X-Message-Number: 18987
Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 11:27:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott Badger <>
Subject: Re: The end of science? - Yeah, right.

Practically everyone who read the End of Science and
wrote a review on amazon.com noted that they don't
believe we have come to the end of science, but agreed
the book was thought provoking.

From one of the positive reviews: 
[The author's assertions are]

"1. Is science moving away from pure research to
profit driven applied science? Yes
2. Will science be able to continue its progress
forever? The real answer I believe is yes, but the
author contends - no. Why?

He states this not because he believes science can't
continue, he is merely stating(I believe) that society
as a whole is ignorant and indifferent to pure
scientific research. He states that all fundamental
discoveries of nature have already been found and
everything else is merely details. I disagree with
this, but I agree that society will not be willing to
dish out money to fund the scientific endeavors of the
future unless they are profit driven."

This goes to the heart of why AI and the singularity
will happen, IMO. I was promised by futurists when I
was a child that I'd have a flying car and a jet pack
by now. They're not here because their not
economically feasible when one compares cost and
utility. The profit and utility potential of AI is
enormous. I suspect very few people ever worked on the
flying car. Many are working and will continue to work
towards achieving AI though. There's plenty of
funding. Government wants it, military wants it,
corporations want it. 

I think that we've advanced to the point where we have
very complex and difficult problems that we can't
fully understand or solve, but we want and need the
problems solved so we're going to build something that
solves problems better than we do. If we were still in
the cold war and we thought russia was close to
achieving AI, we'd be there sooner ... but sooner or
later, it makes little difference.

The other point I want to address is that AI and
nanotechnology will probably not require any
fundamental scientific discoveries. The breakthrough
will be software-based, and no new laws of nature will
be required. I must admit, though, this is a
presumption on my part.

You can believe what you want about the liklihood of
singularity. AFAIK, there's nothing you can do about
it and nothing will prepare you for it, so do and
think as you please.

Scott Badger

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