For starters, I remember reading the first half of Raymond Kurzweil’s book, “The Age of Spiritual Machines”, and finally one day I had enough. I had to stop & put it down for good. I thought to myself, “this guy is nuts! He has absolutely no idea what ‘spiritual’ means! His point of view with regard to human and natural life continues to be so devoid of any true compassion or regard. Sad, and ultimately frightening.
That has been where my thoughts and feelings have been pretty much for the past decade. Then, about three weeks ago, when a good friend of mine showed me a copy of the book, “One Second Later” by William Forstchen. He then went on to explain that even though the work is fiction, it outlines a very real threat to the U.S, and to many other nations.
Simply described, the book speaks of a time in the very near future when three nuclear devices are launched from freighters in the Gulf of Mexico, and are then detonated roughly 80 miles above ground, creating a massive Electro-Magnetic Pulse, or EMP, which shuts down the entire electrical grid, and all communications systems–including computers, cell phones, electronic ignition systems….anything running on electricity that is not “hardened” or protected against such an energy wave. The book continues to extrapolate for several dozen pages all of the social panic and upheaval that occur after the event. As my friend, Michael said, it’s a pretty grim book. But I think that it is necessary reading.
It should also be pointed out that huge solar flares, and their resultant increase in solar wind, can also cause an EMP energy wave, as it occurred in Canada a couple of decades ago. There are those who believe that we are due for another solar EMP wave within the next 2 to 3 years.
I am probably the most optimistic person that I know, and my wife would agree with me. But, if such an event ever did happen, God forbid, then singularity would be dead. It would be the least popular topic for decades, as we scrambled to relearn all of the skills that our ancestors knew, while rebuilding our existing technology infrastructures with a more humble attitude.
There’s my thoughts. Not too cheery, but I do think that this topic should be approached, since we take our 21st century lifestyle almost entirely for granted. We seem to be blind to our vulnerability, which is all man-made, and hence, quite imperfect. And it could very well be that there are others on this Earth who have come to realize this very fact, and are waiting for the right time to exploit our vulnerability. But I hope that I am wrong…

In addition, I don’t think it’s a possible future. It seems to me that if it was a true singularity, it would take an infinite amount of money and energy to accomplish. Moreover, history tells us that human progress is just not that fast. We adapt much more slowly that most “futurists” imagine.

An alternative, and much more positive vision of the future, can be found in de Chardin’s concept of the noosphere where technology is assisting mankind to form a global sphere of knowledge and spirit.

The Phenomenon of Man, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Harper Perennial Modern Thought, 2008

Recommending Howard Rheingold for the dream list. “independent thinker, online instigator …”, Howard is one of the minds behind the Whole Earth Catalog and Electric Minds, one of the first online social networks which is how I met him back in the 90′s. He rated my post, “are we eating our young?” as post of the week … later paid him a visit in person during a Bioneers. a remarkable man, mind and soul with gigantic following and presence among young . http://www.rheingold.com/
Benefit of owie hamstring tear/couch living = getting to spend time with what my friend Eric Utne is up to. Joan