Douglas Hofstadter FTW
Here's a clip of one of my favourite authors speaking about the singularity at a symposium last year:
This is great. I agree with his sentiment- the need for more debate with futurists and singularitatians. Funnily enough, I actually send Hofstadter an email in 2004 and he sent me a copy of the chapter that he had written for a book to be published by the oxford university press. It's great that he is still thinking and speaking about this topic, and basically saying what I expected him to say: "Calm down! You guys need to have more critical minds looking at this"
He asked me not to share his response, as the book was at that time yet to be published, but my question to him was thus:
Greetings Professor Hofstadter,
I'm a fan of yours, and not currently an AI researcher, for some reason that is outside the scope of this email.
I read GEB:EGB compulsively in highschool and have since bought 6 copies and given them to many friends. I've also read Metamagical Themas many times, and your magnificent Le Tombeau De Marot. Several years ago, I discovered a crackpot who claims to be a fan of yours by the name of Eliezer Yudkowsky, spouting off at great length about the forthcoming Singularity. The subject has captivated my imagination, despite its trappings of fanatacism, and I've luckily discovered slightly less crackpot adherents since that time. In particular I find Ray Kurzweil and Hans Morevac convincing.
I am very interested to know what your thoughts are on the singularity, and if you think that predictions of an asymptotic ascension of technology in our near future are realistic.
If you have any comments, or better, if you have written any articles concerning this subject, I'd very much like to read them.
The chapter he sent me goes into great detail about his symposium and some of his skepticisms. Douglas Hofstadter is fantastic, and I'm thrilled to learn that he is working on a new book.
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