The Singularity Is Nearer

The Singularity Is Nearer PDF Author: Ray Kurzweil
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 039956277X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
The noted inventor and futurist’s successor to his landmark book The Singularity Is Near explores how technology will transform the human race in the decades to come Since it was first published in 2005, Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near and its vision of an exponential future have spawned a worldwide movement. Kurzweil's predictions about technological advancements have largely come true, with concepts like AI, intelligent machines, and biotechnology now widely familiar to the public. In this entirely new book Ray Kurzweil brings a fresh perspective to advances toward the Singularity—assessing his 1999 prediction that AI will reach human level intelligence by 2029 and examining the exponential growth of technology—that, in the near future, will expand human intelligence a millionfold and change human life forever. Among the topics he discusses are rebuilding the world, atom by atom with devices like nanobots; radical life extension beyond the current age limit of 120; reinventing intelligence by connecting our brains to the cloud; how exponential technologies are propelling innovation forward in all industries and improving all aspects of our well-being such as declining poverty and violence; and the growth of renewable energy and 3-D printing. He also considers the potential perils of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, including such topics of current controversy as how AI will impact employment and the safety of autonomous cars, and "After Life" technology, which aims to virtually revive deceased individuals through a combination of their data and DNA. The culmination of six decades of research on artificial intelligence, The Singularity Is Nearer is Ray Kurzweil’s crowning contribution to the story of this science and the revolution that is to come.

The Singularity Is Nearer

The Singularity Is Nearer PDF Author: Ray Kurzweil
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 039956277X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Get Book Here

Book Description
The noted inventor and futurist’s successor to his landmark book The Singularity Is Near explores how technology will transform the human race in the decades to come Since it was first published in 2005, Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near and its vision of an exponential future have spawned a worldwide movement. Kurzweil's predictions about technological advancements have largely come true, with concepts like AI, intelligent machines, and biotechnology now widely familiar to the public. In this entirely new book Ray Kurzweil brings a fresh perspective to advances toward the Singularity—assessing his 1999 prediction that AI will reach human level intelligence by 2029 and examining the exponential growth of technology—that, in the near future, will expand human intelligence a millionfold and change human life forever. Among the topics he discusses are rebuilding the world, atom by atom with devices like nanobots; radical life extension beyond the current age limit of 120; reinventing intelligence by connecting our brains to the cloud; how exponential technologies are propelling innovation forward in all industries and improving all aspects of our well-being such as declining poverty and violence; and the growth of renewable energy and 3-D printing. He also considers the potential perils of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, including such topics of current controversy as how AI will impact employment and the safety of autonomous cars, and "After Life" technology, which aims to virtually revive deceased individuals through a combination of their data and DNA. The culmination of six decades of research on artificial intelligence, The Singularity Is Nearer is Ray Kurzweil’s crowning contribution to the story of this science and the revolution that is to come.

The Exasperating Gift of Singularity

The Exasperating Gift of Singularity PDF Author: Adina Bozga
Publisher: Zeta Books
ISBN: 9731997059
Category : Phenomenology
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
In this book Adina Bozga attempts to make room for what she calls a phenomenology of singularity. Bozga believes that Edmund Husserl's phenomenology undermines the possibility of an adequate phenomenological account of the singular, however she maintains that the singular can be retrieved by radicalising the phenomenological project. She illustrates this by focusing on the manner in which phenomenology understands the phenomena of time, the self and the world. In the first part of her book Bozga argues that Husserl's phenomenology makes room for what she calls ‘a phenomenology on singuarlity'. This comes to light when studying Husserl's account of sensuous hyle, the individual, the transcendental Ego and the world. However, she argues that Husserl fails to provide for a phenomenology ofsingularity since according to Husserl, phenomenology can and should only describe what is given to the synthetic structure of intentional consciousness. Since the singular refers to a unity that is absolutely original and cannot be appropriated by the reflective gaze of consciousness - it refers to a non-phenomenon that refuses to be given - it thus appears that the singular has to remain outside the realm of phenomenological description. To avoid this conclusion, Bozga argues that if phenomenology wishes to remain true to its principle, namely, to ‘return to the things themselves', it should facilitate the return to such a primal ‘non-synthetic singular'. In the second part of the book she there foresets herself the task of exploring whether such a return is possible within the phenomenological project. Initially Bozga focuses on Emmanuel Levinas' work to show that we can account for the singular either by pointing to a radical transcendence or to a radical immanence. She believes the latter to be truer to the spirit of phenomenology and illustrates this point by turning to the work of Michel Henry. According to Bozga, Henry provides a way toward a phenomenology of singularity. Henry believes that thereis a pre-phenomenal auto-affected and incarnate life that can never be integrated into the intentional structure of consciousness without doing violence. Since this life lies outside the reflective grasp of the ego, Henry argues that we can only account for it by radicalising the reduction, that is, by suspending synthetic thought. This suspension manifests itself in the form of suffering, as it questions the spontaneity of the Ego. Bozga thus shows that the non-synthetic singular can ‘manifests' itself, not as something that is given or present to consciousness, but as a gift to which the subject is always already ‘sub-jected'. Bozga explores how we can account for such a life. The problem seems to be that if it lies outside the synthetic structure of intentional consciousness, then it lies outside philosophy as well. It is thus not surprising that Henry draws on religious themes in order to account for such a life. Yet the question arises whether there is not another mode of experience that is neither theoretical nor religious. The book is extremely timely since it touches on themes that are of paramount importance within the phenomenological tradition in France today. Particularly impressive is Bozga's use of Michel Henry, who is hardly known in the English speaking world and whose work is still in need of translation. Hopefully this book will bring about an interest in his work which is long overdue. Lilian Alweiss

