The Singularity...no more death?

the NYTimes has an article on the "singularity movement".

Singularity refers to the day when robots will be as "intelligent" as men.

" ...a future that the Singularity University founders hold dear and often discuss with a techno-utopian bravado: the arrival of the Singularity — a time, possibly just a couple decades from now, when a superior intelligence will dominate and life will take on an altered form that we can’t predict or comprehend in our current, limited state."

This assumes "intelligence" is the same as ability to find facts: thinking and self awareness are not dependent on this type of intelligence.

So will robots/machines have "souls"?
Ah, but answer first: do dwarves and elves have "souls"? Yes, but do they have "immortal" souls, and go to heaven?

But the real reason behind the idea is another one: a rejection of mortality:

At that point, the Singularity holds, human beings and machines will so effortlessly and elegantly merge that poor health, the ravages of old age and even death itself will all be things of the past.

If you read the whole thing, it is a rebellion against not only death, but our limited biological bodies.

sound familiar?

and guess who is their enemy:

“There are enormous social and political issues that will arise,” Mr. Clarke says. “There are vast groups of people in society who believe the earth is 5,000 years old. If they want to slow down progress and prevent the world from changing around them and they engaged in political action or violence, then there will have to be some sort of decision point.”

One suspects that he is lumping together sophisticated Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Muslims with fringe groups...and one suspects that one reason the militant atheists are busy convincing the elites that these groups are all the same is that it will be used to demonize and persecute believers in the near future.

The problem, as usual, is not science per se or even using these abilities to help humans to live well.

The problem is that, like all scientific knowledge, it can be used for either good or evil, and in this, religion could be a big help.

Alas, ethicists prefer their own ideas: when an "ethicist" comes close to justifying human extinction, one really has to wonder.