Well, as I understand the thing, the “Singularity” is the removal of barriers between humans, between minds via technological means rather than means mystical or religious; this feat is accompanied by a transformation of our physical selves into what is colloquially termed the “Post-Human” state.
A tightening of the spiral of evolution, a step towards both more and less of what we are through time and death.
It is inevitable like cancer, and just as horrifying.
Just why people insist on believing in some sort of bloodless, beneficial transition is beyond me.
Where will you get the polonium?
I have a 1936 physics textbook which actually quantifies how many neutrons are produced by beryllium when exposed to alphas from polonium. Of course in 1936 it was merely a convenient way of making these interesting new particles, nobody was thinking about bombs.
But when it comes to making sure hard drives are completely erased, my preferred technique is to undo the case, remove the magnets, and then simply take each disk in turn and fold it in half twice with a large vice and a lump hammer. Because anybody prepared to try and get the data off that needs to be more determined than I feel able to deal with.
I did not think about the Urchin for the mockup. But it could be also simulated with some suitable material.
A sectioned Urchin could be a quite nice jewel.
The α + Be → n is a classical source. Get some sample of beryllium and you can have a low-grade neutron source from a smoke alarm. Am-241 FTW!
It could be quite interesting to build a neutron generator as a vacuum tube, though. Maybe acceleration of helium ions against a beryllium target, maybe a bit of deuterium and a bit of tritium (from e.g. a traser fishing lure). And some high power pulse generator to feed it. People are making triodes at home, this should be a slightly more but not prohibitively more complex endeavor.
I use sandpaper on the plates.
Hard drives are a good source of precision parts. Magnets of course, but also high-precision bearing from the head actuator, precision brushless motor, and in some cases even giant magnetoresistance sensors from the heads. Could be interesting attaching such sensor on a 2d actuator and using it for magnetic microscopy…
And if you don’t destroy the plates, some can be used as makeshift mirrors for CO2 lasers.
Thanks for clarifying. Keep in mind that there are a huge number of things different people mean by the same terms, and no one knows yet in detail which if any are achievable or desirable, even if they think they do.
the “Singularity” is the removal of barriers between humans, between minds
I agree that this seems really scary. It’s possible that doesn’t stop it from being a good thing if done really carefully, but I don’t nearly enough about minds, metaethics, or what “removal of barriers” means to make a blanket value judgment.
transformation of our physical selves into what is colloquially termed the “Post-Human” state
As in, I will no longer age, get sick, or die; I’ll be smarter, stronger, faster, more attractive, able to eat what I like and do what I like and stay healthy; and if I want to try something totally off the wall like become a centaur or a (smarter) dolphin for a while I can. Doesn’t sound so bad.
A tightening of the spiral of evolution, a step towards both more and less of what we are through time and death.
I already don’t know how long I’ll live, and if I found out tomorrow I’d live to be 120 instead of 80 it wouldn’t change my behavior one bit, so removing constraints of time and death is not an obvious issue. More life and time. Less death and fewer limits. Not sure what “tightening the spiral of evolution” means unless you’re referring to genetic engineering of ourselves and our descendents, but again that is not obviously a bit thing. In any case, natural evolution is horrifying, and desperately in need of being overthrown and replaced with something better as soon as well have the knowledge and wisdom to do so.
Everything is evolution, my friend. Like how gravity pulls everything down, regardless of how it got there or why.
Sickness and death are necessary: they give us things to push against, giving our culture and minds shape. Death may be bad for individuals, but it is good for society because it produces so very much in so many areas.
Without it, humanity steps towards stasis, and an ending.
One other point: Dangerous, dysfunctional people should not be immortal for obvious reasons.
As for the last bit: Of course we should be shaping ourselves, but that too is evolution, bro.
Many of the affected individuals however want and intend to rebel against this.
One problem here. They are these, at least for now and the foreseeable time, who actually have the resources for the necessary research and technology. They also have the necessary mindset of standing against the society when it gets into their way.
If you want a shot at immortality, you have to team up with them.
And this is one of many reasons that I foresee terrible things coming with greater, more pervasive integration between man and it’s most advanced tools.
A lot of people act this way in practice, but very rarely do I hear anyone explicitly declare a belief that refusing to consider what goal you’re trying to achieve increases your odds of achieving it. I appreciate your honesty.
@Blaze_Curry Sickness and death are necessary: they give us things to push against, giving our culture and minds shape. Death may be bad for individuals, but it is good for society because it produces so very much in so many areas. Without it, humanity steps towards stasis, and an ending. One other point: Dangerous, dysfunctional people should not be immortal for obvious reasons. As for the last bit: Of course we should be shaping ourselves, but that too is evolution, bro.
This is not obvious, and none of the arguments I have ever encountered seem compelling to me. If nothing else, I’d like to try the alternative to see how it goes. If it is really all that bad we can re-introduce death later. Additionally, there are plenty of things other than sickness and death to push against.
I also know plenty of young people that lives lives of drudgery and stasis, and plenty of older people who constantly strive and grow. If older people continued to have the energy and health of, say 30 year olds, this would be even more true.
I agree that dangerous, dysfunctional individuals should not be allowed to be immortal and free. We can control the latter more easily than the former today, and will still be able to control the latter in the future. And maybe, ten or a hundred or a thousand years from now, we’ll understand ourselves well enough to (educationally/medically/otherwise) make them not dangerous anymore.
To your last point: I apologize for not being clearer with my terms, but please don’t conflate genetic engineering with natural selection. The price of natural biological evolution is immense suffering and vast numbers of corpses, and the result doesn’t converge toward any human-desired goal.
It will be royal fun, too. Time to read up on neuroprosthetics…
If you aren’t part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate.
You can talk about a thing, or do the thing. Only one of that will bring results.
The worst blind alleys and mistakes in the labs are insignificant in comparison with this, the accepted status quo. Time to stop the bioethical handwringing and start cranking out experiments.
Yes. But…it’s still all evolution. Adaptation and change leads to success.
Whether its artificially induced by humanity, or by nature…it’s still classified as evolution.
$6k. Suggested $5k in an AnandTech article or somesuch. (For 15TB in an SSD by Samsung.) Not out of the question for a single upgrade for a project of some scope. I mean, not so much reassembling Mad Max into something that made you want to keep the 6.2 Surround headphones you’d bought to listen to it with, but maybe 3D printing monstrous meringue peeps for people to live in during festival season.
Yes, and where are the content-keyed seek commands? I feel like I’m missing the bit where you can just get a kit like for the mainstream Samsung TVs and plug in a network processor instead of the bare minimum drive interface. (And then floodproof that, for trips to Bath, etc…everyone heard that StarshipSofa extra, right? The rains upcountry? Wow.)
The amount of involuntary porn (from news, say) in webcache is probably up to 1MB. I would like to ask about generative porn, as it seems like the thing to save space, though it seems like the Hot Coffee thing didn’t really break a substantial djik between private copies of recorded adult entertainment and PC games (Barbie on Deridda without Deridda.) It’s built into Jeeves to people can harden their services, right?
