Singularity Sighting in Slate

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, conference travel and start of the year busyness has cut into my blogging time. I'm hopeful that things are settling down a bit now and I'll have more time for blogging. I noticed this article in Slate during my morning browsing, it notes our sorry track record for predicting the future and speculates about the future of the internet, something of interest to those who consider it more than a passing fad. For our particular focus on the rise of the technological singularity, the very last paragraph is noteworthy:

In the realm of outlandish predictions, I feel more comfortable with the extreme optimists. Ray Kurzweil—the acclaimed technologist who in 1990 correctly predicted that a computer would beat the best human chess player by the end of the decade—believes that humans will soon "transcend biology." He says we're on the cusp of "the singularity"—a point when technology will have advanced so far that human beings will essentially become immortal. It's hard to believe. But Kurzweil's predictions are based on current trends, and nothing about them seems really impossible. I doubt the singularity is just around the corner. But, hey, maybe he's right.

This is a fairly predictable piece, nothing really new here, but I did want to point out the singularity sighting, as it appears to be largely positive.