Through Time

The Noetic Singularity: not falling behind

NoeticEcho’s aim is that people develop their minds and do not fall behind superintelligence: what that means and what can be said against it.

The technological singularity says the minds of machines will run ahead. We are betting on something else: people and humanity can and must grow themselves, and we call that aim the Noetic Singularity. It is an aim and a bet, not a scientific fact or a forecast, and this course goes through what is supported, what remains a hypothesis and where we may be wrong.

So far there is only this table of contents. Lessons appear one at a time, and we promise no dates. Feed of new lessons (Atom)

19 lessons, 5 parts

Part 1 What we claim

The aim is stated plainly, and it is clear at once which part is an aim, which a hypothesis and which unknown.

  1. Two singularities

    Good’s intelligence explosion of 1965 and Vinge’s singularity of 1993, and beside them our answer: develop more than the machines.

    coming soon

  2. What “noetic” means

    The word comes from the Greek nous, mind, and our definition is a qualitative growth of understanding in people and in humanity as a whole.

    coming soon

  3. An aim, a bet and what nobody knows

    Whether and when ASI will come is unknown; we are betting that developing the mind pays off either way, and we explain why.

    coming soon

  4. Who is saying this

    NoeticEcho: open projects, one person who writes as sudo_make_god, and one iskin, and for now that is the whole community.

    coming soon

Part 2 Where it comes from

We are not the first to think about human minds growing beside a machine, and those predecessors have much to teach.

  1. Augmenting intellect: Licklider and Engelbart

    “Man-Computer Symbiosis” of 1960 and “Augmenting Human Intellect” of 1962: the computer as a partner and not a replacement.

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  2. The noosphere: what is left of a beautiful idea

    Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin on thought as a planetary phenomenon: what in it can be tested and what stays a metaphor.

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  3. The extended mind

    The 1998 paper by Clark and Chalmers on where thinking ends, and why writing and the calculator have already changed us.

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  4. Minds change with culture

    The Flynn effect, its stall in several countries and the data on schooling: growth is possible, and it is not automatic.

    coming soon

Part 3 What can really be developed

Without this part the aim would be a slogan: here is what research supports, and what is sold without grounds.

  1. What really can be trained

    Schooling, knowledge and skill in a specific domain: why the evidence for them is good, and why transfer of skills is so rare.

    coming soon

  2. Brain training

    The large 2016 review by Simons et al.: you get better at the exercise, and for everything else the evidence is weak.

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  3. Pills and neural implants

    What is known about nootropics and neural implants today, what is not, and why decisions about your body belong with a doctor and not a textbook.

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  4. Not catching up, but not falling behind

    No person will out-compute a machine, so we define the aim differently: to understand, set goals, check and decide for yourself.

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Part 4 What can be said against it

An idea that cannot survive objections is not worth a course, so the strongest of them are taken up here.

  1. “It is pointless”

    If superintelligence comes, why should a person grow, and if it does not, why hurry: an honest look at both questions.

    coming soon

  2. The history of “improving humanity”

    Eugenics and other projects for improving people from above: how they ended, and what our aim must never become.

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  3. How to tell a school from a sect

    Promises, ranks, money, the cost of leaving: signs to check in any movement for self-development, and in ours first of all.

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Part 5 What to do about it

From an aim to a plan for an ordinary week, with no promises of transformation.

  1. A map of the skills

    How the courses in this strand connect, and where to start if you do not have much time.

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  2. How to measure your growth honestly

    Testing before and after, tasks in place of impressions, and a defense against the self-deception that is easy to mistake for progress.

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  3. A program of your own for a year

    A few goals, a simple log and a regular review: how to put together a plan that survives an ordinary busy life.

    coming soon

  4. A look ahead: what would show we were wrong

    Which events of the next few years would confirm or refute our bet, and what we would do then.

    coming soon