It’s a nice fantasy to think about future singularity. But that’s just part of a continuum. It really began when biology started to implement information external to itself in the way humans did it. Transcendence moved life to a different kind of instantiation 200,000 years ago. Humans distinguished themselves by enabling knowledge, by enabling information, to be carried through time in a far more explicit way than any other species had done. Termites build and leave behind a nest, and it’s an extraordinary structure. Birds too. But there’s no evidence that any other species leaves information that is so meaningful for subsequent generations as us. The real singularity was that point at which specific information about the world, about experiences, about ideas, about inventions and creations, began to live alongside us.
My 3 Greatest Revelations - Issue 102: Hidden Truths - Nautilus
from nautil.us