Real Words

Real Words PDF Author: Jeffrey Reid
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 0802091725
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
There exists a very particular grasp of the relation between language and objectivity in the work of G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831), one that rejects the idea of truth as the reflection between words and what they represent. Jeffrey Reid's Real Words is an examination of Hegel's notion of scientific language (i.e. the language of his system) and its implications to a type of discourse that is itself true objectivity. Hegel sees scientific logos as real, actual, and true, where there is no distance between signifier and signified and where the word is the effective thing. The words of Hegel's system are meant to be objective: they 'take place' in the world; they are not the arbitrary constructions of the individual philosopher. This concept of language is only possible through the idea of content, real words that actually embody the truth of nature, history, law, art and philosophy itself. Real Words presents an original way of understanding one of the most important philosophers in the Western tradition.

Closing Human Evolution: Life in the Ultimate Age

Closing Human Evolution: Life in the Ultimate Age PDF Author: Ladislav Kováč
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319206605
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
This volume analyses the evolution of humankind by combining approaches from science and the arts. It offers a novel perspective on the evolution of life on Earth, based on a recent reformulation of the second law of thermodynamics in terms of the “maximum entropy production principle.” In essence, the Earth is but one of many “white holes” in the universe, where life functions as a specific arrangement for the rapid dissipation of energy gradients by generating self-organized structures. Evolution of life in the universe is a creative process of increasing complexity as a Bayesian ratchet of knowledge accumulation, advancing in an evolutionary maze characterized by myriad blind alleys. On Earth, the human species has progressed more than any other by creating artefacts that have become both agents and products of in our cumulative cultural evolution. Culture has dramatically enhanced the rate of dissipation of energy gradients. Extrapolating from the acceleration of cultural evolution suggests that humanity will reach the Civilization Singularity in the middle of the 21st century, a point in time at which the rate of changes, and hence their unpredictability and uncontrollability, will converge to infinity. Humankind has now entered the ultimate age, in which the exuberance and splendour of human feats may be metaphorically likened to fireworks. The author highlights a new role of scientists as intellectuals who can create “music for the fireworks” by analysing the consequences of the astounding dynamics in order to make the closing phase of human evolution a sublime one marked by minimal political and social tensions.

Technovedanta

Technovedanta PDF Author: Antonin Tuynman
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1326784773
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Will the internet one day awaken as a conscious entity? Or do we need to design a structured architecture in order to impart the quality of consciousness to the web? In the present book Technovedanta an architecture for the internet as AwwwareNet is proposed based on stratifications derived from the Indian philosophy of Vedanta to create a functional mimic of consciousness, quasi-consciousness. The deep exploration in Nature's fundamental primacy of consciousness led me to the hypothesis of a panpsychic theory of everything. Welcome to a journey into the unfathomable realm of fantasy, the chaotic soup from which successful strategies are searched, pruned and concretised to fulfil the cosmosemiotic imperative of ever increasing complexity and meta-variegation. Welcome to this book of books, a modern clavicula to engender the eschatological apotheosis of Vedantic Singularity. Welcome to the unusual marriage between Technology and Vedanta.

Everybody's Story

Everybody's Story PDF Author: Loyal Rue
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791443927
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
This exhilarating tale of natural history illuminates the evolution of matter, life, and consciousness. In Everybody’s Story, Loyal Rue finds the means for global solidarity and cooperation in the shared story of humanity.

Gameplay Mode

Gameplay Mode PDF Author: Patrick Crogan
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452932700
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
Understanding the military logics that created and continue to inform computer games

Philosophy as a Literary Art

Philosophy as a Literary Art PDF Author: Costica Bradatan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317647084
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
Despite philosophers’ growing interest in the relation between philosophy and literature in general, over the last few decades comparatively few studies have been published dealing more narrowly with the literary aspects of philosophical texts. The relationship between philosophy and literature is too often taken to be "literature as philosophy" and very rarely "philosophy as literature." It is the dissatisfaction with this one-sidedness that lies at the heart of the present volume. Philosophy has nothing to lose by engaging in a serious process of literary self-analysis. On the contrary, such an exercise would most likely make it stronger, more sophisticated, more playful and especially more self-reflexive. By not moving in this direction, philosophy places itself in the position of not following what has been deemed, since Socrates at least, the worthiest of all philosophical ideals: self-knowledge. This book was originally published as a special issue of The European Legacy.

The Lord Who Is Half Woman

The Lord Who Is Half Woman PDF Author: Ellen Goldberg
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791488853
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
The designation "Lord Who Is Half Woman" refers to the androgynous Hindu god Ardhanarisvara (also known as Siva-Sakti). While iconographical aspects of this significant image have been addressed, the complex theological, philosophical, and social implications inherent in a dual gendered deity have not. This book provides the first extensive study of the influence of Ardhanarisvara, exploring four distinct areas of Indian culture, namely iconography, hatha yoga, devotional poetry (bhakti), and mythology. Ellen Goldberg also offers a feminist analysis of the ways in which "male" and "female" have been constructed in this image and the various representations pertaining to the broader gender implications of an androgynous deity.

Iranian Cinema and Philosophy

Iranian Cinema and Philosophy PDF Author: Farhang Erfani
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137012927
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
In film studies, Iranian films are kept at a distance, as 'other,' different, and exotic. In reponse, this book takes these films as philosophically relevant and innovative. Each chapter of this book is devoted to analyzing a single film, and each chapter focuses on one philosopher and one particular aesthetic question.