[the_af]

Agreed!

What strikes me as particularly interesting about Silicon Valley and some techie circles -- as opposed to Nostradamus -- is that many of these people self-identify as hiperrational, agnostic, atheist or wary of traditional religions, yet here they are, building their own religions under a more palatable technological guise (I could list ideas like the Singularity, Super AI good or bad, immortality, "we're living in a simulation", "every problem in the world can be fixed with the right app", etc, but if the list of absurdities goes long enough I'm sure to hit some raw nerve, so I'll stop here).

These modern day Nostradamuses also tend to overinflate their own importance in the wider world. Outside of techie circles Kurzweil is a nobody, and the notion that his theories are some bar that other theories must somehow pass is laughable.

[tlarkworthy]

Sure, some people are not critical thinkers. I am not a worshipper of Kurzweil and not into Transhumanism, but I liked the historical charts he drew showing exponential acceleration over a wide time interval and tech domains. I feel his evidence of historical exponential progress was compelling, but what u do with that evidence is up to you. If you have something to say about that point I am happy to hear it, but you mostly seem to be lashing out at 'silicon valley' types which is a mischaracterization of who you are talking to. I respect Kurzweil because he is a real engineer, entrepreneur and a helper of those less fortunate (the blind in-particular).