Comments on: Sex And The Singularity? http://www.erosblog.com/2009/03/15/sex-and-the-singularity/ Sex Blogging, Gratuitous Nudity, Kinky Sex, Sundry Sensuality Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:00:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Krytella http://www.erosblog.com/2009/03/15/sex-and-the-singularity/#comment-104760 Krytella Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:58:31 +0000 http://www.erosblog.com/?p=3218#comment-104760 Pete Butler wrote a short story with the premise of a university where the students' brains are modified so they get sexual pleasure from learning. It's available as a free podcast: http://escapepod.org/2007/05/03/ep104-lust-for-learning/ Pete Butler wrote a short story with the premise of a university where the students’ brains are modified so they get sexual pleasure from learning. It’s available as a free podcast: http://escapepod.org/2007/05/03/ep104-lust-for-learning/

]]> By: Psybernetic http://www.erosblog.com/2009/03/15/sex-and-the-singularity/#comment-104753 Psybernetic Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:05:18 +0000 http://www.erosblog.com/?p=3218#comment-104753 If anyone's wondering, that's from Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell manga. She's an android about to go crazy and attack a fat old man playing golf. If you get your hands on an uncensored copy of it, there's a gratuitous sex scene a chapter before it that outlines how exactly cyborgs would experience sexual feelings or something. It's a bit hard to translate. If anyone’s wondering, that’s from Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell manga. She’s an android about to go crazy and attack a fat old man playing golf. If you get your hands on an uncensored copy of it, there’s a gratuitous sex scene a chapter before it that outlines how exactly cyborgs would experience sexual feelings or something. It’s a bit hard to translate.

]]> By: Beard http://www.erosblog.com/2009/03/15/sex-and-the-singularity/#comment-104735 Beard Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:44:32 +0000 http://www.erosblog.com/?p=3218#comment-104735 When there are no constraints, you are at the mercy, not only of the extent and limits of your own ability to imagine what you want, but also of the extent and limits of other people's ability to imagine what they want. And they might want to do it to you. The constraints in our current world give us a chance to learn how to behave toward each other. Even in this kind of Utopian Singularity (not the only kind, by any means!), some people will create their own Heaven, and others will create their own Hell. Some of those folks will try to invite, or snare, other people inside. If you take seriously what this Singularity would be like, driven either by non-human AIs, or by people very much like us and those around us, just a few decades from now, you should be scared. Personally, I've simply decided not to be scared, on the grounds that various other constraints will prevent the Singularity from taking place. But if it does, it will be both Heaven and Hell. When there are no constraints, you are at the mercy, not only of the extent and limits of your own ability to imagine what you want, but also of the extent and limits of other people’s ability to imagine what they want. And they might want to do it to you.

The constraints in our current world give us a chance to learn how to behave toward each other. Even in this kind of Utopian Singularity (not the only kind, by any means!), some people will create their own Heaven, and others will create their own Hell. Some of those folks will try to invite, or snare, other people inside.

If you take seriously what this Singularity would be like, driven either by non-human AIs, or by people very much like us and those around us, just a few decades from now, you should be scared.

Personally, I’ve simply decided not to be scared, on the grounds that various other constraints will prevent the Singularity from taking place. But if it does, it will be both Heaven and Hell.

]]> By: Riff Dog http://www.erosblog.com/2009/03/15/sex-and-the-singularity/#comment-104602 Riff Dog Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:19:09 +0000 http://www.erosblog.com/?p=3218#comment-104602 Yes, maybe if I could program myself to have an orgasm when I get up early, I might be a bit more productive each day! ;) Yes, maybe if I could program myself to have an orgasm when I get up early, I might be a bit more productive each day! ;)

