I think therefore….I may be a machine? Or not?

(By Jason Reagan)

Writer Alison E. Berman makes a solid debut with her post at Singularity Hub today.  In her analysis of Ray Kurzweil’s recent musings, Alison poses the question “Are You a Thinking Thing? Why Debating Machine Consciousness Matters.”

Specifically, Berman posits:

Transhumanism and The Singularity: What’s the Diff?

Hang around the Transhumanist movement long enough and the term “The Singularity” will surely pop up in conversation. Not to be confused with the astrophysical singularity (for example, the Penrose-Hawking Singularity Theorems), the Singularity within the TH movement is bandied about at conferences, on podcasts and in numerous forums — in some cases becoming synonymous with Transhumanism itself.

Since the TH movement and other science-based philosophies continue to grow and can reasonably be expected to replace more traditional ways of thinking in the days ahead, it would be a helpful exercise in precision of language to explain how Transhumanism intersects and meshes with the notion of The Singularity.