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SpaceCollective’s first steps
Recently I came across an interesting argument between Kevin Kelly and Ray Kurzweil wherein the two men discuss the foreseeable future when exponential change will have given rise to computers with superhuman capabilities, unleashing unimaginable levels of intelligence. Whereas Kurzweil sees this event, known as the Singularity, as a technological big bang beyond which everything will change, Kelly suggests that this evolutionary growing spurt will occur more like a phase-shift that won’t appear discontinuous to us. In his opinion we’ll “sail through this transformation without really noticing it.” Kurzweil admits that when the Arpanet went from 10,000 nodes to 20,000 in one year, and then from 40,000 to 80,000, it was of interest only to a few thousand scientists. It would take at least a decade before the internet’s true potential started to sink in, by which time it had already changed the world as we know it to an extent most people have yet to grasp.
Even though Kevin Kelly recognizes the exponential growth of the different aspects of information technology, he is skeptical of Kurzweil’s Techno Rapture which by 2040 is supposed to change our lives to the point where all bets for the future will be off. Writing about similar transformative events in his essay We Are The Web, Kelly observes that historically such pivotal moments are only recognized in retrospect:
A similar example of such a transformative event is the convergence of the inventors of modern science in the 17th Century.
It is Kelly's belief that “three thousand years from now, when keen minds review the past, our ancient time, here at the cusp of the third millennium, will be seen as another such era,” when linking the world’s minds into the machine will have provided us with a radically new way of thinking. He maintains, however, that once again people alive during such an axial age - which in this case would be us - won't be able to acknowledge the transformative nature of their era.
Ironically, as we are well on our way along the impending trajectory delineated by Kurzweil, Kelly seems to ignore the fact that the same exponential rate of change hurtling us towards the Singularity, has long since provided us with the collaborative interfaces that allow our networked communications to travel at the speed of light, collapsing his 3000 year timeframe into a few fleeting nanoseconds.
As a case in point, it has been very exciting upon the recent launch of SpaceCollective to all at once come in contact with many thinkers who are perfectly attuned to our moment in time and ready to catch up to the future. It's been great to see the variety of their inquiries pushing the envelope in one post after another. To learn more about the Singularity, for example, I recommend reading Wildcat's post on the subject. Other topics range from Virtual Worlds, the New Space Age and various scenarios for enhancing the human mind and body, to the founding of Online Societies, our ongoing separation from the natural world, and - perhaps most surprisingly - the shortcomings of human language, considered by some the very foundation of consciousness itself.
It has been very encouraging to read posts of numerous members for whom English is a second language, appropriately providing our online brainstorm with a global point of view. Meika, 3LSZVJA9, Wildcat, Spaceweaver, monolith, Megan, Al, Duly, Sjef, Dimitrib, FrankLloydWrong, Richard and many others contributed posts and comments that deserve to be archived for future reference in the Project spaces which will soon be in place. Nina kicked off a transhumanist debate that will no doubt get a lot more attention once the project is properly featured. Students of design and architecture schools are proving that in the internet era the dynamic of education is changing to the point where students are teaching students and their own teachers no less than teachers are teaching them. We particularly enjoyed the work of Norah G., Sarahs, Lisa Hogberg, Henry, Joshua and Can. With a number of new academic projects to start off 2008, we’re eager to explore how interdepartmental, cross-institutional courses, paired with the interaction between students and public members may suggest different educational models for our time.
In the few weeks since our launch, we have received several hundred thousand page views. However, since we unanimously appreciate everyone currently contributing to the site, we are leaving the initiative to grow the collective at the discretion of our members, each of whom may invite whoever they believe can play a role in establishing SpaceCollective as the viable think tank it aspires to be.
Even though Kevin Kelly recognizes the exponential growth of the different aspects of information technology, he is skeptical of Kurzweil’s Techno Rapture which by 2040 is supposed to change our lives to the point where all bets for the future will be off. Writing about similar transformative events in his essay We Are The Web, Kelly observes that historically such pivotal moments are only recognized in retrospect:
“Every few centuries, the steady march of change meets a discontinuity, and history hinges on that moment. We look back on those pivotal eras and wonder what it would have been like to be alive then. Confucius, Zoroaster, Buddha, and the latter Jewish patriarchs lived in the same historical era, an inflection point known as the axial age of religion. Few world religions were born after this time.”
A similar example of such a transformative event is the convergence of the inventors of modern science in the 17th Century.
It is Kelly's belief that “three thousand years from now, when keen minds review the past, our ancient time, here at the cusp of the third millennium, will be seen as another such era,” when linking the world’s minds into the machine will have provided us with a radically new way of thinking. He maintains, however, that once again people alive during such an axial age - which in this case would be us - won't be able to acknowledge the transformative nature of their era.
Ironically, as we are well on our way along the impending trajectory delineated by Kurzweil, Kelly seems to ignore the fact that the same exponential rate of change hurtling us towards the Singularity, has long since provided us with the collaborative interfaces that allow our networked communications to travel at the speed of light, collapsing his 3000 year timeframe into a few fleeting nanoseconds.
As a case in point, it has been very exciting upon the recent launch of SpaceCollective to all at once come in contact with many thinkers who are perfectly attuned to our moment in time and ready to catch up to the future. It's been great to see the variety of their inquiries pushing the envelope in one post after another. To learn more about the Singularity, for example, I recommend reading Wildcat's post on the subject. Other topics range from Virtual Worlds, the New Space Age and various scenarios for enhancing the human mind and body, to the founding of Online Societies, our ongoing separation from the natural world, and - perhaps most surprisingly - the shortcomings of human language, considered by some the very foundation of consciousness itself.
It has been very encouraging to read posts of numerous members for whom English is a second language, appropriately providing our online brainstorm with a global point of view. Meika, 3LSZVJA9, Wildcat, Spaceweaver, monolith, Megan, Al, Duly, Sjef, Dimitrib, FrankLloydWrong, Richard and many others contributed posts and comments that deserve to be archived for future reference in the Project spaces which will soon be in place. Nina kicked off a transhumanist debate that will no doubt get a lot more attention once the project is properly featured. Students of design and architecture schools are proving that in the internet era the dynamic of education is changing to the point where students are teaching students and their own teachers no less than teachers are teaching them. We particularly enjoyed the work of Norah G., Sarahs, Lisa Hogberg, Henry, Joshua and Can. With a number of new academic projects to start off 2008, we’re eager to explore how interdepartmental, cross-institutional courses, paired with the interaction between students and public members may suggest different educational models for our time.
In the few weeks since our launch, we have received several hundred thousand page views. However, since we unanimously appreciate everyone currently contributing to the site, we are leaving the initiative to grow the collective at the discretion of our members, each of whom may invite whoever they believe can play a role in establishing SpaceCollective as the viable think tank it aspires to be.
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