Joining - Jack Richardson

From: Jack Richardson (jrichard@empire.net)
Date: Sun Jun 24 2001 - 07:03:49 MDT


Hi all:

While I work in the computer field managing a large data warehouse, I've had a long term interest in where technology was taking humanity. Independently of groups like this one on the Internet, I've had a vision of the global network suddenly taking on the characteristics of a living entity which each of us could relate to as if it were our own personal counselor.

At the same time, I've been fascinated by the possibilities of nano-scale devices (nanobots), initially for cell repair, but later for enhancing our own personal intelligence. It seems to me that devices that can go into the body to fix a physical problem right at the cellular level is an inevitable development that will spread rapidly once the technology gains approval by the government agencies. Rather than things like neural implants which strike me as crude solutions to enhancing human intelligence, trillions of nanobots communicating wirelessly with each other and with the global network to bring new information to us seems to me a better mechanism for communicating with the Singularity when it arrives.

I also happen to think that this is going to appear sooner rather than later. Every day seems to bring new developments in advanced technology where one can see petaflop computers being built within six of seven years. Within that same time, I see us moving to a broadband, "always on" global network with the ability to distribute processing across billions of multi-gigahertz processors. At the software side, I expect a merger of neural net and evolutionary algorithm processors with common sense systems like OpenCyc to create more and more realistic interfaces initially for customer services but later for virtual reality environments than will far surpass today's primitive versions.

Needless to say, all of these rapid changes are going to bring up all sorts of issues and I look forward to following them in groups like this one. I expect to retire in a few more years and then spend more time involved in this area. In the meantime, I still expect to be a frequent contributor to the topics explored by all of you.

Best wishes,

Jack



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