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RobertLumley comments on Glenn Beck discusses the Singularity, cites SI researchers - Less Wrong
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Hm. This is very interesting to me. I think I am more surprised by Beck coming out for this than I should be. I used to listen to him, when he was far less popular and before he started predicting the end times and being generally insane. I don't necessarily think that Beck believes all of the things that he says, but that he knows that being outlandish brings him more success. And, accurate or not, the singularity is considered outlandish to the average person right now.
But I'm glad for the publicity. It's not like he said anything in that excerpt that I particularly disagree with - which surprised me, given the topic and his religious proclivities. And the vast majority of people reading his book will have a positive opinion of him, as opposed to a negative one, which will lead to more respect and interest in SI, not less.
Let's just make sure if anyone comes to LW referred by Glenn Beck we point to to Politics is the Mindkiller ASAP.
Edited to add: It would have been really interesting to see people's opinions of this if you had withheld the author and not told us until later.
Somehow, I read the excerpt without noting the author. I got about halfway through it and thought it must be a piece that some relatively new Less Wronger had gotten published in a local paper somewhere (i.e. half-decent but not really high-quality, and obviously edited for mainstream publication). Then I looked back at the top and thought,
what.
Similarly. My previous beliefs about Glen Beck points towards a devout Christian fundamentalist. I would not have considered the fact that he would support the singularity, much less take it seriously. It seems I have to update my beliefs quite a bit.
He believes that the Singularity is proof that the Universe was created by an Intelligent Creator (who happens to be the Christian God), and that it is further evidence of YEC.
Beck is a Mormon, and Mormons generally seem a lot friendlier to transhumanist-type ideas than standard Christians.
That's definitely true.