

Kurzweil in the Lyons’ Den - kkleiner
http://singularityhub.com/2009/06/16/kurzweil-in-the-lyons-den/

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mustpax
I read an enjoyed Lyons' article on Kurzweil last week. Despite its critical
bent, found it to be quite even-handed and informative. I did not, however,
notice that the author was Dan Lyons of Fake Steve Jobs fame.

Lyons clearly has a knack for turning personality defects into leads to
stories. His article is as much about the eccentricities of Kurzweil as much
as it is about his theories themselves. Also, journalism is not the same as
philosophical discourse, one should include character details as context for
the ideas. One need not study the ideas in a vacuum. In all honesty, that
makes the stories all the more enjoyable.

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pj
This analysis of the newsweek article is spot on. Lyons is an entertainer and
Kurzweil is a prophet. Throughout history, visionaries of the future have been
attacked. Kurzweil is no exception.

These attackers profit because many people choose to disagree and we select
opinions that agree with ours. The future Kurzweil describes _is_ coming.

The only thing that could stop it is an all out war on technology, but
technology itself is _used_ in that war, so it's a bit of a paradox... or I
don't know what you'd call it exactly, but the only thing that could defeat
the singularity is that which is causing the singularity to ... _evolve_.

It's like we are witnessing evolution in process. like the telescopic
evolution scene from Waking Life: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saxX-Z6w3p4>

~~~
Confusion
_Throughout history, visionaries of the future have been attacked._

So have a lot of crackpots. Being attacked is no proof of being right.

You do nothing but preach to the quire: those that already agree will nod in
agreement, those that disagree read nothing they could possibly be persuaded
by. What is the point of your comment?

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zcrar70
_Still, I’m tired of being sold the story of someone’s life, when it’s their
work that will impact mine._

This sentence did it for me - I definitely agree. There's a tendency to focus
on life stories these days, and they're given the same importance as the
accomplishments of the people whose stories they're looking at, which doesn't
seem right.

