You've heard of the selfish-gene theory right? It seems like it could work to explain most of the information you've mentioned. Not that they're omniscient or anything (hence the fuckups), which could explain why our genes have been so successful until now. We've definitely surpassed all other biological life.
And it looks like AI will surpass us in almost every way. So...logically, isn't the best that we could hope for, is to be augmented with the same technology (if possible)? I mean, yea, it'd still qualify as a singularity, but at least there's SOME chance of us not becoming completely obsolete or subjugated. We just might not be completely human anymore.
On a somewhat related note, it'd be kinda fun if steemit had chatroom for popular/controversial posts XD
Of course, The Selfish Gene is one of my favourite books! You'll see that I briefly mentioned memetic evolution - it's all from The Selfish Gene. I've added The Selfish Gene to the list of sources - an oversight on my part to not do so before. I should probably have discussed the selfish gene more, but I feel my approach was a simpler, less scientific and more basic version of the same.
I'm totally with you - augmentations are incoming. Speciation is an ongoing process. It's gradual, so we won't observe a new species in human lifetimes, but I'm pretty certain homo sapiens will be well on their way to evolving into new species on the Singularity comes.
Yes, haven't seen much controversial posts of late! It was definitely my intention to spark some discussion. I love what @kyriacos is doing with his latest posts - this post is about carrying on along those lines, though less about morality and politics on contemporary topics and more conjecture about the future.
o i didn't know it was a book lol. heard the concept in a youtube, and a lot of its aspects make sense.
i dunno...we might not experience this particular singularity in our lifetimes, but i think there's a chance we do hit some singularity (singularity in the general sense, not the transhumanist one.)
although, i'm a little surprised you don't think it could happen soon? i mean...even just 20-30 years is a long time for technology to develop...we just got beat in "Go" this year--that was our most complex board game! :( once they take starcraft, we might as well start kneeling and pledging our fealty to them.
Yeah, at this point it's become a theory (in the scientific sense) so it's pretty common knowledge. But it was The Selfish Gene which first proposed it as a hypothesis, much like On the Origin of Species did for natural selection.
Oh, I meant speciation - that happens gradually. As for singularity, that is happening very soon! I'm willing to bet by 2050 we are deep into it.
It should be made well known that Richard Dawkins coined the word "meme" in the Selfish Gene, and that's back in 1970s!
Yes, I'd also wager that 2040-2050 we'd be quite deep into it already, or at least some parts of society.
Here's the passage from The Selfish Gene -
I think speciation is already happening. Speciation mainly means incompatibilities in gametes within a species, but is a part of a bigger process as a species becomes dominant, with bigger breeding pools more old genes start to express. In humans I think it shows mainly in cognitive diversity and especially sensory functions. more spectra, longer lifespans, paranormal senses...