"Infatuated with statistics and seduced by the power of extrapolation, ­singularitarians abduct the moral imagination into a speculative no-man’s-land. To be sure, they are hardly the first to spread fanciful technological prophecies, but among enthusiasts and doomsayers alike their ­proposition enjoys an inexplicable popularity. Perhaps the real question is how they have gotten away with it."
Interesting article. The ideas produced around the Singularity are fascinating. However, I think the above paragraph's reference to 'moral imagination' may remind us how science has sometimes been used as a vehicle for
myths of progress towards heaven or hell, both urges being rooted in the same twin...

"Infatuated with statistics and seduced by the power of extrapolation, ­singularitarians abduct the moral imagination into a speculative no-man’s-land. To be sure, they are hardly the first to spread fanciful technological prophecies, but among enthusiasts and doomsayers alike their ­proposition enjoys an inexplicable popularity. Perhaps the real question is how they have gotten away with it."
Interesting article. The ideas produced around the Singularity are fascinating. However, I think the above paragraph's reference to 'moral imagination' may remind us how science has sometimes been used as a vehicle for
myths of progress towards heaven or hell, both urges being rooted in the same twin-sided tendency to eternalism and nihilism. There are also well tracked philosophical investigations around technological determinism. I very much liked the last paragraph of the article btw.