The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

  dealing with, 413–414, 416, 417–418, 426

  Internet information on, 594n

  nanobots and, 406–407

  self-modifying, 416

  solar cells, 397, 457

  solar energy, 234, 243, 244, 246–251, 340, 434

  calculation of, 248, 566n

  cost of, 249–250

  Matrioshka shells and, 351

  solar panels, 246, 248, 249, 250, 251, 421, 434, 457

  solar system:

  computational limits and, 349–351, 435

  expansion beyond, 351–353

  intelligence in, 374

  mass of, 349, 350–351, 590n–591n

  solvents, halogenated organic, 253

  soma (cell body), 124, 155, 192, 208

  memory function in, 170–171

  somatic gene therapy, see gene therapy

  Sommer, Fritz, 160

  Somorjai, Gabor A., 567n

  Soros, George, 394

  sound:

  foglets’ control of, 28, 310

  localizing of, 123–124, 148, 184

  patterns of, 297

  in phonemes, 268

  processing of, 123–124, 172, 530n

  virtual reality and, 105, 310, 312–313, 318

  Southern California, University of, 116, 188

  Soviet Union, bioweapons program in, 393

  space, 23, 520n

  curvatures in, 520n

  empty, 355

  energy generating in, 246, 247, 250

  expansion of, 354

  exploration of, 280–281, 352–353, 412

  general relativity and, 500n

  quantum gravity and, 14

  special relativity and, 520n

  Space Elevator, 250

  Space Solar Power satellite, 250

  Space Technology 5 satellites, 281

  space-time, wormhole in, 140

  SpamBayes, 268

  spam filters, 267–268

  special relativity theory, 341, 354, 520n

  species, extinction of, 222, 409, 511n

  “Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine” (Good), 22

  speech recognition, 122, 265, 286–288, 337

  author’s work with, 268, 278, 294, 570n, 599n

  Markov models and, 153, 268, 278

  neural nets and, 268

  search engines and, 286–287

  software for, 5, 103, 146, 153, 184, 268, 436, 438, 530n, 570n

  sperm cells, genetic information altered in, 552n

  Spike, The (Broderick; 1997), 24

  Spike, The (Broderick; 2001), 24

  spikes, 161, 169–170, 445–446, 530n

  defined, 154

  growth of, 171

  spike trains, 170

  spinal cord, 163, 171, 181, 193, 203

  injury to, 308

  spindle cells, 191–194, 192, 468

  spines, 151, 162, 171–172, 180, 197

  defined, 171

  growth of, 173, 174, 202

  spintronics, 112–113, 116–117, 119, 529n

  spiral ganglion, 165

  spirituality:

  Dembski’s views on, 475–477

  of nonbiological intelligence, 377

  in the physical world, 387

  transcendence and, 387–390, 475–476

  Sporns, O., 540n

  sports, 288, 341

  spybots, 406–407

  spy satellites, 281

  squid neurons, 155

  SRI International, 282

  Srivastava, Deepak, 562n, 563n

  standard of living, 106

  Stanford University, 114, 176

  Staring into the Singularity (Yudkowsky), 35

  stars, 281, 342, 344

  collapsed, 141

  in Drake equation, 345, 346, 347

  Dyson Sphere and, 350

  formation of, 360

  sun, 349–351, 591n

  Vega, 355–356

  Star Trek, 348

  Stein, Ben, 586n

  stem cells:

  adult, 223, 556n, 557n

  autologous, 216

  controversy over, 222, 431, 471

  neural, 177

  Stenger, Victor, 499n

  Stenner, M., 591n

  Sterling, Bruce, 588n

  Stix, Gary, 529n

  stock, stock market, 103, 525n–526n

  AI applications in, 284

  price of, 13, 108, 109–110

  stories:

