Ray Kurzweil Responds To PZ Myers 238
On Tuesday we discussed a scathing critique of Ray Kurzweil's understanding of the brain written by PZ Myers. Reader Amara notes that Kurzweil has now responded on his blog. Quoting: "Myers, who apparently based his second-hand comments on erroneous press reports (he wasn't at my talk), [claims] that my thesis is that we will reverse-engineer the brain from the genome. This is not at all what I said in my presentation to the Singularity Summit. I explicitly said that our quest to understand the principles of operation of the brain is based on many types of studies — from detailed molecular studies of individual neurons, to scans of neural connection patterns, to studies of the function of neural clusters, and many other approaches. I did not present studying the genome as even part of the strategy for reverse-engineering the brain."
The best resolution... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The best resolution... (Score:4, Funny)
Clearly, Myers did not RTFA (or Watch the featured talk - whatever)! Shame on him. He must be old here.
Re:The best resolution... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not really the main issue is it? (Score:5, Funny)
In retrospect, maybe I should have read both articles and thought about what I was writing first instead of just spouting off.
Re:Two decades? (Score:3, Funny)
We can easily do it within two decade: 2010-2019, and 3560-3569.
This gives me an idea: (Score:1, Funny)
Ray Kurzweil / PZ Myers slash fiction.
Go on, try to tell me that's not brilliant.
Re:Two decades? (Score:1, Funny)
This is just standard "20 years away" rhetoric from futurists: Fusion power within 20 years, Flying cars within 20 years, Duke Nukem Forever within 20 years...
Re:Here We Go Again (Score:1, Funny)
If he dies soon and pulls a L. Ron Hubbard what sort of cult then will we have on our hands?
A cult focused on forwarding scientific research, intelligent technology, human longevity and the sort? We could do worse.
So, to summarise.... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Not really the main issue is it? (Score:1, Funny)
I don't know whether to laugh or cry at your total ignorance. I have yet to see a cogent argument that shows materialism to be false.
[Insert quackery here]
Finally, as a scientist, you are completely blind to the scientific method. To use a computer analogy, the brain is the hardware, the mind the software, the spirit the story grandma tells herself when her computer breaks.
in one sentence? (Score:3, Funny)
Kurzweil ridiculously optimistic, Myers ridiculously cynical?
Poll Results (Score:1, Funny)
I can see it now...
60% side with PZ Myers
30% side with Ray Kurzweil
10% side with CowboyNeal