Dr. Jonathan White Says The Singularity is Coming

 The Singularity  

At a recent TEDx talk, Dr. Jonathan White looked at some of the unforeseen consequences of the rapid technological change we are experiencing - the unexpected societal, medical, and philosophical issues that we now must consider.

Would you upload your personality if you could? What do you think of the possibility of living without a physical body? Dr. Jonathan White addresses a reality that is not so far off as we might think - and what the ethical and philosophical implications of this future might be in his recent TEDx Talk.

"Whatever happens as technology advances, its going to be very interesting."

White has attended Singularity University, and has presented a critical talk of the organization.  He claims he hasn't completely bought into the idea of the promising future that the institution presents, but appears to still be considering what the Singularity is, and what the future will be like a lot.

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During his talk, White examines some of the unforeseen consequences of the rapid technological change we are experiencing - the unexpected societal, medical, and philosophical issues that we now must consider.

White presents a good overview of the Singularity, with particular attention to the future of medicine.  He looks at five ways we may transcend our biology in the future: augmentation, via advanced prosthetics; controlling the body, via understanding it at a molecular level; backing ourselves up, by uploading ourselves to independent substrates; eventual abandoning our bodies to robotic avatars.

"The last way is where we get really trippy," states White.  As for the extended and spiritual elements discussed by Ray Kurzweil and others about the post-Singularity world, where the space-time continuum is saturated with intelligence and consciousness, White confesses, "this is the hardest part of [The Singularity Is Near] for me, because I don't really understand what he is talking about."

"Whatever happens as technology advances, its going to be very interesting," says White.

White, originally from Northern Ireland, is a surgeon at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. Dr. White is a renowned teacher, and has won numerous awards for his innovative and creative approach, including being the first surgeon ever selected as a 3M National Teaching Fellow, an honor bestowed in 2014.


SOURCE  TEDx Edmonton

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