  as composing universe, 5

  principles of fields as, 167

  Störmer, Horst, 253

  strawberry genes, 551n

  stream separation, 123

  string theory, 359, 360

  stroke, 144, 173, 188, 210, 212

  strong AI, 259–263, 289–300, 422

  brain reverse engineering and, 84, 93, 194–195, 293, 294, 407, 461

  Church-Turing thesis and, 454

  criticism from ontology and, 430, 458–469

  dangers of, 206, 403, 409

  defined, 92, 260

  friendly, 409, 420, 424, 598n–599n

  at human levels, 260, 262

  nanotechnology and, 261–262, 412, 426

  runaway, 24, 262–263, 569n

  skepticism about, 292

  wealth creation from, 13, 396–397

  Strout, Joseph, 326

  student matching program, 2–3, 497n

  subatomic particles, 85, 133, 198, 355

  computing with, 138–139, 141, 351

  transformed energy states in, 403–404

  subconscious, 318

  subjective experience, 378–380, 386, 388, 467

  subneural models, 169–172, 541n

  subtraction paradigm, 161

  sucrose, 248

  suffering, 321, 373, 374–375, 423

  alleviation of, 224, 311, 379, 406, 409–410

  of animals, 224, 379

  sugar, 220, 248

  see also glucose

  sun, 349–351, 591n

  Sung, J. C., 552n

  Sung, Kah-Kay, 546n

  Sun Tzu, 105

  supercomputers, 231, 261, 312, 535n

  Blue Gene/L, 71, 125, 482, 533n

  Blue Gene/P, 71, 71

  human intelligence emulated by, 25, 70, 70, 71, 71, 125, 150, 196, 533n

  protein folding and, 209

  superconducting, superconductors, 119, 451

  superconducting wires, 246

  superintelligence, 259–260

  runaway AI and, 262, 569n

  supernova explosion, 23

  supply chains, optimizing of, 271

  surgery, 307, 317

  brain, 315–316, 386

  intracellular, 162–163

  optical imaging and, 161

  plastic, 310

  transplant, 418, 598n

  surveillance:

  by law enforcement organizations, 413, 421, 424

  military, 281, 334

  spybots and, 406–407

  survival, 90, 152, 325, 396

  digestive system and, 301–302

  economic imperative as, 96

  as evolutionary purpose, 38, 39, 41, 96

  family size and, 433

  grandmother hypothesis and, 218–219

  terrorism and, 421

  of virus outbreaks, 402

  in warfare, 330–331, 331, 334

  Susskind, Leonard, 360, 361, 362, 364

  Svoboda, Karel, 171–172, 541n, 542n

  swarm intelligence, 333

  swarm weapons, 335

  Sweden, life expectancy in, 408

  Sylla, M. L., 600n

  symbolic computing, 460–461, 463–464, 468

  synapses, 155, 166, 169–174, 269, 383, 430

  backpropagation and, 156

  blood flow and, 161

  brain scanning and, 161, 162, 166, 171–175, 197

  in cerebellum, 180, 180, 181, 182

  in cerebral cortex, 190

  CPEB protein in, 176, 199–200, 544n


  criticism from the complexity of neural processing and, 428, 445–446

  defined, 124

  formation of, 170, 171, 173–174, 174, 176, 202, 446

  Hebb’s neural learning theory and, 156, 157, 170–171

  in hippocampus, 175

  hormones and, 443

  learning and, 179

  memory and, 169, 170–171, 175–176, 200, 541n, 543n, 544n

  models of, 144, 169–171

  neurotransmitters in, 145, 147, 153, 170

  nonlinearities in, 137, 148

  plasticity of, 151, 156, 169, 171, 173, 541n

  resetting of, 124, 150

  synaptic scaling, 171

  system-on-a-chip concept, 533n

  tactical autonomous combatants (TACs), 333

  tags and labels, nanoparticles as, 242

  Talbot, David, 569n

  Tale of Two Cities, A (Dickens), 396

  Taleyarkhan, R. P., 567n

  Tallal, Paula, 175, 543n

  Tammany Hall, 472

  Tanaka, K., 547n

  tanks, Abrams, 332, 335

  tape recordings, 53, 327

  tapes, digital, 327–328, 588n

  Tasmanian tiger, DNA of, 222

  tattoos, 310

  Taub, Edward, 174

  Taylor, J. G., 143, 537n

  T cells, 217–218 417, 557n

  “Technological Singularity, The” (Vinge), 22

  technology, 372, 375, 498n

  author’s interest in trends in, 3, 370

  brevity and, 5

  centralized, 340, 409, 420, 421

  Clarke’s third law and, 4

  communications, see communications, communications technologies; telecommunications; telephones

