Everything2
Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Full Text
Everything2

Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition

created by machfive

(thing) by machfive (1.4 mon) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 1 C! Mon May 06 2002 at 7:58:47

"Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition: Science Slightly Over the Edge" is the long and drawn out title which author Ed Regis stamped on this hilarious yet mind-opening book. Throughout, he details the different technologies that are being developed which are pushing the envelope of both science and human development. Nanotechnology, cryogenics, interstellar travel, Artificial Intelligence, transhumanism, and even more ultratechnology is detailed in this wonderful tome. Despite its heady content, Regis imbues the pages with a sense of whimsy, and few who have read it will not agree that the next half-century of human achievement will be filled with realiziations of at least some of these fantastic technologies.

Some have criticized Regis for the humorous tone he took throughout the book, which suggested to them that he didn't want the reader to take the technology seriously. Others have even accused him of using the book to openly mock the scientists and researchers for being silly.

The theory that is generally preferred is that the humorous tone was a necessity to prevent the technologies being described in ominous ways. Your average Joe, upon reading about ultratechnologies such as nanotechnology and Strong AI, may be instilled with utter fear at the possibility of human error turning disasterous. Regis's humor allows us to sanely comprehend exactly what he is describing, and it comes across as all the more realistic, and even desirable.

It's a good thing he wrote this book. Now prominent members of the AI field, most notably Eliezer Yudkowsky, have stated that this book was what helped put them on the path to where they are today.


printable version
chaos

nanotech Fin-de-siecle hubristic mania Eliezer Yudkowsky Prometheus Rising
Strong AI vs Weak AI Potentially dead Artificial Intelligence meets Natural Stupidity Transhuman Space
strong AI postulate nanotechnology Cock McNuggets transhumanism
pushing the envelope Singularity Institute Moravec Transfer Money Puzzle Exchanger
Cryogenics velveting the chicken Blessed Are The Sick Categorised recipes
lunar rotovator cryonics The Moral Animal Douglas Hofstadter
Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.
  Epicenter
Login
Password

password reminder
register

Everything2 Help

Cool Staff Picks
What you are reading:
Belief and Technique for Modern Prose
map projection
Chihiro Iwasaki
philodendron
Europe and the Other
The Giant Pumpkin Murders
Nuclear, chemical and genetic: Three different flavors
The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
World Trade Center terrorism
Traffic
How to write an episode of the A-Team
Network
The Pogues
New Writeups
fallensparks
George's Marvellous Medicine(thing)
Ctrl Y
cognitive dissonance(fiction)
SharQ
Gone Baby Gone(review)
halfWit
If I could, I'd title this "Freedom"(thing)
Roninspoon
Airline Hero(thing)
Ktistec
Why Women Are Always Cold(person)
doctor wilson
Drug policy reform(thing)
tejasa
Easy Raspberry Cheesecake(recipe)
Joysim
Drug policy reform(idea)
aneurin
Tyburn(place)
niruena
Boiling to death(idea)
artman2003
summer(thing)
doctor wilson
The Silver City and the Silent Sea(log)
Dreamvirus
The Silver City and the Silent Sea(poetry)
Aerobe
A nihilist's soulmate(poetry)
This affordable entertainment brought to you by The Everything Development Company