Name : _________________________________________________

From the book The Singularity is Near, read chapter 9, "The Response to Critics" (pp 427-483), then answer the following questions.

In the authors response to the "criticism from incredulity" he refers the Coperinican theory. Why was the Coperinican theory rejected when he was alive?


How does that relate to the singularity?



• In the authors response to the "criticism from software" he says "This romancing of software from years or decades ago is comparable to peoples idyllic view of life hundreds of years ago". What point is he trying to make about software?
  
  
  Can you recall an example piece of software from your own experience that validates this view?
  
  
  
• What point is the author trying to make when he says that "biological evolution missed the wheel"?
  
  
  He goes on to state that this isn't really accurate. Why?
  
  
  
• Why does he bring up Bell's thoughts about "A Transhuman Age"? What part of Bell's argument is he trying to address?
  
  
  
• THe author states that "If anything, the Church-Turing tesis implies that brains and machines are essentially equivalent. Explian the argument he uses to make this statement.
  
  
  
• Explain 1 argument (amongst the many) the author uses to refute Searles Chineese Room argument about consciousness.
  
  
  
• On page 463 he alludes to "an emergent property". This is an important idea we will see again. Speculate about what this idea is.
  
  
  

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