  decentralized, see decentralization

  decline in cost of, 64–65, 95, 338, 469, 472

  failure rates of, 429, 456

  in GNR age, see biotechnology; GNR (Genetics, Nanotechnology, Robotics) age; nanotechnology; robots, robotics; strong AI

  human intelligence merged with, 15, 20–21

  information, see information technologies

  life cycle of, 51–56

  magic compared with, 4–5

  opposable thumb and, 16, 39, 41

  relinquishment of, see GNR, relinquishment of

  shrinking of, see miniaturization; nanotechnology

  three stages of impact of, 408

  transcendence of, 389

  as unified system, 411

  see also specific topics

  technology evolution:

  biological evolution compared with, 16–19, 17–19, 94, 347, 441, 487

  complexity increases and, 38

  as continuation of biological evolution, 7, 42, 137

  in Epoch Four, 15, 16–20, 17–20, 47

  in Epoch Five, 15, 20–21, 40, 47

  in Epoch Six, 15, 21

  farsighted, 47–50, 48–50

  key events of, see key events, of biological and technological evolution

  order increased by, 40

  theory of, see accelerating returns, law of

  TED (technology, entertainment, design) conference (2001), 314–315, 587n

  Tegmark, Max, 500n

  telecommunications:

  adoption of, 97, 264

  bubble in (1997–2000), 13, 97, 264

  technology hype cycle for, 263–264

  teleconferencing, 123

  telephones, 17, 18, 317–318, 438

  as auditory virtual reality, 318

  mass use of, 48, 48, 50, 512n

  speech recognition over, 287

  surveillance and, 413

  telephones, cellular, see cell phones

  telepresence, 123

  Telescom conference (1998), 394

  telescopes, 47

  Hubble Space Telescope, 590n

  robotic, 281

  television, 330, 338

  mass use of, 50, 512n

  Telford, Ric, 528n

  telomerase, 218

  telomeres, 218, 219, 221, 223–224, 323

  Temple, Blake, 504n

  10% Solution for a Healthy Life, The (Kurzweil), 211

  termites, 151, 466

  terrorism, 247, 280

  civil liberties and, 421–422

  GNR age and, 395, 397, 400, 401–402, 414, 421, 423–424

  nuclear, 401–402

  preemptive action and, 423–424

  suicide, 402, 421

  Tesla, Nikola, 1

  Texas, University of, 124, 248

  cerebellum model and simulation of, 182–183, 182, 544n

  Texas A&M University, Brain Networks Laboratory at, 162

  Theis, Thomas, 114

  theism, criticism from, 431, 473–478

  Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (von Neumann and Morgenstern), 499n

  therapeutic cloning, 214, 220, 221, 222, 224, 256, 323

  “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” (Feynman), 227, 228

  thermodynamics:

  laws of, 130, 168, 432

  second law of, 39–40, 509n–510n, 520n

  thermonuclear explosion, 134

  Thier, P., 539n

  thinking, thought, 86, 144, 167, 316, 386–387 390, 445

  about body, 193, 203

  Church-Turing thesis and, 454

  cortex and, 190, 191

  expansion of, 316–317, 325

  incredulity and, 432–433

  at its best, 379

  pattern recognition and, 149, 309

  physical action vs., 175

  robots controlled by, 194–195

  slowness of, 8–9, 309

  understanding, 154–157, 198

  see also consciousness; intelligence; mind

  Thomas, Dylan, 326

  Thompson, Donald L., 561n, 562n

  Thompson, J. N., Jr., 555n

  Thompson, Larry, 598n

  Thompson, R. F., 545n

  Thorne, Kip S., 355–356 363, 592n

  Thorpe, S. J., 574n

  threatening stimuli, 541n

  three-dimensional molecular computing, 27, 45, 67, 111–122, 128, 133, 292, 434, 526n–533n

  bridge to, 112–122, 526n–533n

  computing with light and, 113, 119–120

  DNA computing and, 113, 117–118, 119, 529n–530n

  emulating biology and, 112–113, 116–117, 519n

  fractal dimensions and the brain and, 68

  nanotubes and nanotube circuitry and, 112–115, 526n–528n

  quantum computing and, 113, 119, 120–121

  self-assembly in nanotube circuits and, 112–113, 115–116, 528n

  spintronics and, 112–113, 116–117, 529n

  three-dimensional shapes:

