Hey, Maybe the Singularity Really Is Near

A very interesting article from Glenn Reynolds stepping outside of his “evil” incarnation as the Instapundit, in which he points out some very strange sounding science and technology at the bleeding edge of the art.

Ray Kurzweil’s book, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology comes out next week. And I suspect that a lot of people wonder if things will really happen as fast as Kurzweil suggests.

But as I look at the news reports, I see quite a few signs that we’re living in a future that not long ago would have looked science fictional. Take, for example, this report: Miracle Mouse Can Grow Back Limbs.

It’s so far out, that the Chief read it in new sci-fi just a few years ago. In spite of the cautious optimism implicit in all of this stuff, there’s also a sobering warning:

Meanwhile, here’s an interview with Ray Kurzweil that I published elsewhere. Kurzweil is an optimist, but even he worries that the Singularity may come as a result of Chinese, not American, efforts, and he’s got some disturbing numbers. The future is almost here, but we’ve still got some choices about how things will turn out. Let’s try to choose wisely.

Indeed!