An important note on the coming Singularity.. My thoughts on our future.

I've stumbled upon this thought numerous times throughout the years, the question of the flying car. It is a dream that many people have desired and wished for, for quite some time... yet there is no mass produced flying car today, no skyways and other things. But that can't be, right? As far as I remember of my youth we were told that we'd have flying cars in and around the year 2000, but now it's 2010 and it still hasn't arrived.

The whole point to this ramble is that we were told that we'd have the flying car in the year 2000, so what did we do? We all sat around and waited for it to appear...

We should have been told that we could have flying cars in the next 20 years if we do something about it.

This is an important thing for futurologists to take into account when discussing the singularity.

It's good to get everyone's imaginations running towards the future, but if we don't remind everyone that we have to then build on that and take action, we'll all just be waiting for it to happen.

Awesome.

Pacifism to a point..

Imagine two people with two opposing yet equally passionate viewpoints.

Now imagine that one of these two people, no matter how strong his convictions were.. would never resort to killing another person to resolve a difference of opinion. Whereas the other person, could find a way to personally justify such an act.

Between these two people, who would win the debate?

I believe that no matter how often the debate between these two is repeated, the one that is willing to kill for their beliefs will always win. He will always win because if he cannot convince the other person that his way is the right way, he can always resort to removing the opposition through force.

This brings to mind:
- John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mahatma Ghandi.
- People bringing guns to protests and presidential events.
(http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/17/crimesider/entry5247140.shtml)
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/18/gun-protests-obama)

I know that I won't be the one to throw the first stone... but if someone keeps throwing rocks at you, when is it the right time to throw them back? Or is it right to throw them back at all?

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My Phantom Cellphone Experience.

This morning while I was floating between the sleeping and waking worlds, I could have sworn my cellphone was in my hand. It seemed to jump back and forth, from left hand to right. I knew that it wasn't there, but it got me thinking.. A while back I had read an article about how the brain incorporates the tools we use into it's overall body image, and being that a cellphone is a tool that we use.. What I experienced could be similar to the "Phantom Limb" experience.

Just a thought.

[EDIT] Forgot about these..

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/brain-represents-tools-temporary-body-parts-study-confirms-22536.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_limb

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