RE: Pocket Guide to the Singularity

From: David Massoglia (dmassoglia@pontiac.k12.mi.us)
Date: Fri Jan 28 2005 - 11:11:01 MST


Ray Kurzweil is writing a book (The Singularity is Near) due to be published
in April 2005 that I surmise will answer these questions listed below and
written at a general level.

David

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-sl4@sl4.org [mailto:owner-sl4@sl4.org] On Behalf Of Nogwater
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 9:57 AM
To: sl4@sl4.org
Subject: Pocket Guide to the Singularity

Has anyone thought about writing a Pocket Guide to the Singularity? I'm
thinking about something the size of a small book, maybe 6-10 chapters
and 20K to 40K words. It would be written in a language that the
average /Popular Science/ or /Scientific American/ reader would be able
to understand. Each chapter could contain a short list of end notes on
where the reader could go to learn more.

Since it's the general rule on this list to not post a bunch of
questions, here's what I think would make a decent chapter list:
1. What is the Singularity?
2. Who are the the Singularitarians?
3. How far off is the Singularity?
4. Why not? / Technical Objections
5. Why not? / Moral (safety) Objections
6. Where to go from here.

The wiki would be a great place to do most of the writing. Most of the
content is probably already there, it's just a matter of organizing it
in a consumable format. I have no idea if we could get it published,
but who knows... O'Reilly might just be interested in publishing.

Another good rule is: less talk, more action. I don't intend on this
post to be just idle talk. I've found myself trying to explain the
Singularity one too many times already. Even if I can't get a group of
people to help, I think I'll try to write something up. On that note,
does anyone want to help?

Feel free to flame me if you think a project like this would be wholly
misguided and would result in more damage.

-Aaron

-- Aaron McBride http://www.apejet.org/aaron/



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