]]> By: jaguar http://www.erosblog.com/2009/03/15/sex-and-the-singularity/#comment-104589 jaguar Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:57:26 +0000 http://www.erosblog.com/?p=3218#comment-104589 I used to tell my students that no matter what technology comes into use in the future we’ll still want five centuries from now what people wanted five centuries ago, the sense that the work we do is important and we get rewarded for it, trusted friends that we can share personal jokes and experiences with and to be part of a family unit that is relatively safe and healthy. And at the end of a productive day you’ll want to share a nice meal with compatriots and family and make it more tolerable by having an appropriate beverage to wash it down with. Being ‘alive’ is an aberration. Most things in the universe aren’t what we’d call ‘alive’. This state is necessarily transitory. Self awareness isn’t necessary for ‘life’ so that might be a fluke as well. All sorts of religions have interesting components but as soon as they start moving into the realm of ‘after (and recently pre-) life certainty they just lose me. I’ve had the notion for years that what bothers some people about the idea of evolution is a fear of dinosaurs. If the world wasn’t created a few thousand years ago there can be no rational explanation for a mammal preferring creator to have had huge thunder lizards dominating the planet for eons. Apparently without any technology whatsoever brontosaurs and t-rexes crawled upon this mud ball for many times the length of ‘human’ history. We’ve only been here a few moments and like the most effective warrior ants in creation we inadvertently foul our own playground and make our fellows miserable in our quest to acquire and use more of the worlds resources than any rational being could possibly think we need. I’m not a misanthrope but like Thoreau I’m concerned that instead of trying to simplify our lives we continue to try to marginalize our actual human potential. Yoga, exercise, and sex these things and more are great for achieving what I believe we are here to achieve. Life extension got some traction in the recent past because it seems like every century or so life expectancy has increased, but it hasn’t. We’ve just put into place the kinds of ideas Leonardo figured out five bills ago—eat untainted food—drink untainted water avoid conflict—live as long as you’ll live. If we live in moderation, have great health care and avoid accidents we’ll probably live comfortably between 70 and 100 years. Joan Rivers and Madonna look ‘interesting’ but I’m betting their bodies are still heir to the aches and pains that any person in their age and condition feels. I wasted the first half of my life fearing death and hoping that ‘good behavior’ could stave it off and perhaps eke me a slightly better afterlife. No matter how much power and influence any movement has no human being has any certain knowledge of the afterlife. I had a near death experience after drowning and it was euphoric. The feelings were (no pun intended) life altering but they didn’t make me more ‘conventionally religious’, in fact I became less so. A lot of experience is colored by expectation. My ‘drowning’ was so sudden and unexpected that I didn’t have time to pre-imagine an after death outcome. I now think that the extended after death experience will be like my extended pre life experience. No, I don’t remember it. I won’t ‘remember’ what comes in the future and neither will anyone else. Any time I waste dreading what I’ve already ‘experienced’ is my own dammed fault. We have to figure out reasons to be good to one another that don’t involve eventually being rewarded for it after death. This is our childhoods end. We have to figure out that hurting others because we have the strength to do so is just not valid if we are going to consider ourselves evolved creatures. No more putting people in cages because they say and think differently. People who want to take sexual advantage of the drunk, the young or the otherwise powerless should be stopped but otherwise we shouldn’t interfere with how other people’s hearts are hardwired. Even people who don’t help tend the fields should be able to eat some of our excess. Even people who manage their finances badly should be helped so they don’t lose their homes. Our consciousness means that in our hearts we know what is right and eventually we have to accept it beyond what our dogma might suggest. Stop being petty, play nice and share! The hope that through computer technology we can achieve ‘holodeck’ type experiences is a wonderful one. But I thought Star Trek got it right that eventually we’ll have to treat people for ‘holodeck’ addiction. I’m a loner too so it pains me to realize that the pursuits that I engage in to reasonably help deal with my actual isolation are band aids. I go out of my way to have meals with family members and take care of older people because personal pleasure is a sensible pursuit but in the end we want to move through the meat world and interact rationally with our fellows. I don’t mean to rain on your parade; I’d still like a flying car or backpack in the future. I’d like to have programmable sex without consequence so let the research continue. But the birth control pill and safe abortions have all been countered by tremendous counter intuitive backlashes. The military wasn’t trying to split the atom to make clean cheap energy for everyone although they used to tell me they were when I was a kid. Will prisoners be hooked up to paradise rooms like veal and be ‘reprogrammed’? Will our ‘enemies’ be strapped into ‘nightmare’ machines as punishment? I’m richer than any Egyptian king because I can go into my refrigerator any time of day or night and pull out a Popsicle. We live in a paradise at this moment but there is so much desire to punish others that what we’ve already got isn’t being properly utilized. I used to tell my students that no matter what technology comes into use in the future we’ll still want five centuries from now what people wanted five centuries ago, the sense that the work we do is important and we get rewarded for it, trusted friends that we can share personal jokes and experiences with and to be part of a family unit that is relatively safe and healthy. And at the end of a productive day you’ll want to share a nice meal with compatriots and family and make it more tolerable by having an appropriate beverage to wash it down with.
