Microsoft Word Kurzweil, Ray The Singularity Is Near doc

ability without end— 
R
AY
:
 
—yes, well, we'll have to be careful about that, won't we? 
M
OLLY 
2004:
 
I'll say. 
R
AY
:
 We have the same problem with our biological immune system. Our immune system is comparably powerful, and 
if it turns on us that's an autoimmune disease, which can be insidious. But there's still no alternative to having 
an immune system. 
M
OLLY 
2004:
 
So a software virus could turn the nanobot immune system into a stealth destroyer? 
R
AY
:
 That's possible. It's fair to conclude that software security is going to be the decisive issue for many levels of the 
human-machine civilization. With everything becoming information, maintaining the software integrity of our 
defensive technologies will be critical to our survival. Even on an economic level, maintaining the business 
model that creates information will be critical to our well-being. 
M
OLLY 
2004:
 
This makes me feel rather helpless. I mean, with all these good and bad nanobots battling it out, I'll just 
be a hapless bystander. 
R
AY
:
 
That's hardly a new phenomenon. How much influence do you have in 2004 on the disposition of the tens of 
thousands of nuclear weapons in the world? 
M
OLLY 
2004:
 
At least I have a voice and a vote in elections that affect foreign-policy issues. 
R
AY
:
 
There's no reason for that to change. Providing for a reliable nanotechnology immune system will be one of the 
great political issues of the 2020s and 2030s. 
M
OLLY 
2004:
 
Then what about strong AI? 

---

R
AY
:
 The good news is that it will protect us from malevolent nanotechnology because it will be smart enough to 
assist us in keeping our defensive technologies ahead of the destructive ones. 
N
ED 
L
UDD
:
 
Assuming it's on our side. 
R
AY
:
 Indeed. 

---

C H A P T E R N I N E
Response to Critics 
The human mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with a similar 
energy. 
—W.
I.
B
EVERIDGE
If a ... scientist says that something is possible he is almost certainly right, but if he says that it is impossible 
he is very probably wrong. 
—A
RTHUR 
C.
C
LARKE
A Panoply of Criticisms 
n 
The Age of Spiritual Machines
, I began to examine some of the accelerating trends that I have sought to explore 
in greater depth in this book. ASM inspired a broad variety of reactions, including extensive discussions of the 
profound, imminent changes it considered (for example, the promise-versus-peril debate prompted by Bill Joy's 
Wired
story, "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us," as I reviewed in the previous chapter). The response also included 
attempts to argue on many levels why such transformative changes would not, could not, or should not happen. Here is 
a summary of the critiques I will be responding to in this chapter: 
•
The "criticism from Malthus": 
It's a mistake to extrapolate exponential trends indefinitely, since they inevitably 
run out of resources to maintain the exponential growth. Moreover, we won't have enough energy to power the