Vinge and Kurzweil won't have Annalee Newitz over for dinner anytime soon.

[Swede]

Why the Singularity isn't going to happen - Annalee Newitz

snip

I don't believe in the Singularity for the same reason I don't believe in Heaven.

Once I met a Singularity zealot who claimed that eating potato chips after the Singularity would induce sublime ecstasy. Our senses would be so heightened that we could completely focus our whole attention on the ultimate chippiness of the chip. For him, the Singularity was just like Sunday school Heaven, full of turbo versions of everything we love down here on Earth. But instead of an all-powerful God zotting angel puppies into existence for our pleasure, we would be using the supposed tools of the Singularity like nanotech and A.I. to conjure up the tastiest junk food ever.

http://io9.com/5661534/why-the-singularity-isnt-going-to-happen?skyline=true&s=i

[Teaser]

1. meh...

I don't believe in the singularity. That doesn't mean I'm not working on jewelhead scenarios for pseudo immortality.

[villager]

2. Wouldn't we taste the "chippiness" of the chip if we were fully "awake" and in the present moment

...instead of mired in our usual distractions?

[Odin2005]

3. She is attacking a strawman.

Transhumanist thinkers have been talking about problems posed by new technologies just as much as the benefits. I would not be suprised if she pulled the "zealot" out of her ass.

[Posteritatis]

4. I dunno, I've seen some pretty impressively stupid extropians

Transhumanists provide our fair share of straw men, much to my occasional embarassment. ;)

[xchrom]

5. i don't need potato chips to taste any better than they do.

i'm fat enough.