Speculations for the future...

So, the consensus seems to be that we are at an integral point in human history (what age hasn't said that about themselves?). Regardless if the claim is hyperbole, however, it does seem fairly clear that the explosive technological expansion the world has experienced (most of the world, that is; one need not mention in length the 3rd World, which, for the most part, doesn't have running water) has grand implications for the future. The Singularity Institute (http://www.singinst.org) was established to address the issues that inevitably will arise when such a "future" comes about. Consider what sort of situation the 3rd World would be in when machines become so embedded in the global fabric. Will they prosper? Will they be consumed? Will all of us be consumed?

In my mind, the "becoming" of the newest world, a world where the threshold between human and machine is increasingly blurred, will be gradual, even if fast by any normal standard. Accordingly, such issues, ethical, political, socio-cultural, and otherwise, will also "become" gradually, even if with unprecedented haste. For example, in order to allocate the necessary resources to engage with intelligent machines, entire social and political systems will need to be uprooted, redesigned and reoriented to account for the new overarching agency of potentially more intelligent and efficient "citizens." How will the existing moralities of the various affected cultures change? Leading up to any Singularity, we would necessarily have to already have a moral foundation upon which the new paradigm could stand. It is my contention that the human virtues and vices that exist now will still be alive, but so very minimal in comparison, that any Aristotelian human excellence would be a side note to the amazing machine intelligences. Of course, the alternative is, if we find a way to merge with the machines, or exponentially enhance ourselves, we could, perhaps, find ourselves on relatively "equal" footing upon that new paradigmatic global foundation.

Then, of course, there's the prospect of "mind uploading" and brain emulation/simulation in real and virtual worlds. Consider the possibility of having more than one Self in the world. Imagine living amongst exact replicas of yourself. First of all, would they truly be exact replicas? The virtue of being human is that experience is ultimately a subjective enterprise, and the capacity for learning depends upon the cohesiveness of fluctuating experience. The "stuff" in the mind might be the same, but the experiences they encounter would necessarily, from the very outset, cause them to diverge significantly. "Clones" in that sense, can't actually exist outside the physical substrates which make up their hardware. Consider computers as an analogy, or perhaps smart phones. Two phones, same manufacturer, same developer... indeed, same phone. However, the "personality" of each phone would necessarily differ depending on its owner. Each owner experiences the world differently, and thus utilizes the computer differently. My clone might  very well be strikingly similar to me. But considering experience, a posteriori reasoning and epistemic justifications for present phenomena, clones simply cannot exist removed from considerations of physicality.

Interesting.