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1) Singularity is interesting because it changes what it means to be human. The idea of "machines enslaving us" suggests that people are thinking like movie plots: machines become "human-like" amid confused humans doomed as common everymen. What's more likely is that the modern human will become obsolete in the same way that the hunter-gather human has and the agrarian human is. Machines don't "enslave" us, they _become_ us.

2) How long until irresponsible birth is as egregious as irresponsible death?




Maybe it won't even be a problem. Birth rates decrease as life expectancy increases...


Cory Doctorow wrote a good short story about this called Truncat. http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2003/08/26/truncat/i...

It describes the coming of age of a member of the last generation of humanity in a post-singularity society where a reputational economy has drastically decreased the birthrate.




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