Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The Singularity, the Futurists, and the Mayfly

My cellphone makes me live so much faster, and doesn't that mean longer? In the same way that the multi-lensed eyes of the common housefly increase the amount of images processed and therefore slowdown the acceleration of the falling hand, wouldn't the increased processing time afforded by bionic implant technology lengthen our lives. Not in physical time but in perceived time. It is worth mentioning that the life span of the longest living specie of Mayfly is only 1 day. The exponential doubling of Jeezus may not represent our lives speeding up, but actually that acceleration of information may be slowing our lives down. The increase in lifespan is already upon us. But it is not in physical time, but in perceived time as related to the amount experienced.
In the apocalyptic time of Singularity, where the Futurists are seen to be dying in what seems to be an alarmingly short period of time to the un-augmented eyes of the Biological Fundamentalists, the perceived lifespan afforded by the Futurists' technology may actually be quite long. In this situation who could be said to be living longer? Or perhaps the Futurists would be living what appeared to be a normal lifespan to the Biological Fundamentalists, but really a perceived amount of time approaching immortality.

1 comment:

  1. This is wonderful for all of the consequences. It muddies our thinking on this issue in that it complicates the ability to have a point of view.

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