-intelligent computers.

In any case, I believe it's an important function of SCIY to present viewpoints that are contrary to our own; to be skeptical of our own skepticism. (A reference to Garner's previous book, BioCosm, is posted here on SCIY.) Foreword to The Intelligent Universe by Ray Kurzweil