Being ‘alive’ is an aberration. Most things in the universe aren’t what we’d call ‘alive’. This state is necessarily transitory. Self awareness isn’t necessary for ‘life’ so that might be a fluke as well. All sorts of religions have interesting components but as soon as they start moving into the realm of ‘after (and recently pre-) life certainty they just lose me. I’ve had the notion for years that what bothers some people about the idea of evolution is a fear of dinosaurs. If the world wasn’t created a few thousand years ago there can be no rational explanation for a mammal preferring creator to have had huge thunder lizards dominating the planet for eons. Apparently without any technology whatsoever brontosaurs and t-rexes crawled upon this mud ball for many times the length of ‘human’ history. We’ve only been here a few moments and like the most effective warrior ants in creation we inadvertently foul our own playground and make our fellows miserable in our quest to acquire and use more of the worlds resources than any rational being could possibly think we need.
I’m not a misanthrope but like Thoreau I’m concerned that instead of trying to simplify our lives we continue to try to marginalize our actual human potential. Yoga, exercise, and sex these things and more are great for achieving what I believe we are here to achieve. Life extension got some traction in the recent past because it seems like every century or so life expectancy has increased, but it hasn’t. We’ve just put into place the kinds of ideas Leonardo figured out five bills ago—eat untainted food—drink untainted water avoid conflict—live as long as you’ll live. If we live in moderation, have great health care and avoid accidents we’ll probably live comfortably between 70 and 100 years. Joan Rivers and Madonna look ‘interesting’ but I’m betting their bodies are still heir to the aches and pains that any person in their age and condition feels.
I wasted the first half of my life fearing death and hoping that ‘good behavior’ could stave it off and perhaps eke me a slightly better afterlife. No matter how much power and influence any movement has no human being has any certain knowledge of the afterlife. I had a near death experience after drowning and it was euphoric. The feelings were (no pun intended) life altering but they didn’t make me more ‘conventionally religious’, in fact I became less so. A lot of experience is colored by expectation. My ‘drowning’ was so sudden and unexpected that I didn’t have time to pre-imagine an after death outcome. I now think that the extended after death experience will be like my extended pre life experience. No, I don’t remember it. I won’t ‘remember’ what comes in the future and neither will anyone else. Any time I waste dreading what I’ve already ‘experienced’ is my own dammed fault. We have to figure out reasons to be good to one another that don’t involve eventually being rewarded for it after death. This is our childhoods end. We have to figure out that hurting others because we have the strength to do so is just not valid if we are going to consider ourselves evolved creatures. No more putting people in cages because they say and think differently. People who want to take sexual advantage of the drunk, the young or the otherwise powerless should be stopped but otherwise we shouldn’t interfere with how other people’s hearts are hardwired. Even people who don’t help tend the fields should be able to eat some of our excess. Even people who manage their finances badly should be helped so they don’t lose their homes. Our consciousness means that in our hearts we know what is right and eventually we have to accept it beyond what our dogma might suggest. Stop being petty, play nice and share!
The hope that through computer technology we can achieve ‘holodeck’ type experiences is a wonderful one. But I thought Star Trek got it right that eventually we’ll have to treat people for ‘holodeck’ addiction. I’m a loner too so it pains me to realize that the pursuits that I engage in to reasonably help deal with my actual isolation are band aids. I go out of my way to have meals with family members and take care of older people because personal pleasure is a sensible pursuit but in the end we want to move through the meat world and interact rationally with our fellows.

I don’t mean to rain on your parade; I’d still like a flying car or backpack in the future. I’d like to have programmable sex without consequence so let the research continue. But the birth control pill and safe abortions have all been countered by tremendous counter intuitive backlashes. The military wasn’t trying to split the atom to make clean cheap energy for everyone although they used to tell me they were when I was a kid. Will prisoners be hooked up to paradise rooms like veal and be ‘reprogrammed’? Will our ‘enemies’ be strapped into ‘nightmare’ machines as punishment? I’m richer than any Egyptian king because I can go into my refrigerator any time of day or night and pull out a Popsicle. We live in a paradise at this moment but there is so much desire to punish others that what we’ve already got isn’t being properly utilized.

]]>