Charles Stross: Three arguments against the singularity

Paul Crowley

I periodically get email from folks who, having read "Accelerando", assume I am some kind of fire-breathing extropian zealot who believes in the imminence of the singularity, the uploading of the libertarians, and the rapture of the nerds. I find this mildly distressing, and so I think it's time to set the record straight and say what I really think.

Short version: Santa Claus doesn't exist.

- Charles Stross, Three arguments against the singularity, 2011-06-22

EDITED TO ADD: don't get your hopes up, this is pretty weak stuff.

Short version: Santa Claus doesn't exist.

- Charles Stross, Three arguments against the singularity, 2011-06-22

EDITED TO ADD: don't get your hopes up, this is pretty weak stuff.

I sometimes update in favor of a controversial claim when I see a smart opponent of that claim put forth their best argument against it, and the argument just isn't that good.

I'm not sure which parts of the essay are supposed to be more convincing than others, so I made a standing offer on HN to argue against any individual point.

FWIW, I hardly updated my views about the future at all - but I did update my views about Charles Stross - and it enlarged my list of strange things people actually think about intelligent machines a little.

0MixedNuts15y

As you should, otherwise you could never update the other way. But he's not addressing issues with getting from here to superhuman intelligence, just with its theoretical possibility.