From: Joel Pitt (joel.pitt@gmail.com)
Date: Fri Jun 02 2006 - 18:51:13 MDT
On 6/2/06, Joshua Fox <joshua@joshuafox.com> wrote:
> Anyone want to venture a guess on the public awareness of the
> Singularity in, say, 2010 or 2015?
>
> I'm wondering if the Singularity will
> (1) remain the province of a few hundred or a few thousand
> super-technologically-aware types (like, e.g., hints of possibilities
> for faster-than-light spaceflight today);
> (2) or spread into the awareness of hundreds of thousands or millions of
> educated people (like, e.g. private space travel or nanotech today);
> (3) or become a major social issue followed by tens or hundreds of
> millions (like, e.g., genetically engineered food or nuclear power today).
There was an interview with Hugo de Garis on Coast to Coast radio that
I managed to get an mp3 copy of.
During it they mentioned there was something like 5 million listeners.
They even conducted a poll - 56% were "Terrans" (opposed to building
god-like intelligence) and 44% were "Cosmists" (for building god-like
intelligence). This really surprised me that the "for" side were such
a large percentage.
I think millions of people already are aware of the singularity,
probably only a quarter of those really grok the idea, and maybe only
100k actually believe it'll happen in the foreseeable future.
When 2015 roles around I think that tens of millions if not more will
be quite aware of the concept (assuming we don't run in to major
collapse due to a lack of oil). The reason it seems there are many
less is probably due to dismissal of it being just an idea.
-Joel
--
-Joel
"Wish not to seem, but to be, the best."
-- Aeschylus
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