The essay seems directed against a straw man. The author implies that because people think a singularity is near they are somehow expending energy to bring it to fruition instead of spending energy on what he feels to be more important problems.
He would have a valid target if he was only talking about a small number of people involved in projects like the singularity institute, but he seems to be aiming wider. He even acknowledges that the people working at the institute are justified in the same way people worrying about asteroid collisions are justified.
So who is he criticizing, then? Who are these people who are wasting energy chasing a singularity instead of solving modern problems? The only other targets I can think of are scientists and engineers moving their respective fields up the exponential, but they are doing their respective work precisely because of current problems in the world, not because of some far off possibility.
Comments
The essay seems directed against a straw man. The author implies that because people think a singularity is near they are somehow expending energy to bring it to fruition instead of spending energy on what he feels to be more important problems.
He would have a valid target if he was only talking about a small number of people involved in projects like the singularity institute, but he seems to be aiming wider. He even acknowledges that the people working at the institute are justified in the same way people worrying about asteroid collisions are justified.
So who is he criticizing, then? Who are these people who are wasting energy chasing a singularity instead of solving modern problems? The only other targets I can think of are scientists and engineers moving their respective fields up the exponential, but they are doing their respective work precisely because of current problems in the world, not because of some far off possibility.