  carbon and, 15, 85

  of proteins, 209, 234, 482–483, 550n

  Through the Looking Glass (Carroll), 326

  thumbs:

  of humans vs. chimpanzees, 39, 509n

  opposable, 4, 16, 39, 41, 47, 152, 433, 487, 509n

  time, 23

  digital basis for, 86

  general relativity and, 500n

  problem solving and, 296

  quantum gravity and, 14

  reversal of, 4–5

  special relativity and, 520n

  subjective, 31–32, 33

  travel in, 140–141

  Time, Future of Life conference of (2003), 11–12, 499n

  Tipler, Frank, 500n

  titanium dioxide, 252

  titanium-oxide nanoparticles, 250

  toad, Adrian’s experiments with, 154

  Tobias, Phillip, 502n

  Toffoli, Tommaso, 130, 518n, 534n

  tolerance, 424

  Tomlin, Lily, 189

  Tom Swift Jr. book series, 1–2, 497n

  Tononi, G., 540n

  toolmaking, 17, 18, 20, 72, 213

  Torcetrapib, 217

  Torgerson, Justin R., 139–140, 537n

  Toshiba, 247

  totalitarianism, 471, 498n br />
  relinquishment and, 395, 406, 407–408

  Toth-Fejel, Tihamer, 560n

  Townes, C. H., 590n

  toxic cells, 219

  toxins, 371

  Internet information on, 594n

  nanotechnology and, 251, 252, 253, 256, 300

  testing for, 215

  in viruses, 402

  Trachtenberg, J. T., 542n

  traditional cultures, 387

  trains, see railroads

  Trajtenberg, Manuel, 540n

  transcendence, 373, 387–390, 475–476

  of biological intelligence, 375

  patterns and, 388

  use of term, 388, 390

  transcension scenario, 358

  transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), 161

  transdifferentiation, 222–224, 471, 556n–557n

  Transend, David Victor de, 198

  Transhumanists, 498n

  transistors, 20, 45, 59–63, 71, 116, 151, 153, 271, 519n

  analog-mode use of, 126, 149–150, 151, 188, 189, 442, 443

  digital-mode use of, 150, 442

  on integrated circuit, 42–43, 56, 71, 76, 111–112, 114, 157, 351, 434

  in Intel processors, 63, 63, 66

  manufacturing of, 60

  microprocessor cost per cycle of, 62, 62, 66

  molecular computing and, 115, 528n

  nanotube, 27, 114, 230, 527n

  nanowire field-effect, 116

  neuron, 308, 313

  as paradigm, 67, 67, 75, 75, 127–128

  per microprocessor, 63, 63, 498n

  price of, 59, 59, 62, 66

  shorter electron travel times in, 56, 61

  shrinking of, 42–43, 45, 61, 76, 111–112, 113, 351, 434

  single-molecule, 121

  stacked, 113

  tunneling in, 429, 451

  transition-state theory, 240

  translation, of languages, 288, 292, 313, 337

  translation process, 208–209

  transportation, 289, 347, 434

  of energy, 246, 247, 340

  flying machines, 457–458

  lock-in and, 429, 430, 457–458

  nanotechnology and, 230, 246, 247, 252, 457–458

  railroads, 13, 263–264, 420

  see also airplanes, aviation; cars; vehicles

  transterrestrial community, 361–362

  traveling-salesperson problem, 529n–530n

  Travis, John, 554n

  Treder, Mike, 400, 595n

  Trezise, A. E., 553n

  Trinity College, 288

  TriPath Imaging, 282–283

  Trosch, Rick, 308

  truth, many paths to, 1

  Tryk, Donald A., 567n

  Tseng, Yu-Chih, 527n

  tuberculosis, 282

  Tukey, J. W., 600n

  tumorigenesis, 215

  tungsten, 536n

  turbulence, 90, 522n

  Turing, Alan M., 94, 155, 259, 286, 295, 453–454, 504n, 505n, 600n, 601n

  Turing machine, 94, 523n

  problem solving and, 429, 453–456

  Turing test, 25, 200, 201, 263, 294–296, 473, 504n–505n

  copies and, 383, 443

  language and, 272, 286, 288, 292, 295, 461, 464

  “Ray Kurzweil,” 383, 429